Christmas Season 2013 in Saint Pete

December always seems to fly by.  Maybe because there is so much going on with the holidays and preparations and so on.  I always try to make sure that I do things to make it more relaxed and enjoyable.  This was Steve's first Christmas in Saint Pete, so we wanted to make sure that we did enough activities to keep it simple and fun.

We went to the Nutcracker at the Palladium (Steve's first time seeing it.)  The little clowns reminded me of Adele when she did that part many years ago!  We also went to the Santa Parade and the Snow Festival downtown.

I ran into these Canadian ladies on Coffee Pot Bayou on one of my walks.  They were having a blast as they got away from the freezing weather up north.

We baked ginger crinkle cookies using Steve's mother's recipe.  They were soooooo good!

We went to North Beach at Fort DeSoto one Sunday.  The water was cold, but it was a beautiful sunny day.

For Christmas, we went away for a few days to Mount Dora.  Talk about a relaxing Christmas.  Post to follow. . .

Skipping ahead to New Year's Eve, it also was relaxing and fun.  Enjoyed a special toast, tarot card readings for us both, a quick stop at a friend's party, walked around the First Night activities a little and ended up meeting friends to watch the fireworks on the Bay at midnight!

Christmas 2013 Family Visit

Two days after Christmas, on Friday, all of my children and my grandchildren came to visit for a few days.  What fun it was!  My apartment became full to the brim!

First order of business after getting out of the car was "jumping in muddy puddles" as Ruby's friend Peppa Pig does with her family.  And Red greeted me with big smiles!  He's such a chill 8 month old!

Ruby is talking up a storm and repeating everything.  When her Mama said "This is G-Pa's house" Ruby echoed, "G-Pa's house."  When she began exploring the layout of my apartment, she repeated, "G-Pa's kitchen" when we went in there.

We had some snacks and exchanged gifts.  Ruby enjoyed playing Santa and giving everyone their presents.  We took a break to call in an order to Valentino's Little Italy.  Gina and I went to pick it up and we feasted in the kitchen!

 We took a walk over to the Bay after lunch.  Ruby loved seeing all the birds.  It was good to walk off some of our lunch.  But, next order of business, off to Mazarro's to pick up some pastries for dessert!  We're a family that loves to eat!

On Saturday morning we went downtown.  First stop, Steve's condo to get a tour and then all of us to head over to the Saturday Morning Market three blocks away.  It was way too crowded so we headed over to the playground at Demens Landing.  Then, off to Sunset Beach on Treasure, after a pit stop at the apartment and a stop at Fresh Market to pick up lunch vittles for the beach.

It was overcast, but comfortable.  Ruby loved the beach.  Red was a little cautious of the sand and the water.  The Gulf waters are a little cold for my blood too!  Ruby loved finding shells.  When she found a fancy one, I said, "Oh, look!  A variegated shell!"  And Ruby said, "variegated".  She's so good at that!  Steve built a little mound with a moat around it and a riverbed leading up to it, so that a wave would find it's way up to surround the mound.  As a wave was coming, we got excited and exclaimed, "here comes a wave!"  Ruby took off in the opposite direction!
Steve then dug a hole for Ruby to sit in.  She loved it and promptly pulled sand in over her legs and feet.

Saturday night was a relaxing one since we were all tired.  On Sunday morning I headed to the apartment to make French toast with the Panettone.  I dip it in egg and egg nog and vanilla batter.  It's sooooo good! Gina manned the Choco Motion machine to make the hot cocoa with peppermint marshmallows.

Since the forecast was calling for rain, we headed over to the Florida Aquarium.  We ran into a lot of traffic since there were several cruise ships docked to let passengers off and pick up passengers for the coming week's cruises.

The aquarium was lots of fun.  Ruby loved the otters doing flips in and out of the water right in front of her.  And the penguins too!

We spent Sunday night going through some of the multitude of boxes of old photos.  A lot of work still ahead!

On Monday morning we headed over to Crescent Lake Park.  First the playground, then a walk around the lake, then over to Panera for a late breakfast.  Shortly after that . . . the family left for the trip back to Leesburg (northwest of Orlando).  The visit went way too fast!

But . . . the following Friday I met up with Joe and Joy and Ruby and Red (the Big Js and Little rs) and Mia and Gina at Linda's and Louie's in Bradenton.  After having lunch we headed to the beach (it was way windy and cold).  Brave Joy and Mia and Gina took off their shoes to wade in.  Ruby enjoyed jumping in the muddy puddles.  

For a much better coverage and photos, see Joy's blog here.

Christmas in Mount Dora

For Christmas we went to Mount Dora for a couple days.  We got a special holiday package at the Lakeside Inn which included two delicious breakfasts, plus cash vouchers for dinner and the buffet.  The Inn has been in operation since the 1880s!  It's a quaint old inn.  There was a special Christmas Eve dinner and a huge buffet on Christmas Day.  Over 600 people were seated for the buffet throughout the day on Christmas!

The downtown area and the park were decorated with thousands of lights.  There was a light show set to music for the Christmas tree.  Fun!  Not quite like the Osborne light show at Disney, but nice!

We took a stroll shortly after breakfast around downtown.  The streets were deserted!  Very relaxing, but not a place to grab a coffee or pastry later!  Our buffet reservation was for 5:30 pm, so we were looking for a snack! We thoroughly enjoyed the Lakeside Inn.  All of the staff and other guests were extremely friendly.  The wait staff worked their butts off, but you could tell they were enjoying themselves!  It was a nice way to spend Christmas!

My Sixth Old Northeast Candlelight Tour

Another year of visiting some beautiful homes in the neighborhood!  This marks my sixth tour, 47 homes, (one was a repeat from my first tour; it was in the middle of major renovations back then!)

Linda came up from Bradenton for her second tour, and this was Steve's first tour.  Lonnie joined us again this year too!

The homes were clustered in two different locations.  We started on the southern end with three homes, then caught the courtesy trolley to the northern cluster of seven homes.

Decking the Halls at Disney

Last year was the first time I visited Disney World when it was decorated for the Christmas Holiday Season.
This year Adele and Gina invited us to spend some time enjoying the decorations, and specifically, to see the Osborne Family Lights at Disney Hollywood Studios.
So, Day 1 was spent at the Magic Kingdom after a stop at the Grand Floridian to meet up with Adele and Matt and to see the decorations there.  We enjoyed some warm chestnuts before boarding the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.  We met up with Gina at the Be Our Guest dining room to have lunch.  Then a leisurely stroll around the park.  It was Steve's first visit there, so we had to do a few of our favorite rides:  the Haunted Mansion, the holiday Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Unfortunately, Splash Mountain ran into a problem and shut down just as we got there.  We had a really fun time meeting the talking Mickey!  What a hoot!  An ice cream treat, watching the street dance party, then out until the next day.

On Friday we headed over to Disney Hollywood Studios.  Our main item, to go on the Great Movie Ride with Gina as tour guide.  Our moving theater 'car' was full with a Disney Fan Club, who had a scripted response to Gina's  tour spiel.  It was hilarious!  Adele had to leave for a while, so Steve and I  took the boat over to Epcot.  After we strolled around a while, Gina met up with us after getting out of work.  We had a nice lunch at the Morocco Tangerine Cafe.  Adele and Matt joined up with us later.  We did get to hear Whoopi Goldberg  as the narrator for the Candlelight Processional at the American Gardens Theatre.

Then to the back lot to watch the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  Worth the trip!  Plus it snowed!  Amazing!