Christmas 2022

I love the the decorations on my tree and having it lit all day. 

There were lots of boxes under the tree before Christmas, but I forgot to take a picture before we handed them out. 

Christmas morning, time to open the gifts. I gave Larry a Pastbook. It was 10 years of my photos I have posted on Facebook. What I like is they are dated and have the comments I wrote about them.  A good keepsake.  After we opened our gifts, Lynda called on Alexa and we opened the presents from her and spent time together. We also visited with Bob, Felecia and Lucas after they arrived at Lynda's.

It was a very cold Christmas even here in Florida. It was in the 30's., so all my plants had to be brought in or covered up.  The Christmas cactus was in bloom.

CHRISTMAS PLAYS, CONCERTS, AND GATHERINGS

 On November 26  we went to the Orlando Repertory Theatre and saw a magical new holiday musical, True North.  It is the first time we have ever gone to this theatre. The show was at 1 o'clock and it was full of children.  The show was about a father who was deployed at Christmas and gave his son a compass. Your true north is where your heart is. The undisclosed location the father is sent to ends up being a camp near the North Pole. the father ends up getting lost at Santa's workshop. I think the story was over most of the children's head and was a little heavy for Christmas.

The father does make it home for Christmas with some help from the elves. The show was very good with great choreography and singing. We enjoyed it. 

On December 2 we went to the Sonnentag Theatre at the Ice House in Mount Dora. They always do a great show. This play was called Five Golden Rings : A Greeting Card Channel Holiday Musical.  It was really cute. A spoof about Hallmark shows ( I actually think we saw it). The gentleman who played Chris (Santa) and the little girl were excellent. 

Saturday evening Teena, a neighbor, and I went to the Clermont Performance Art Center for Lessons and Carols. This is about the 5th time I have gone. 

Ben Gulley and Callie Day opened the program singing The Prayer. They also sang Ave Marie and O Holy Night. WOW

After each lesson was read, scripture from the Bible, the Montverde choir sang. This is what Christmas is all about. 

On December 11 after church Celebrate Recovery leadership had a pot luck lunch.  Sherry made a cute candy tree.

At 2 o'clock the choir put on a Christmas cantata.  Pastor Doug welcomed everyone to the program.

The choir had musicians accompany them. There was a harp, flute, oboe, french horn, trumpet, violin, cello, and drum,  and of course the piano and organ. It was really a beautiful program.

We went to Cooper Library on Wednesday, December 8 and sang Christmas songs with the Retro Ramblers.  Meant to go on the 13th to hear Plantation Brass but forgot to go.

December 14 we went to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional.  We went at 3 for the 5:15 show. There was a very long line waiting to get seats. We didn't think we would get in, but we did. The program began with the 50 piece orchestra playing music.

Then the Voices of America formed the singing Christmas Tree. They sounded beautiful.

Then the choir processional filled up the stage.   

Gloria Estefan was the celebrity narrator, recounting the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus. It was the first time she has been the narrator. She said the hardest part was not singing along with the choir. 

It is a very beautiful program.

Friday evening, Dec. 16,  we had a progressive dinner with three of our neighbors. Juanita and Earl had appetizers at their house. Then we went to Sharon's and Lance's for salad. We had the soup course at our house, and we ended at Jan's and Tom's for dessert. It was fun seeing how everyone had decorated their homes for Christmas and sharing about our Christmas traditions. It was a nice evening of food and fellowship. 

Merry Christmas to all.

Dec. 22 Larry took me on a date night to Gaylord Palms to see Cirque-styled Christmas show.  Before we went to the show we walked around and saw the decorations.

The show is in the courtyard and began with lights and music.

The show was about a child dismayed by the holidays and trying to recapture her  lost love of the season. she is visited by a spirits to help her bring back the feeling of Christmas. 

What flexibilty and balance he had.

High flying trapeze artist.

The Christmas spirit. 

Performers way up on those poles, swaying back and forth.

Younger girls on trapeze.

It was a short show and we stopped at Bonefish for dinner.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I purchases this pretty turkey diamond paint picture at our Holiday Bazaar.  It wasn't framed so I got one at Michael's and hung it up.

Diamond Paint is like painting by numbers but using little beads. It is very sparkly.
 

My neighbor reported that she had seen turkeys in the back yard again. When Larry and I were on the way to church Sunday we saw about 6 turkeys on the road in our development.  Today when I was walking around the RV park across from our house I saw them again and able to get a picture. I think they are hiding out in plain sight.  

I made a turkey dinner on Friday. Susan, a friend from my days of teaching, and her husband came for a visit. They are vacationing at Disney so it is always nice to get together with them when they are in town.  

My birthday was on Tuesday. Larry and I went out to eat and then for dessert he had ordered this cake ( part cheese and part chocolate cake) from Publix. It is rich and  delicious.  

Larry said for my birthday we could do anything  I wanted to do,  so in the evening he helped me get this puzzle started.  1000 piece puzzle. I finished it on Thanksgiving after we came back from having a nice visit and turkey dinner at Larry's brother, Lynden and Sabra's home in Lakeland. 

TO CAMP OR NOT TO CAMP

We had reservations to go camping at Fort DeSota  from Sunday to Thursday.  We couldn't decide if we should go or not since Tropical storm Nicole (which became a hurricane) was forecasted to bring high winds and rain on Wednesday and Thursday. Fort DeSota is right on the Gulf below St. Petersburg. 

 

When we arrived we asked if we could extend the reservation to Friday.  When the girl looked at the site we had booked and then at our RV she said we couldn't be in that area for it was only for tents, vans, and pop ups, up to 16 feet long. We are 27 feet. She kindly managed to change us to this emergency site (not listed on the map) for the whole time and leaving Friday.

It is a great site. Usually you would back in but we wanted to look out at the water, so Larry pulled in.

What a view.

Even saw a rainbow on Sunday evening. 

And lots of visits from birds. 

This is where you pull into the park and cross over the water. Our RV is the second white spot.

A better view of it,

even better.

Monday morning we biked over to the fort and beach, about 3 miles away. A shadow selfie,

Turned the camera around and took this selfie. The weather was windy but the sun was hot. I had my swim suit on but didn't go in the water. May have if I wasn't biking and had towel and chair. We spent an hour walking along the beach collecting shells. Maybe I will make another shell tree.

Larry fished for a little while while I read. It was getting windier. Tuesday we biked around the campground and up the road to the boat docks. Then we drove over to Treasure Island and had lunch at Ricky's. 

Wednesday we walked all around the campground and then drove to the beach . Much windier, the sand was blowing.

We moved the camper back a little farther from the water and put everything away, even the front slide. the rain started Wednesday evening. We seemed to be well protected from the wind, and had no rocking.  Wasn't aware of the storm during the night. 

Thursday it rained hard on and off with some gust of winds all day. We stayed indoors and put a puzzle together, Larry helped! Friday morning we left at 8 and had no winds or rain coming back to Clermont. We were home by 10. We got the RV unpacked and then it stormed for several hours. 

We had reservations to go to Epcot on Friday. The rain had stopped by 4, so we went. We saw a vivid rainbow on our drive to Disney.

We went to the Eat to the Beat concert to hear Kenny G.  I saw on Facebook that Larry's brother and his wife were at Epcot so we met up with them there.  

He started the show by coming out in the audience and playing. The only words spoken in the half hour show was to introduce the members of  the band. They have played together for 35 years.

He plays a soprano sax and he really can play!   I don't know how he can hold a note that long. As Sabra said " you can tell he never smoked". It was a nice evening.