WASHINGTON EVERGREEN AIRES
Spike & Kay Kramer (18573-L)
Presidents
The holidays have snuck up on us once again. If you are traveling or someplace other than home for the holidays, what do you do to keep your holiday traditions? For the past few years we have spent our winter Holidays in Yuma, Arizona on our RV lot. Since our lot is in a residential neighborhood, we invite our neighbors and friends over to share the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with us. As our neighbors get older, they may be less likely to prepare a big dinner for themselves, but they would like to participate. Spike usually does a couple of Turkeys on the smoker for Thanksgiving and then he does a Ham or Prime Rib for Christmas. This is a wonderful way to get together and share the holidays without one person having to do all the work. It is also a good way to bless your neighbors.
In Yuma, they are “all in” for Christmas lights and decorating. It’s easy here, because the weather is so nice, not raining and windy like at home in Washington. They have a big themed light display on one street near us, where every house participates, it runs nightly the week before Christmas. It is hosted nightly by one of the participating families by Santa Claus and his elves. Santa greets the children, young and old, and the elves give out candy canes to all the pedestrian and automobile traffic.
And in Mid-December they have the Christmas light parade in the Foothills area of Yuma. People who live in the area decorate their vehicles, (cars, atv’s utv’s, motorcycles, bicycles) with all sorts of lights. The parade runs through the neighborhoods and many of the RV parks in the Foothills areas for 3 nights, different route each night. Draws quite a crowd, all with plenty of holiday cheer.
Spike & I always make Christmas cookies and fudge together, no matter where we are. We carry my very old metal cookie press with us to make the Spritz Danish butter cookies, (my Grandma’s recipe, of course). It is just not Christmas unless we have Christmas cookies and fudge.
When we have been in an RV park, usually they will host a potluck dinner for the Holidays if it is a larger park. The RV parks we stay in are usually Military campgrounds, so there is usually a large group of people. Military campgrounds are usually on a Military base, and they sometimes have Banquet facilities that offer holiday dinners too. And when we have been somewhere where there is no organized gathering, I have cooked a turkey or ham in the oven. You can still have a holiday meal just on a smaller scale.
One year we stayed in Key West, Florida at the Sigsbee Navy campground during the Christmas Holiday season. They had organized activities for everyone to participate in. They had a cookie exchange, Christmas decorating parties in a meeting room, and a contest for the best decorated RV display. (Spike was a runner up for his Christmas tree on the front of our Ventana.) One night the infamous Conch Train showed up at the RV Park. Everyone loaded up with their ice chests, got on the train, away we went to see the Christmas lights and decoration all over the city of Key West. We were entertained by Christmas music over the trains audio system. That was so fun, the residents with decorations would hear the train a coming down the street, they would come out of their homes to greet and wish us all a Merry Christmas. Key West is a great destination to spend the Christmas season at.
So hopefully we’ve given you some ideas to try out for your holidays on the road.
If you travel to Yuma in the winter Spike & I host a monthly luncheon for Newmar owners at the Golden Corral, and we would love for you to join us. It is on the first Tuesday of the month, November through March, at 12:00, no registration is required.
The Evergreen Aires have planned a rally for July 13-17. We have reserved 20 campsites at the Eagle Tree RV Park in Poulsbo, Washington. So, keep that in mind as you make your summer plans.
May God bless you this Christmas season and keep you safe as you travel around our beautiful country.
We can be reached at 360-633-0722, or kaytel1@msn.com or spike_kramer@msn.com for any information regarding the NKK in Washington state.
