An Eventful Final Week of 2018

You may be resting today, January 1, as Brad and I are doing, recovering from a busy holiday season.  We had an especially eventful week, with a visit from the Frugal Princess family – daughter Angela, son-in-law Steve, and granddaughter Kaitlynn – who were determined to make my 80^th birthday a major multi-day celebration. So there were parties and activities every day.

And when you are running around town with younger generations, the key part of “activities” is “active.” First there was a retro trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame where Brad and I discovered we hadn’t lost all our skills at a game we hadn’t played for decades.  I really recommend this amazing place, with hundreds of working games, many of the simple old classics as well as the more recent complicated options.  No admission charge – just put a bill in the money changer and grab a plastic container to fill with lots of quarters!

Next there was birthday party #1, a joint one  thrown by our daughters, for my best friend Wilma and me – we both turned 80 just 3 days apart.  Some stodgy old-lady celebration?NOT!  It was held at a party room at the Twilight Zone Miniature Golf indoor venue at Bally’s Casino.  Playing in the neon black-light, the competition between the 20-something grandchildren and the oldsters was intense.  A fun place to party.

Then we took a break from birthday partying to celebrate a major milestone for granddaughter Kaity – finishing 19 ½ school years, with her master’s degree in Film and Video Production from Georgia State University.  We met at the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, one of her favorite restaurants.  Everyone was happy we could use the Seven Star line, with only a short wait for our large group.  We were told that those in the regular line were facing a FOUR-hour wait!  The town is packed during the holidays so one must remember to adjust schedules for the crowds everywhere.  Below is Kaitlynn opening graduation gifts.

That evening we all went to the show “WOW!” at the Rio.  And all I can say about that is “Wow,” an amazing production.

And then the final blow-out celebration was the Frugal Birthday Open House to which everyone here and friends with Jean Scott on Facebook received an open invitation.  I know many of you wanted to attend but weren’t in town – and I appreciated all your birthday best wishes in the Comments here.  But many were able to attend, including not only locals but those from far away, even from Canada and Australia.  And it was great to get together with many friends we hadn’t seen for years and meet those we had known previously only online.  Kaitlynn was filming all during this party and when she gets the video edited, I will post the link here so everyone can enjoy the celebration even if not in person.

So now our family has flown back to Georgia – and Brad on the couch and I in my recliner have collapsed.  It was a wonderful week, but we need to recover from all that fun!

Some may wonder why I haven’t mentioned one member of the Frugal Princess family.  We really missed having grandson Zachary and his family here.  But you can blame Uncle Sam. When Zachary finished college, he became a police officer in the family hometown of Columbus, Georgia, but he also was a member of the Georgia Army National Guard.  And his unit was activated to go to Afghanistan.  🙁   He was able to spend Christmas with his family but is now at Ft Steward, waiting to deploy.  I am hoping that the up-in-the-air troop withdrawal plans of the President will happen sooner than later!  But in the meantime, Taylor is learning to be the strong military wife – as Angela was for so many years – and take good care of our 3 precious great-grandchildren – Asher, 4; Bowen, almost 2, and their little sister Cooper who arrived in November.

Stay tuned for another blog entry soon when I will have researched the January promotions and changes for the new year.