Resolutions

Since I shared my blog address in all my holiday letters, it occurred to me that a good resolution would be to blog a bit more often. Maybe then my friends would get in the habit of checking in on me frequently in 2011. So here's a new post to keep you coming back!

After our return home from Florida, there was a "flurry" of activity with pre-Christmas social events and then the things I needed to do so that our Christmas would happen... getting the holiday letters and packages put in the mail and doing a little holiday grocery shopping and cooking.

And then there was the real "flurry" on Christmas morning... as in snow flurry. The snow started at daybreak and then it just continued, relentlessly, until we had 9 inches of it! I did NOT move south to have a white Christmas! Well, we are now 5 days past that storm and a lot of the snow is gone. Hooray!

One of the things I did while I was housebound was to work on some pincushions I am making for an event I'm going to in January, so I thought I'd show those to you. They are made of felt and they're fun to embellish with embroidery. They are much more cheerful than the winter scene I could have photographed out my front door on Christmas day!

Happy 2011!!!

Things are heating up!

We're not exactly sweating, but the Florida temperatures have turned more seasonal for the second half of our week here. Russ is used to hearing me say, "I love the 70's!" He's never sure if I'm talking about the decade or the temperature range, but in reality, I like both!

On Wednesday, we met our friends Nancy and David at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville for a great seafood lunch and a few hours of equally delightful conversation. Together we went to the Enchanted Forest preserve for a stroll along an abandoned and grown over canal. We didn't see much wildlife, but along the trail were these

interesting "Swiss cheese" rocks that were unearthed when they dug the canal. The holes were made by naturally occurring carbonic acid eating away the limestone over tens of thousands of years. Or at least I think that's what the interpretive sign said.

Yesterday we went golfing at the Kissimmee Golf Club. I didn't shoot any birdies with my golf clubs, but I did shoot some with my camera. The course was filled with lots of interesting birds, many of them pretty tame and willing to pose. It skirts an airport that has a "war bird" collection and so in addition to the real birdlife, there were lots of vintage planes flying overhead! It was an interesting spot! In fact we liked it so much, we made tee times to play again today.

On Tuesday we spent a few hours in Winter Park, a nice, upscale community. We visited the Morse Museum which was just spectacular. It houses the largest collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany art in the world. The collection is magnificent and the story of how it was acquired is equally fascinating. What a treasure! Thank you to my bee friend, Carolyn, for suggesting that. We had also hoped to take the scenic boat cruise there, but the cold weather on that day had closed it down. Perhaps we'll get back now that it's warmer.

Last night we went to Celebration, FL, a Disney planned community near Lake Buena Vista. During December they have hourly snowfalls in the town square, and last night it was finally warm enough to enjoy that. I expected cold, snow machine snow, but this snow was more like shaving cream. They also have an "ice" rink, but the surface was some kind of solid other than ice. It was really pretty and festive and the kids were enjoying rolling around in the shaving cream snow that accumulated on the street.

Florida... where all the orange juice is frozen this morning!

I really need to get back to blogging, so here's a post from Sunny Florida.

You might know... we make the decision to make a December trip south and last night there was record cold here in Orlando! Temps dipped into the teens and even with the sunshine, the wind yesterday made it feel downright chilly.

Don't feel too sorry for me, though. We are staying at a beautiful Hilton resort (thanks, Ed and Carol!) and our accommodations and the

amenities here are amazing... so it's not really an inconvenience to have to stay inside more than we'd planned. Here are a couple of shots showing our apartment.

And thanks to my "bee ladies" I have a list of indoor attractions to explore in the area.

Yesterday we had a nice day. After battling downtown Orlando traffic to get to a Radio Shack so I could replace the camera battery charger I forgot (why do I keep forgetting things?), we headed to Edgewater to see Russ' cousin's recently purchased house and spend the afternoon and early evening with them. It was really nice to see their beautiful home, catch up with their family news, and Russ and Bruce spent a couple hours going through some geneological stuff that Russ has collected and shared lots of old family stories. We had a nice dinner at McKenna's before heading back to Orlando.