CALOOSA WINNIES

December 2008 Outing

December 4 – 7, 2008 the Caloosa Winnies and Funtime Travelers celebrated Christmas at Oak Haven RV Park. 31 coach families gathered together for fun, food and festivities with picture perfect weather on the radar! Hosts for the event were Jack & Ceil Hanna, Jerry & Nancy Miller. Happy Hour at 4:00pm on Thursday kicked off the weekend, and it was GREAT to see the 2 chapters mingle and renew friendships from previous years. As we entered the Recreation Hall the decorations Santa’s elves put out made the room festive and inviting.

Guests who joined us were welcomed, Nick & Ginny Sanborn, Dave & Cheryl Wilson, and their friend Carol.

Dinner was served at 5:30pm, hosts provided chicken and gravy, members provided all the side dishes. After dinner we had a Christmas Game, everyone had a label on their back that represented a decoration, food, animal, person or place. They moved around the room asking questions to identify who or what they were. Since they could only ask 1 question per person, there was a lot of laughter as they traveled around the room looking for their answer!

An Ice Cream Social was next, which is always popular with the groups. The reminder of the evening was spent playing games.

Friday morning the Pancake Breakfast was served by our volunteers, Ed Tyndall, Betty Kunze, Jack & Ceil Hanna. After breakfast, a Christmas craft project making ornaments was led by Kathryn Griffin. We had the prettiest ornaments ever made by our talented artists!

After lunch our Scavenger Hunt was on the agenda. Teams were formed and everyone had the list of things they had to find on our campsites and coaches. It was a fun event along with lots of exercise! One of the items to find was a coach with missing lug nut covers! Would you believe we had 2 coaches in that category? The winning team with the most correct answers and earliest time check in was Team # 3, Bill Palmer, Jim Rayburn, Ginny Sanborn, & Ellen Zucker.

Happy Hour commenced at 4:00pm, and shortly after we caravanned to Golden Corral Restaurant for a wonderful buffet dinner. On the way back to the park, Charlie Zucker led the drivers to 2 neighborhoods displaying beautiful Christmas lights covering homes, and even coordinated with music! Back at the Recreation Hall Bingo was on tap, with the residents of the park joining in! Ed Gies, Funtimers new President, was the Bingo caller and did a great job! A 50/50 was held, and one of the park residents won the pot! The other part of the 50/50 was donated to a charity, Tampa Shriners Childrens Hospital.

Saturday dawned sunny and warm, we all joined in a Potluck Breakfast and the dishes prepared by our cooks were amazing! Next on the agenda were business meetings for the groups. During the Caloosa Winnies meeting, President Jerry Miller announced Nick & Ginny Sanborn and Dave & Cheryl Wilson decided to join as members! The rest of the day was spent relaxing, shopping, visiting with friends, playing Ladder Golf, just enjoying the time with friends.

Happy Hour at 4:00pm started off the evening activities. A Ham dinner was served, again with such wonderful dishes prepared by the greatest cooks!  The evening event was our annual Pound Auction! Everyone was asked to bring a wrapped gift weighing a pound, which could be something practical or something “unusual”. Charlie Zucker was our acutioneer,

 

and started off the laughter with his lighted Santa hat! One of the “prizes” auctioned off was a bag of rice bought by Corinne Wightman! She tried all evening to trade her prize for anything! Other items were macaroni, cans of soup, candles, casino glasses, books, pennies, just countless wonderful “prizes”. Bill Fuss once again got his package of toilet paper! Walter Feldgoise opened his prize and found a box of bran flakes. In one of the funniest moments Bill donated his toilet paper to Walter! The evening was full of fun and laughter with Charlie keeping the atmosphere hysterical! The bottom line was we raised almost $500 to donate to 2 charities, St. Judes Childrens Hospital and the Harry Chapin Food Bank.

Sunday morning breakfast was served, our usual donuts, bagels, muffins, and fruit. It was a great time to reflect on the weekend and wish all our friends a final Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Ted Meekma, a Funtimers member collected the Toys for Tots items donated by all members and volunteered to give them to the Marines for distribution. THANKS to everyone for taking time to think of the kids needing Christmas comfort!

Anyone traveling in our area, please feel free to join us! Check the winniegators.org website for details about our camping weekends, or Who’s Inviting Travelers at winnebagoind.com website. We love to have visitors!

Nancy Miller
239-574-2511