Here we go again

So much of the house is done: the front room is finished!  

The kitchen is finished!

And now . . . we start the living room. 

Christmas Holilday 2020

Christmas Eve Day we delivered the hot chocolate and cookies for the Christmas Eve service but we didn't stay; we were heading to Lake City to spend Christmas with family. We got to Lance's house by 5. We visited with Marla, Lance and their son Liam for about 15 minutes when a heavy rain started and suddenly there was a loud BANG and all the lights went out! We could still see fine because earlier Marla had fill the rooms with scented candles and strings of tiny battery-powered lights. So everything had a lovely glow.

Lance went outside to check on the trees and on the chicken which was already on the grill. Trees were down, chicken was cooking. Nothing much to do but drink Cinnamon Fireball and eat chips with Ken Ranch dressing - great! In spite of the rain Lance and Randy continued to check on the chicken and soon it was done. 

Good, I needed to eat something besides chips to soak up that Fireball. Grilled chicken and grilled asparagus, with Stouffer’s mac and cheese did the job nicely. After dinner Lance and Marla taught us to play Uno Attack. There are a lot of rules but Liam, at 7 years old, is already an expert. And as soon as Liam yelled “Uno” to end the first game, the lights came back on! 

Four long hands later, it was time to call Santa, who knew all about Liam’s wish list and school concerns. Santa always knows. After that Randy and I were ready to call it a day so we left Marla and Liam to bake cookies for Santa while we went to bed. Lance has renovated the guest bedroom in an English theme with signed prints, Royal wedding commemorative cups, and a big English flag.

In the morning Marla's mom Gail, daughter Jordan, and Jordan's friend Rachel joined us for a breakfast of waffles and bacon, followed by opening gifts. 

Liam was such a sweetie - he had wrapped up his money as a present to his mommy. Fortunately he cleaned up with gifts of more money, a Les Paul guitar, a telescope, and (from Uncle Randy) his first gun. 

Next Marla and Randy spent time in the kitchen cooking prime rib, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh rolls, and cheesecake with apple topping.  Lunch was in the early afternoon and everything was so good that we ate enough to last the rest of the day!

So we relaxed and visited until the evening when we chucked all the good vibes out by watching “Greenland”, a dramatic film about a near apocalyptic event. Ah well, I slept great anyway. And the next morning we headed home. 

Randy's Christmas Delights

Randy does love to make Christmas goodies. This year he made Peanut Brittle,

Oatmeal-cranberry-chocolate chip cookies,

Toffee,

Chocolate chip cookies.

and Peanut Clusters.

Then he put them all together to make a tray for his lucky co-workers at Shooter's World!

Christmas parade at Lake Griffin Isles

It is a Christmas tradition at Lake Griffin Isles for people to decorate their golf carts with Christmas lights and form a parade through the park. This year's parade was scheduled for last night, so Randy baked some delicious fudge and chocolate chip cookies, and we set up our chairs outside to wait for the parade. Neighbor Pat crossed the street to join us. We lit some citronella candles (mosquitoes are still bad, here even in December) and waited in the dark. Randy got into the spirit with his Mickey Mouse Christmas-light ears. 

A little after 6pm, here they came! There were 20 to 25 of them, each decorated differently. They passed our house and drove to the end of the street before turning around. As they passed us again, we handed out fudge and cookies to the surprised and grateful crowd. Merry Christmas everyone!

Out to see the lights

Larry and Linda came over to our part of town and we took them out to see Christmas Lights. We planned to go to Cottom Farms but I forgot that you take a tractor-trailer ride through the lights. None of us were dressed for that kind of cold so we admired what we could see from the road. Linda said they were pretty "Wow" anyway.  

Next we went to see the Lady Lake lights at the Lady Lake Visitor Center. Every year they dress this area out beautifully. Linda rated this one a double-Wow!

Then Randy remembered the big light decorations at Venetian Gardens. They have great lights that flash and blink in time to the piped-in music. Triple Wow!!!