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Hacienda Valley Estates

December 2025

Did You Know?

The Nobel Prizes were established from the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in 1895. The Nobel Prize ceremonies take place annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

Millennium Memo

What would you guess is the 3rd least stressed City in California? It’s got to be a surfing community, wouldn’t you think? Or perhaps some desert resort, wellness retreat, mountain getaway

Nope. According to a site called WalletHub, the least stressed City in California is Fremont, #2 is Irvine, and the 3rd least stressed City is….San Jose! That’s based on a review of 40 metrics, such as health rankings, gun violence, family stress…

In fact, San Jose ranked as the 11th least stressed City in the Country, just behind Boise and ahead of Charleston, South Carolina. That has to be good news for Morgan Hill. There’s no reason we would be more stressed than folks in San Jose, is there?

A resident suggested that you can lower your stress even further by taking up meditation. Hey it beats just sitting around doing nothing.

Just thought you could use some good news.

Public Service Announcement

The way you’re being billed for electricity is about to change. Due to a law passed in 2022—AB 205—you’ll see a new “Base Services Charge” of $24.15. The goal: “to make it more affordable to use electric technologies and clean, sustainable energy.”

We’re told that, as a trade-off, the cost of your actual usage will go down, possibly by 10%. The result: low electricity users might pay more, “medium” users about the same, but high electric users might save money. That’s how I understand it, any-

way.

Folks on the CARE or FERA Programs get a discount on this new charge, so it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re enrolled, if you qualify. You can find out about that at the PG & E website. As usual, we’re just the messenger here.

HVME’s Recent Visitors

Nancy tells me HVME is seeing an influx of rats, mice, squirrels, etc., probably because their habitats are being disturbed by nearby construction. They may end up liking it here. Because of residents leaving food out for them, the rats won’t starve.

On second thought…maybe feeding the local vermin isn’t such a great idea? At least this will give our feral cats something to do.

Remember This From 6 Years Ago?

Q. What was the Snowman doing at the market, rummaging through the carrots? A. He was picking his nose.

Enjoy the Dec. 6 Holiday Dinner…and have a very Merry Christmas!

George Turk

Manager’s Corner

Merry Christmas Ho Ho Ho! Well here we are at the last month of 2025. Another year is ready to leave us as we move on to 2026. We had a lot of fun in 2025, and I’m hoping 2026 will be even better.

We have certainly made a lot of improvements to Hacienda Valley over this past year. Our clubhouse is very attractive with new colors, new flooring, new décor. Even the coffee cart in the main clubhouse has become very popular. We also had a several memorable events this past year; including, a tea. The tea wins hands down in originality and fun. Every woman who came to the tea was dressed beautifully — with a hat! The room was decorated to the 9’s and the food was delicious. And who can forget the Halloween party 9 witches and many other totally original and fantastic costumes!

Once again we had a really fun pool season with lots of swimmers having a great time even though the weather was rather mild for a California summer. Also, a new beautiful fence was installed around the pool to make sure our pool area was safe and secure.

Several private parties were hosted in our clubhouse. Isn’t it wonderful to have such a beautiful clubhouse that is free for you to reserve for private parties and get togethers? Say thank you Millennium for this fantastic amenity. To book a private party, just come to the office to find an open date. We’ll put it on the calendar you can fill out the proper paperwork, and turn it into the office with a check for $100 to secure the clubhouse is properly cleaned after your event. In all the years Scott and I have been your manager we have only had to cash 1 check after an event.

Another fun event this year was the 10th annual From Our House to Your House craft boutique. I think most of the park showed up to admire and purchase beautiful handcrafted items that artists in your community made. What a wonderful way to show your support of your neighbor and

community by attending this wonderful yearly event. Thank you to everyone who attended and to the wonderful artists who participated.

Every day I thank God I am so blessed with the opportunity to be your manager. Honestly, I work for the best people in the world Millennium Housing and Haven Management. And, I have the best residents who have true pride of ownership with well maintained homes and yards. As many of you know, I worked for the original owner, Alan Roman, who’s belief was “rent control park, rent control amenities.” Contrast that to Millennium who every year works to make Hacienda Valley a community you can be very proud to live in. Both Millennium and Haven Management are a blessing to all of us.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays! All of us hope you have a very blessed Holiday Season!

Nancy & Scott

Good day to all our neighbors here at HVME. In the last few months there have been several new residents move into our wonderful community. I hope that when you see them you will introduce yourselves and welcome them to our neighborhood and maybe invite them to come to an event here at Hacienda Valley.

We had a great turnout at the Halloween Costume Party, about 40 residents came and 36 were in a costume. Everyone really had a great time together (pictures on the next page). I am looking forward to next year to see if we can do even better. It was a pot-luck dinner and like always the food that was prepared was so delicious!

As of this writing we are going to be having our 10th Annual Craft/Art Holiday event. We hope that you were able to attend or even be a participant and sharing your skills with everyone. We have planned several craft events in November, hope you all enjoyed them, and this month we hope that everyone who can, will join us for our Annual Holiday Dinner, sponsored by SPARC/Ally. I can never thank Ally enough for always taking care of our park the way that she does all year long by setting up important seminars on many different topics for seniors, and always providing a yummy lunch to go with itJ

The SOCIAL CLUB will be setting up our calendar of events for next year (2026) so that we can have the clubhouse booked on the dates that we need to do the fun activities we would like to do. We took a survey over the summer asking the residents what they would like us to try in 2026, we got many responses to that survey and are planning to try a few new things. If you have any other suggestions that you would like us to try, please put it in the suggestion box and we will discuss at our monthly meeting. We had a Fancy Tea Party that was suggested by one of our longtime residents and I was amazed that it was such a huge success, not only that but it was one of the best events we have ever been a part of here at Hacienda Valley.

We hope that everyone has plans for the Holidays and that everyone stays safe and enjoys their family time. More things are happening here at HVME that are for the betterment of all of us. New fun activities, more dinner ideas, movie nights, Karaoke and dancing, summer BBQs. We are looking forward to seeing all the new faces and making them our new friends.

Gratitude teaches us to find joy in simplicity. It reminds us that happiness doesn’t depend on having more, But on seeing beauty in what we already have, a peaceful heart, Caring people, and moments that make life meaningful.

Richard Valdez HVME Social Club Chairman

10th Annual Holiday Boutique

HACIENDA VALLEY HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY

For a Peppermint Version of the truffles:

Mix 1 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract with the cream cheese in a stand mixer first, then add the Oreo crumbs and continue as directed.

Dip chocolates then immediately sprinkle tops with peppermint bits crushed candy canes or crushed starlight mints (instead of more crushed Oreos).

Oreo Truffle Balls

Makes: 24

Ingredients:

• One 16-ounce package Oreo cookies (about 30)

• 6 ounces cream cheese

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening or refined coconut oil

• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse the cookies in a food processor to fine crumbs. Remove 2 tablespoons of crumbs to a small bowl and reserve. Add the cream cheese and pulse until it just comes together. Transfer to a large bowl and knead a few times until completely combined.

2. Roll into 24 balls, each about 2 heaping tablespoons. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes.

3. Put the semisweet chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl with 1 tablespoon oil. Put the white chocolate chips in another medium heatproof bowl with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Melt the chocolate mixtures one at a time, stirring occasionally, over a double boiler until smooth.

4. Drop one truffle at a time into the semisweet chocolate mixture, using two forks to evenly coat. Tap any excess chocolate off, then return to the baking sheet. Drizzle with the white chocolate mixture, then quickly sprinkle with the reserved cookie crumbs. You may also coat some truffles in the white chocolate and decorate with the semisweet. Get creative. Continue until all the truffles are coated and decorated. Return to the refrigerator to set, about 5 minutes.

5. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

6. Can be frozen in airtight container up to 3 months. Thaw in fridge overnight before serving.

Puzzles and Word Games you can

Net Fraud

BLACKMAIL BOTNET CHARITY

CHECKING CRYPTOCURRENCY

DATING

EXTORTION

FBI

GOLD

IMPERSONATION

INVESTMENT

JOB OFFERS

LOTTERY MALWARE PHISHING PROPERTY REANSOMWARE SCAM

SHOPPING SPOOFING

TAX

TRAVEL VIRUS

Across 1.Similar

5.Chap

8.Celebes ox 9.Opening time, maybe

10.___ cheese

11.Cutlass, e.g.

12.From one side only

14.“C’___ la vie!”

15.Narcotic

18.Kind of store

19.Enormous birds of myth

21.“Idylls of the King” character

22.“Beetle Bailey” dog

23.“Wanna ___?”

24.Hail Mary, e.g.

Down

1.Ed.’s request 2.Sabotage

3.Cajole

4.Impeded

5.Gold-plated

Quick Pic

6.Restrained stage performances

7.“Absolutely!”

9.A chemistry

Nobelist: 1946

13.Death on the Nile cause, perhaps

16.Leave out

17.Bit

18.Center of a ball?

20.“Help!”

The headline is a clue to the answer in the diagonal.

December Sudoku

How to solve sudoku puzzles

No math is required to solve a sudoku. You only need logic and patience.

Simply make sure that each 3x3 square region has only one instance of the numbers 1-9. Similarly, each number can only

appear once in a column or row in the larger grid. The difficulty on this puzzle is easy.

TRIVIA TEASER

Clark Bar

1.Clark Gregg stars as the leader of a government team of heroes on what TV series? a-"The Champions," b-"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," c-"Misfits of Science," d-"Heroes."

2. Who starred as family head Clark Griswold in the 1983 film comedy "National Lampoon's Vacation"? a-Dick Van Patten, b-Chevy Chase, c-Bill Murray, d-Harold Ramis.

3.Marcia Clark was a lead prosecuting attorney in whose murder trial? a-Oscar Pistorius, b-O.J. Simpson, c-Phil Spector, d-Lyle and Erik Menendez.

4.Dick Clark was the longtime host of which TV game show? a-"Concentration," b-"What's My Line?," c-"The $10,000 Pyramid," d-"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

5. Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, are authors in what literary genre? a-Romance, b-Science fiction, c-Young adult, d-Mystery.

6.Which U.S. President had Clark as a middle name? a-Herbert Hoover, b-Calvin Coolidge, c-Abraham Lincoln, d-James Garfield.

7.Claudine Clark was the singer and composer of what top ten hit from 1962? a-"I Can't Stop Loving You," b-"Party Lights," c-"Let Me In," d-"Break It To Me Gently."

8. George Clark, Dutch Clark, and Monte Clark were all head coaches for which NFL team? a-Detroit Lions, b-New England Patriots, c-St. Louis Cardinals, d-New Orleans Saints.

9.The Lewis and Clark Expedition was commissioned by which US President, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase? a-John Adams, b-Thomas Jefferson, cJames Monroe, d-James Madison.

10.According to a 1967 Petula Clark hit song, where shouldn't you sleep? a-Under the apple tree, c-In the hallway, c-On the stairs, d-In the subway.

QUOTES

Christmas Quotes

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given, when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.

Joan Windmill Brown, American author and editor

My idea of Christmas, whether oldfashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?

Bob Hope, American film actor and comedian

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.

Washington Irving, American short-story writer and essayist.

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

Robert Lynd, American sociologist.

This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone.

Taylor Caldwell, English novelist

Answer to 'Clark Bar'

1-b, "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

2-b, Chevy Chase

3-b, O.J. Simpson

4-c, "The $10,000 Pyramid"

5-d, Mystery

6-a, Herbert Hoover

7-b, "Party Lights"

8-a, Detroit Lions

9-b, Thomas Jefferson

10-d, In the subway

The Lighter Side Germs

Four-year-old Johnny was eating a hot dog when he dropped it on the floor. He quickly picked it up and was about to take another bite when his mom said, "No, Johnny, you can't eat that now it has germs."

Johnny pondered the thought a moment and replied, "Jesus, germs, and Santa Claus - that's all I ever hear about and I haven't seen one of 'em yet!"

Postcard

A man writing at the post office desk was approached by an older fellow with a post card in his hand. The old man said, "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you but could you address this post card for me? My arthritis is acting up and I can't even hold a pen."

"Certainly, sir," said the younger man. He wrote out the address and also agreed to write a short message and sign the card for the man. Finally, the younger man asked, "Now, is there anything else I can do for you?"

The old fellow glanced at the card a moment and said, "Yes, at the end could you just add, 'PS: Please excuse the sloppy hand-writing.'"

Butcher Shop

A lady goes into the butcher shop and as she is walking around the store, she spies a beef tongue in the butcher's counter. The lady asks, "What in the world is that?"

"Beef tongue," replies the butcher.

The lady gives a little involuntary shudder, "No way would I put anything in my mouth that came out of an animal's mouth!"

The butcher nods sympathetically while peeking into the woman's shopping cart, "I see you're buying a dozen eggs!"

Grandpa said ...

*I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

*The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

*The bonds of matrimony are a good investment if the interest is kept up.

*Trouble starts when a man is so busy earnin' his salt he forgets his sugar.