Happy New Year!

Update on our Turning Stone visit last weekend:
      We left here around 10am, stopped at the Savon gas station, got unloaded and at the check-in desk by noon. Not too bad, if I do say so! The Thruway was pretty empty on the way. Nice! We had wonderful help getting the bags & wheelchair out of the trunk. They put the bags on a luggage rack - complete with crutches - ad waited to see if we were able to check in to our room yet. Well, the gal at the desk said to check back in about an hour and our room would be ready. So, they checked our luggage and we proceeded to the gaming floor to play for a little while.
     We wandered back over to the check in desk, and low and behold - our room was ready at 1:15pm! YAY!! The gal at check in said she would have our luggage sent up to the room, we just needed to take ourselves up! WOW - really get special treatment with that wheelchair! :-) We weren't in the room 5 minutes and there was Larry (one of the valet guys) at the door with our bags. Very great service! Mark was concerned about being able to get into the shower, and Larry said to just call down to the desk, ask for him and he would be more than happy to provide any assistance needed.  Larry then went and filled up our ice bucket and asked if there was anything else he could do. Loving the excellent service that we are receiving!
    By now it was about 1:30 and we discussed eating options. My choice was to order room service and watch a movie. Bingo hall didn't open doors until 4pm and that was a while to wander the gaming floor. Mark finally thought that it was a good idea and we pondered the room service menu. Deciding that it was the best way to start the new year, we both settled on porterhouse steak dinner, with potato, veg and salad. I called and ordered. Then we set about scanning all the movie options available. We decided on Tower Heist. We started the movie, after I got coffee going in the in room coffee maker. Awesome handicapped room, by the way. Could have had a little more room on my side of the bed, but it worked out just fine. Dinner arrived and we set about getting settled in to eat and finish the movie. We then rested and flipped through channels looking for weather on the tv.

   These photos are from last year, but it was exactly the same this year! This Gingerbread village was in the front foyer again. Loved these houses! The tree (yep, that's me on the right) was in the front entryway inside the casino. HUGE.

We headed downstairs to go to Bingo hall about 3:20pm. Massive Bingo lines everywhere! The main hallway line was backed up all the way to the food court!  So, I wheeled Mark into the hall and found a spot to sit him, while I went back to wait in line. After waiting over 30 minutes, and the line not really moving that fast, I went back inside and we agreed to just play the early game and skip the main evening session. It was going to be way too busy. It was a good decision. We played Bingo, then played more on slots. We met up about 7:30 at the food court for a snack. I had won a little bit of good fortune and wanted to play some more.  We ran into each other about 9:30ish and stuck together until heading upstairs for the night.
  Our view was of the front entry of the casino, with the huge decorated Christmas tree in the courtyard. Wish I had thought to bring camera, as it was amazing. I left the curtain open, to go to sleep to the pretty lights (and so that they would serve as a night light). Well, I found out in the morning that was not a good idea. Apparently the gold star on top of the tree was in Mark's line of vision all night. Umm.. why didn't he just close his eyes??  LOL oh well. I slept great!
    Mark had little difficulty maneuvering the shower and bathroom. We ate the muffins that we brought from home for our breakfast.  Enjoyable, relaxing morning in the room. We then got the room packed up, called valet to collect our bags, and did the video checkout. Headed downstairs to the Bingo counter in the back and bought our bingo admission packs.  We then had about 30 minutes before they opened the doors to the bingo hall, so we did some slots while we were waiting.
     The bingo hall ended up being a very busy place again today. Everyone wanted to get the calendar cash coupons they were handing out. You get a calendar and a years' worth of monthly coupons to use at bingo. It's a very big draw. I won an early bird game for $100.00! That was it for the day! Slots weren't as generous as they were the night before, either.
    We played on the slots for a couple hours after bingo and then we went to the food court for quick supper. We stopped at Opals for some cookies, danish to take home and started the process of leaving. We dropped off our car ticket at the valet desk and our luggage ticket at the bell desk. We enjoyed great assistance in getting everything - including my husband - into the car and off we went. Um... yeah, into the cold, blowing snow! WOW! Winter rears it's ugly head in central NY!  You know that great ind driven snow that looks like you are in the Twilight Zone?? Yep, that's what we had. Luckily, it only lasted until about Syracuse and then it was pretty much clear sailing the rest of the way home.
   The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I was busy at work - yay - and Mark was resting at home. I did the grocery on Friday night and picked up Fish Fry for dinner.
    On Saturday (1/7/12) I went over to see Ashley and the boys for a couple of hours. I brought mini doughnuts and yogurts for the boys. I had printed out some activity packs that I worked on with them, while Ashley was getting something in the crock pot. I was amazed at Noah counting the penguins on one of the pages..he did up to 8! wow! I knew that they could recite the numbers, but to actually count was great! He other boys did the same, not to be out done by their brother! They also had a good time coloring then cutting out paper 'bracelets'. Caleb had to do 5 of them to go all the way from shoulder to wrist on his arm. It was time to go, and Eli asked why. I told him I had to take Grandpa to the barber shop to get his hair cut, because he couldn't drive himself with his broken leg. He then replied "but its been broke a LONG, LONG time"! I agreed. :-)
   I came home to get Mark and off we went to the barber shop. I waited in the car, reading a magazine. It reminded me of waiting on my kids for different things. We then went to Tully's for lunch (potato soup!), the post office to deposit some mail and then to the car wash. We waited in a LONG line there. Too funny, there was a guy in a pickup truck in the do it yourself bay. He was all soaped up, but apparently ran out of money. He talked to the guy in the car behind him, and left shaking his fists at himself. Drove off in a huff, with soap all over his truck! It was extremely humorous! We then stopped at Rite-Aid to pick up more prescriptions.
Then home to lazy afternoon / evening.
   Today - Sunday, I colored my hair, then caught up on some computer stuff - including ordering a new winter coat - and putzying around the house.  We just finished a nice Sunday dinner of pasta Alfredo with chicken, Italian bread and salad.  We will have a dessert of mini apple pie w/ ice cream later.

There! I am caught up on this week. Well, I still have to do my trip review and get it posted - hopefully by next weekend I will at least have part of it on here. :-)