Snowy white Christmas at Star Mountain

Oh my goodness. 6 inches of snow overnight and still going. Couldn't have ordered up a better present.

Christmas Eve was controlled chaos. Lots of activities to keep the girls busy. It's hard to wait for Christmas day is actually get here.

Racing down the stairs to PRESENTS.

Christmas morning breakfast.

Snow angel not a comatose Dad

Playing in the snow was just fun. Beautiful powdery stuff. The mountain got more - the skiers are going to be thrilled. Tomorrow Heather flies in. I'll be back with part 2. Merry Christmas everyone 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

On the way to Star Mt. for HOHOHO

I know I've been absent. This time of year throws my normal schedule all off, no matter the circumstance.Time has definitely gotten away from me. We leave for Star Mt. tomorrow to start the Christmas celebration 2017. It's our first Christmas there in 6 years and I am wild with excitement. Also taking a deep breath as we will hit the ground running. We are getting in 2 days ahead of the start of family arrivals and there is much to do. Mega grocery store run, lights up, and tree to purchase or, gulp, cut down if the stores are out. That we may wait on until the little girls get there if there's to be a tree-cutting adventure.

There's very little snow there, which is amazing really. The ski mountain has been making snow non-stop so skiing can happen but regular ole white stuff out of the sky has been pretty absent. Snow showers with no accumulation are predicted as we fly in. At least that will put us in the right spirit. Florida Xmas is a little on the weird side, palm trees wrapped with lights only goes so far...
🎄🌟🔔🎄🌟🔔
Joy, Peace, and Love to all whatever you celebrate.

December in Florida

Florida - trekking back and forth on both coasts. I know how to pack a suitcase in a very short time at this point almost 3 years in on the Miami scene. If you're wondering if I keep clothes over in Miami, I do not. I'm just not there enough to warrant it I guess.

lights and bougainvillea - different combo

The lobby in our Miami high rise

Tis the season, well, the Florida version of it anyway. A selection of holiday photos from the Naples neighborhood and one from the Miami condo building. Weird but nice....

Different ways to hunt

I had a nice beach visit with mostly birds for company. Those odd looking ducks are  Merganser ducks, fish eating, who breed in Alaska and Canada, and winter on both U.S. coasts. They dive and scoop for fish. Egrets are the tall stately white birds. They all fought for the fish for a long time.

Switching gears - Mark's office holiday party in Miami. Wow, eardrum bursting music along with salsa dancing, and then there was the bizarre light show man. Much fun was had although we bailed at 10ish. It probably continued to the wee hours but that's as much as we can handle. We are far too old...

view out our lanai

Crazy study in contrasts. The frenetic pace in Miami versus the calmer more bucolic Naples (most of the time anyway).  I don't make it to the beaches in Miami either, always Naples. It so easy, only 5 minutes away and a wild peaceful place.

Charleston Thanksgiving visit

I'm back! Thanksgiving travel got in the way of posting. Charleston was quite fabulous and we had lots of visiting time with those sweet granddaughters.

Great Thanksgiving dinner with lots of help from everyone. Missed you Heather!!

The Aquarium was first up on the visit list. First visit for all of us. Really nice facility downtown with a sea turtle "hospital" and a sea ray tank where you can touch and feed them. Weird experience the feeding: you hold a small dead fish upright between your fingers with palm down as a ray hovers over and sucks up the fish. The girls opted just to watch...

It seems to me all the "serious" smokers look like an experiment gone wrong

We worked up a good appetite for lunch. Charleston is an amazing town for food, and barbecue is no exception. It's a vinegar based sauce here in the Carolinas. Yum!

These stairs are amazing and a lot of work for someone.

Notice the "widow's watch" on the roof - very common here

More houses from the neighborhood behind Tiffany and Chris.  I couldn't resist taking more photos. Love, love the style. We all walked down to the park this time as I wanted Mark to see.

This park backs up to water and a lot of private docks. There is a huge fluctuation in daily tides here: over 6 feet. Boats are placed accordingly.

More eating out - this time Leon's Fine Poultry & Oysters. And it was fine to be sure...

Jules apparently wanted to go on a cruise - run Jules run!

Beach visit! Sullivan's Island to be exact. Got there right as sunset was ebbing. What a gorgeous beach and the cruise ship was leaving as we were there. Not a huge cruise ship area, only Carnival goes in and out to Bermuda,Caribbean, and the Bahamas. I had some fun snapping photos with that amazing light.

Beardcat's Sweet Shop for after dinner gelato. History of the amazing photo is apparently unknown. Obviously a real person with a love of animals...  Such a cute resort town with an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants. Well worth going and only 25 minutes from Tiffany's house. So much to see and do in every direction.

I'll end with an assortment of Penny and Juliet photos. They are such a joy and growing up so fast!