Merry Christmas!!!

I realize I've been quite remiss in posting. Sorry. So in the catch up this is a warning - this post will be all things Xmas.

Penny literally loving those lights

Magical lights and frosty weather. Fun stuff.

First fire in the fireplace and first s'mores. The biggest marshmallows ever.

The gingerbread cookie tradition. One for eating and one for Santa.

After all the crazy and the hustle bustle, really it comes down to family. And that's all. Peace and joy to everyone.

And time grows short

I'm back. Things have been somehow a little out of control in the land of swaying palm trees and white sand. XMAS coming for one thing. I'm very late this year getting on the ball. Oh well, all will get done.

We leave Naples in less than a week. Astounded. Me. The two months has gone by in a flash.

My art class has been wonderful and inspiring. Last one coming up Thursday. I share the class with a bunch of quite talented ladies. No men this year - what is that about I wonder......

Mark's big golf group event from Maryland has come and gone. And he's been back to Indy again and came home sick with a bad cold/cough. They call plane flying the petri dish these days. Hmm.
We've had dinners out, dinners in, and I've had lunches out with good friend Andrea. I think we're going to rev up the restaurant visits the last few days we're here. Clearly don't have those options at home.

Again the annual litany of opposites Naples versus Star Mt.:
Sparkling clean cars  -  mud/salt/snow/ice laden cars
Mild weather winter  -  brutal cold (-25) enormous amounts of snow
sweltering swamp heat summer  -  delightful crisp 70 degree days
Fashion central  -  um, no fashion, unless you count state of the art sport attire
All things retail  -  nope, only national chains would be WalMart and Family Dollar.
Most popular cars - exotic luxury everything   -  jeeps and pickup trucks
Water, water everywhere  -  Mountains, mountains everywhere

I hasten to say I only gape at the cars, window shop at the designer stores, but do avail myself of the wonderful carwashes regularly even though they cluck, cluck under their breath over the ground in dirt in every crevice that apparently cannot be removed...ever.

Savannah bound for our trip up to Virginia. Staying in  the historic district as we did last year. Lots of fun. No promises but I'll try to post before we go. If not all thing Xmas and precious Penny and Juliet will be next.

Thanksgiving Photos

Late Thanksgiving post, sorry! Yummy food, and lots of fun and laughter- just what a family gathering should be.

It was fantastic to get some quality time with those most precious  little girls. They are growing up so so fast. Juliet decided to move to the next development step - pulling up. She has been crawling for a few weeks, racing after her sister of course.Walking will surely be not far behind.

We all went out to see the Christmas tree lighting at the town center. It felt festive with choirs singing, hundreds of people and it was FREEZING. The little girls were cozy warm but the rest of us were a little numb.

Back to the warm balmy weather of Naples, at least for a little while. We leave with all our belongings back up to VA in two weeks. I can't believe it.  And Xmas shopping has barely begun. Help!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

And time is going by way too fast. We have 4 weeks minus a day before we pack up and head, not home, but Virginia. Christmas is headquartered at Tiffany's - having two little ones is definitely the trump card. So we all come their way, of course Heather and Jay too.

Tony's Texas Barbecue

Mojito at Fernandez the Bull

More Fernandez the Bull - notice the Cuba poster

The glory of endless eating choices continues. Since we've been here gone to: Tony's Texas Barbecue, Sushi Thai (3 times), Nemo's ( 1 time Mark, 2 for me), Fernandez the Bull (2 times), Randy's Seafood (1 time and with Star Mt. neighbors John and Sandy!), Stir Crazy, AZN, Escargot 41 (1 time, and more to come I don't know - see write up in previous post- Nov. 8), O'mei (a lunch to check out whether it was worth coming back to have their "famous" traditional Peking duck - and yes, we'll go back to try it), and The Sauce Lady (which is not really a restaurant, but to go homemade Italian food - yum).

 Finally got a round of golf in with Mark. First in a year! I enjoyed, remembering only the good shots of course, and Mark fine tuned his game for the big Maryland guy golf trip happening in Naples in a couple weeks. We may continue the golf theme and walk across the road to Tiburon where the LPGA is playing this weekend. Fun it's so close.

We were touched by the crazy winter storm up north, the cold fingers reached down and dropped us to a record 45 low. I know, I know there's no crying for us....

My art class started this week with my friend Patty. She's a fabulous instructor and group a great one and most are repeats. She does have quite a following. If only I could figure out a way to clone her in the Gunnison valley...

Sunrise

My early morning walks can be peaceful, or dodging the ever working landscape crews and all the other people diligently doing their jogging, solitary walking, walking the dog, bicycling, bicycling  with equipment to the tennis courts. Only seen one person on roller blades this year. I think it's fallen out of fashion.

 The crews just finished planting the winter flowers, not a task for the faint hearted, there are literally thousands and thousands of flowers decorating every corner. Our community is 2,000 acres and 3,000 houses- that's a lot of corners...

Mark has been traveling part of each week to Indy on business, trying not to let it interfere in the fun and relaxation. He's trekking out early next week again back the day before Thanksgiving. We then fly to DC for our family Thanksgiving. Should be fun and a little harried I think. I'll be posting after the event so Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Beach, birds, and beauty

We sit here watching the ducks and turtles tuck and swirl around in the water in balmy temps of 78. As our weatherman likes to point out, this is the time of year in which envy runs rampant throughout the rest of the country that is experiencing Winter with a capital W. As is Star Mt. we hear. Of course for the mountain  (CB that is) there is joy and anticipation for the ski season coming soon.

Been doing a bit of fun activities here and there. Saw Interstellar at our favorite movie theatre - Silverspot on our one rainy day so far. Hard to beat with reserved seats, enormous leather chairs,and the latest projection technology. Makes a bad movie almost palatable, but Interstellar was very good in case you were wondering. Also spent a pleasant happy hour at the same center (Mercato) at another favorite spot - AZN.

Broke out the new chairs and umbrella

Ah, the beach. Finally made it, rough drive- a grand total of 7 minutes to make it there. It's a fabulous public beach (Delnor-Wiggins State Park) with one mile of pristine sand, great fishing at the Wiggins Pass(so we hear - Mark will let you know) and the cost to get in, a whopping $6 a car, $2 if you're a walker.

Quite windy, but wonderful temperature. In fact, the umbrella tried to blow away. The second anchoring worked better. You can rent every kind of water toy there is, but saw virtually none of that due to the wind.

A lone Muscovy duck appeared yesterday. He looked quite sure I had food for him which I did not. Wild should stay wild. Apparently in large groups these are considered quite a nuisance. I couldn't figure out if it was visual (those crazy red bumps), giant quantities of droppings everywhere, or both.

The wildlife is very bird oriented and I do love all that. No sighting of otters, we're three weeks in so I'm thinking they've left the area- too bad. Mark's had one alligator sighting when he played golf but nothing for me yet.

Travel on the horizon for Mark again, Indy for a couple of days this week and next which gets a little dicey close as it is to Thanksgiving.