2023-12-10; To The Lodge With Bob & Donna*
We had a full day starting at the Elks Lodge in Santa Ana.
We woke up early and started getting ready for Christmas with Santa at the Elks Lodge.
* Things were going well until Donna texted us that Bob wasn't feeling well that morning.
Despite this, we decided to go ahead with our plans and ended up having a great time, enjoying a delicious breakfast.
Why don't you ever see Santa in hospital? Because he has private elf care!
The Lodge Ballroom was arranged with tables of ten, and the dance floor was equipped with tables for kids to play games and do artwork. There was a backdrop for Santa to sit in front of, where children could tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Overall, everything looked quite nice.
Who hides in the bakery at Christmas? A mince spy!
They expected a full house!
We didn't make any reservations, so we were directed to sit in the members' lounge, which was a godsend. We had a view into the ballroom through the double doors, but it was also far enough away from the screaming kids that their noise wasn't a problem. All in all, it was an ideal spot to relax.
A great breakfast!
Mary was decked out in her Christmas best, and I wore another of my "Amazon Special Christmas Coat."
The lounge was about 60% full, which made it relatively quiet.
We came home and watched a Christmas movie called "Switched." Summary: Jess and Bill Walker are doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older, more independent, and more distant.
When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full body switch on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives, can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal, and soccer tryout?
Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, and Brady Noon star in this family comedy directed by McG and based on the book "Bedtime For Mommy" by Amy Krouse-Rosenthal.
At 2:10 pm, we quickly hopped into the Silver Streak and drove to Brea to experience German entertainment at the new Phoenix Club. While the entertainment was OK, the facility was a monumental setback from the original Phoenix Club in Anaheim. There was not even a front door and no bar or dance floor. The facility was smaller than the downstairs of our home.
Speak to us!
After half an hour of arrival, we left the place, as the noise of 150 people crammed into such a small space became unbearable. Then I had an idea: why not go for an early dinner at Renata's Restaurant in Orange, a favorite local spot for us? We invited Bob and Donna to join us, but Bob was still lying down, unable to get up from this morning's fatigue.
We began our meal with an order of bruschetta, followed by various salads. We then shared a delectable meat lasagne and enjoyed a glass of wine. As we neared the end of our dinner, we decided to call Jeff, our neighbor, to see if he would like to join us for a meal. He ordered a lasagne for himself as well.
Delicious!
As it was being prepared, we walked over to the Orange Elks Lodge four doors down. We went up to the lounge on the third floor, where we met the ER named Roslyn Peggins and some locals. We all had a glass of chardonnay together.
Looked like a friendly group!
We were on the third floor.
It look different at night!
&After dropping off the lasagne at Jeff's, we headed home, which was only 200 feet away. As we pulled into the driveway, we noticed someone was approaching our front door. It turned out to be one of our neighbors who informed us that our garage door was open. We thanked her; we have lovely neighbors.
We didn't say that we have an app installed on our phone that senses when we are approaching our house within a range of 200 feet. The app automatically opens the garage door so that the door is already opened when we arrive at our driveway. Since we were at Jeff's place, dropping off the lasagne, the app activated and opened the garage door.
We crashed; it had been a long day.
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