Deck Them Halls, Play Them Games

Not only was I here to get a taste of an Iowa winter (temps now in the 30s, so snow is gone), but I was here for the start of the "tarting up" process here at Mallard Point.

The door to the apartment of managers Renee and Matthew Oltroppe has been fancied up for a week or so now, but today was the day they started decorating the rest of the place.

I started to leave the apartment this morning to go and get coffee and I could see a Christmas tree at the end of the hall being decorated.  I got my coffee and walked down there to watch for awhile.

All over the place, little Christmassy decorations were being added, like this little tree outside the beauty shop.

Peach and I wanted to stay out of the apartment for awhile, while it was being cleaned, so we sat by the newly decorated fireplace and talked about the past 3 weeks, cancer, quality of life and all sorts of things.

After lunch, Bob went back to the apartment and Peach decided to go upstairs and play cards.  

This was the first time since I've been here we were able to play cards and we sat with Florence and Pat and played a game called Hand and Foot, which is like partners canasta.  Peach and I have been playing canasta together for 60 years and we did very well in this game.

After we won the game, we went downstairs to join another group of women to play "Freckle," which is a dice game.

I discovered I'm not as good at dice as I am with cards, but suspect that if I lived here, I would learn quickly.  Here is Peach with Marilyn, who was having a bad day and Maggie, who was not.

CORRECTION: It's called "Farkle," not "Freckle" and a link to the rules is in the comment section.

After dinner, I went upstairs to the computer room and printed off my boarding passes for the plane tomorrow.  Now it's time to pack and get ready for Matthew to pick me up at 1 p.m. tomorrow.  My time here is finished and I'm starting to look forward to getting home...and realizing that I have to cook dinner on Wednesday!