Where did November go??

Wow, where did a month go? The last entry in this missive was October 30 as we were leaving Lodi to head to Fresno and here we are staring down the barrel of December.  I guess that’s indicative of how busy we’ve been!

We arrived in Fresno on Halloween under sunny skies and shorts temperatures. Even though we were a day early we were able to move into the spot that was reserved for us which is right next door to the spot we occupied last year. We’re at the quiet end of the park, lots of trees and very pleasant.

Of course we had to check out our favorite restaurant and do a bit of exploring…not much new!

The next  couple of  days were busy with settling in, getting Santa’s gear into the cave  and meeting the new crew.

As of November 4 Santa was ‘in the chair’ and we were both back on the treadmill! A major flurry of tax problems (for clients not us!!) and lots of mystery shops coupled with keeping the home fires burning has left us pretty dead by nine o’clock each night!

November 12 was ‘Wake up Santa’ which requires Santa on the set by 7AM then the invited children (several hundred of them!)  join everyone at the front of the Santa set.  Santa has fallen asleep waiting for everyone to show up so Mrs. Claus reads the story “Wake Up Santa Wake Up”.  


At the end of the story the children are asked to yell to " wake up Santa."  It takes three tries but finally Santa rouses, stretches, and suddenly realizes there are children waiting for him!!  Nothing to do but apologize and sing a couple of songs, then wade through the throng of children and parents in line for breakfast all the while smiling for the thousands of photos.  Of course Santa gets a 30 minute rest and is back on the chair for the rest of the day.  It’s a long day (14 hours) but fun.  


Set crew and manager are all  new this year and are great to work with.  Santa is very pleased with the change in crew and they have been making goal most days.  Lots of little ones, some bigger ones, a few adults, and  a smattering of seniors.  All in all it’s a much better time this year. 


The last couple of years this older Sikh gentleman with a gorgeous beard has come by the set and always made eye contact and we waggled beards at each other but I finally got him to come in and have a 'chat' with Santa.

Turns out (as explained by his friend as he speaks little English!) he is a very revered Guru at the local Sikh temple! And I'm sure he's wondering what's up the the guy in red and white at the Mall!




Also on November 12^th and 13^th is the Madera Wine Trails event.  Madera is just a few miles north of Fresno and a major grape growing area….hundreds and hundreds of acres of them! There are also a few dozen wineries including Quady  and Ficklin. So while Santa was inundated with kidlets I went wining!

Quady of course makes the yummy Elysium a dessert wine made from the Black Muscat grape and Essencia made from the orange Muscat. They also make lovely Ports that of course they can’t call Ports so they have copyrighted the name ‘Starboard.’  


On Wine Trail Event days they devote  one large barrel  room to the Port tastings and have cigars available so you can enjoy a glass of Port and a cigar on a comfy couch with a football game (well , it can’t all be good!)  Interesting that no one was actually watching the game!

They also had a mobile pizza oven selling absolutely yummy artisan pizzas….it was a sunny warm day and a great day to sit outside! 

After that I figured I should visit at least one other winery on the ‘trail’ so I stopped in at Ficklin Vineyards whom I’d heard also had some first rate ports.  My information was correct…their ports were lovely as were their infused ports! Flavors of Black Cherry, Chocolate, Raspberry and Hazelnut infused into the port to make yummy treats!  If you blend a bit of the Black Cherry and the Chocolate it’s like a Black Forest cake!!

But Ficklin had other surprises! They too had cigars and an onsite barbecue featuring tri-tip but  a local cat sanctuary was using the occasion to raise some much-needed funds and brought one of their denizens ‘Tango’ for a visit. Here’s  a photo of Tango:

We are trying to get all the details organized for our trip to Baja. Mexican Insurance, a CB Radio…mandatory!  Oh yes, and we had the motorhome washed and waxed for about 10% of what they wanted to do it back home!!

The pups are fine...enjoying lots of walkies and probably more attention here than at home where they just come and go as they please. Though sometimes Mojo gets kinda stressed when other puppies walk on his street. He has decided that the motorhome's huge dashboard is his special perch where he can survey his world.  Here's a photo of him when he's not feeling so stressed:

Unfortunately the rest of the time has been work, shopping, more work and it’s become a real routine! But we’re at the halfway mark right now and the time is going by very fast!


Tuesdays are pet nights at least in November and here's our annual visit with Santa.....