Christmas in Laughlin

So I headed down to Laughlin for Christmas to visit my sister J and her family. My mom headed up from Los Angeles to join in. Buck flew down with me. And Ms C* journeyed over from the Home of the Bewildered near Tucson, Arizona. It was SO nice to see everyone. I hadn't seen Ms C since she left Portland over a year ago for her new Airstreaming life. It was great to see her looking so fit and happy. The new life agrees with her (dang it ... I was hoping she'd move back).

I just wish my sister A and her brood could have headed out from Denver to join us too.

Anyway, a great time was had by all. Much good eats, good chats and good drinks. Even the Gambling Gods were kind to me on the drive back to Vegas airport ... made a stop at the Railway Casino and managed to almost triple my money at the craps tables! Whoo hooo! (Course, I was only playing with $20 and making $2 bets. But HEY ... I hate to lose my hard earned money so I'm not much of a gambler. So walking away with $57 was pretty damn exciting!)

Here are some photos from my journey:

This sign greeted me in the Harrah's hotel room bathroom. My hope is that I didn't piss off the maid who could then easily steal the towels and charge me. Hrmph! Not so sure I agree with this policy. Especially being that the towels weren't all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips anyway. Granted, they were many steps up from those Buck and I experienced at our hotel in NYC....but really, what towel isn't?? :)

Some of the pretty lights among the Laughlin casinos....

Also, check out this t-shirt I found at one of the many souvenir stands:

What a hoot, eh?! And, as hard to believe as this will be, I actually resisted buying it! Yay me!

A couple of shots of my sister's puppy, Lucky.

Isn't she a cutie-pie? She reminds me so much of my late dog, Meg (aka The Megger-Wegger).

Meg

Both in looks and personality. They're both just such happy dogs. I'm actually planning on stealing Lucky from my sister .... just as soon as she** outgrows that chewing on furniture-phase! ;)

Here's a pic of my niece wearing the hottest new toy: Moonshoes! Never heard of them? ... me neither til I went down there. Then I saw about 6 kids in the neighborhood bouncing around on them on Christmas Day. I'da given them a try but apparently there weren't enough industrial strength rubber bands included in the box for the moonshoes to hold me. Sigh.

So Christmas gifts for the adults this year were home-made gifts. Hence, my knitting. Sis J provided yummilishious fudge. Mom provided home-made mouse pads and photo albums. Check out some of these photos that were included. They are absolutely awesome!

This is my mom back in the day. How did I miss out on these Sex Kitten genes?? It's not fair, I tell ya, just not fair. Sigh.

My sisters A and J when they were little. I love how J is fascinated by the gloves. The gloves were a good plan, Mom. Apparently kept J from realizing she was wearing that silly ..errr, I mean CUTE ;)... bonnet!

Here's my niece K and nephew J when they were much younger. Adorable pic, yes?

And last but not least, me. How do you like that color coordination? Pretty impressive, right? And, I'm holding a cat ... of course. I think all my pictures as a kid has me with a pet of some sort. Obviously the love of animals was just something I was born with. As, unfortunately, were the short, chubby legs.

Here's a pic of me and Ms C .... I don't think you can find two more anti-being-photo'd people. As I'm sure you can tell by this pic! And believe it or not, in the original picture we're actually MUCH further away. This version is actually cropped and enlarged ... just for all y'all! (you're welcome! ;))

So Ms C did a tarot card reading for me while we were there. I asked what the year 2006 would hold for me. This is what the cards said:

I don't really speak The Language of the Tarot Cards but Ms C translated for me and said that 2006 looked very, very, VERY promising for me, starting early in the year. If only I can stop being my own worst enemy. Uh-oh.

She read Buck's too ... he requested info on his love life in 2006:

I'm thinkin' any time that devil card shows up in that final position (at the top) ... it can't be good. Oh well, maybe it will be fab up until next Dec 31st. One can hope.

A few other random photos from the trip:

The requisite In N'Out (oh so good!):

A dime Buck found on the street near my sister's house. Melted INTO the pavement folks! You KNOW it's hot when a dime gets stuck TO pavement! I've mentioned the heat there before, haven't I??

This was the Bloody Mary drink Buck ordered at Chin Chin's in the New York, New York casino in Vegas. Had we known it came with all that grub we wouldn't have had to order lunch there first! So just a heads up to those of you budget travelers who may find yourselves in Vegas sometime soon! :)

Hope you enjoyed!

* check out Ms C's trip summary here

** the dog, not my sister! ;)