12/23/2025
We were miserable!
Our very first Christmas as full-time RVers in 2019 found us in Quartzsite, Arizona. We had heard it was the Mecca for RVers and assumed it would be festive and full of community. What we didnāt realize was that we were way ahead of the season. We were mostly alone, the internet was terrible, and because it was off-season, there was almost no Christmas dĆ©cor anywhere that was open. Just one sad little Christmas tree on the corner of one of the only restaurants open.
Thatās when we remembered something important: our house has wheels for a reason.
So we packed up and headed to Tucson, rolling into our spot on December 23rd. As we were settling in, I said hello to our neighbor and mentioned that maybe he could come over for Christmas dinner.
When I officially invited him, I warned him that I was making lamb and told him the only thing he needed to bring was whatever he preferred to drink.
He came.
It was his first Christmas on the roadāand his first Christmas since his wife had passed away. He brought two truly exceptional bottles of wine. The kind of wines whose quality might have been lost on the average person, but certainly not on me as a former wine professional. I cooked rack of lamb, and halfway through dinner, with tears in his eyes, he told me his wife often made lamb at Christmas.
I apologized, worried I had made the day harder for him. But then his expression softened, his sadness turned to a smile, and he told me my lamb was better than his wifeās. In that moment, everything shifted.
There we wereāaway from family and longtime friendsāsharing Christmas with someone who had been a stranger just days before, yet felt like family by the end of the night.
That Christmas changed how we approach the holidays. Ever since, weāve been intentional about choosing places where we feel connection, warmth, and a little bit of magic. It's part of why we chose Fredericksburg as our home base.
I think of him every Christmas. We've stayed in contact by way of an annual email or two.
Who will you celebrate Christmas with this year? Would you welcome in a stranger?š
ā¤ļø Anne
