04 Holidays

Sunday, January 07, 2024
Pinecrest Gardens, Florida, United States
Left Collier-Seminole State Park early and headed back to Miami for Christmas festivities with Cindy's family. Lots of wrapping and Santa preparations to do ahead of the big day. Helped Cindy by squeezing two bags of Key Limes (creates just over a cup/250mm) for her/my favourite pies. The kids made Gingerbread houses with very little guidance; their housing projects did not last the holidays – eroded away, a little at a time.
Video'd with Aaron, Sue, Louis and Julian on their Xmas morning (15 hours time difference) – the boys are growing up so fast. Also connected with Margorie, Nigel, Grace and Callum on our Xmas morning; Santa gave all the kids exciting toys, both here in Florida, and in Korea and Toronto.
All five of Gram's Grandkids were eager to open presents early Xmas morning then had fun playing with their new treasures the rest of the day. Xmas dinner was Salmon and Ham plus side-dishes which was delicious.
On Boxing day we headed for the Bear Island in the Big Cypress National Preserve (NP); the Turner River Road was pretty bumpy so it took us over an hour to progress twenty miles (thirty two kilometres) north to the campground. The Iron Ranger where we normally paid cash for our campsite had been removed so we had to phone Recreation.gov to reserve our stay; they were so busy (or shorthanded) it took us three days to finally reserve a site for New Years. We had about three inches (over seven and a half centimetres) of rain on our second day so we decided to travel to town for supplies and fish; the road was a mud bath and the truck is still muddied. A cold-front moved in after the rain which made our campfires feel wonderful. I chainsawed a downed pine and also gave logs to our closest neighbours so everyone had enough firewood for the holidays.
We returned to Miami on New Year's day (Turner Road took well over an hour to traverse and was still pretty wet) to watch Michigan beat Alabama in college football; they now progress to the National Championship game in a week against Washington. On Tuesday, Cindy was to have a new crown installed but a bad fit means another try in a couple of weeks. On Wednesday, Cindy headed North to St. Augustine for three nights at a resort with her kids and grandchildren while I stayed in Miami and babysat the dogs; they behaved really well together and we spent lots of time walking and playing in the yard while I fixed the stove (replaced original screws holding the burners) and did the first upgrade to the camper by installing a 12-volt plug near the foot of our bed.
Green Bay Packers finished the season with a close win and earned a Wild Card game next weekend. I seem to be catching whatever Cindy came down with so should leave Zach & Shari's a day early.
Tidbits:
  • Santa is lucky that the world is spherical or he would never be able to visit all households in one night
  • Tis a pain listening to flying drones in a campground, especially when it is illegal
  • All USA National Campgrounds now need online reservations
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Comments

Debbie
2024-01-20

What a good looking group. Looks like everyone had a good time. Happy New Year!

tracy
2024-01-20

Love the pajama picture where everyone is silly!!! Zach's face!!!!!!

Carol Spicer
2024-01-20

Loved the family pj pictures! What fun. We are in LPK now and Scott and Kate will be here also this coming week. Where will you be then? Wouldn’t it be fun if you could slide over here?? Hope to see you sometime this winter.

2025-02-18

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