Happy New Year

May the blue bird of happiness be with you in 2009. May you have good memories of the past year and may you make wonderful Memories in 2009. May you be with family and friends. May you have good health, happiness and prosperity in 2009. Happy New year to all.

Learning to snowshoe.

This is our son Skip in Hallstead Pennsylvania. He is the marathon runner. Well, since the weather in the North East is so bad he is now the marathon snowshoe runner. He is even thinking of entering snowshoe marathons.

Gifts to Remember

As the Christmas season is among us we think about giving. We run out to the stores and buy this gift or that gift. We feel bad if we don't have money to get our kids that Xbox , or whatever is their desire for Christmas. Things are just so commericalized and it is all our faults because we wanted to give our kids things we didn't have as a child. So now it is all about the stuff and not about what Christmas is truly about.

The original giver was God who gave us baby Jesus. He grew up to die on the cross for our sins.

Jesus was our gift.

Gifts to remember are:

The star of Christmas is remembering.

The hope of Christmas is sharing.

The spirit of Christmas is giving.

The heart of Christmas is loving.

The gift of Christmas is Jesus.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. So while we are celebrating Christmas let's take a little time to remember Jesus. And celebrate his birthday!

Christmas Past

These are just a few pictures I could find of my Christmas past. I have enjoyed every Christmas I have ever been alive for.

Even when we were in the poorest of times I remember saving to give my kids a wonderful Christmas. I would start real early and buy one gift at a time or put stuff on layaway just to make sure we always had a wonderful Christmas.

We baked cookies, and decorated the trees together. I always bought each child an ornament every year so when they grew-up and moved away they would have something to start their tree with. I even did this with the grandchildren. We had the most wonderful Christmas's and I hope as you look at these pictures you will remember and enjoy. Christmas has always been a magic time for me. I hope as my family look at these few pictures they will remember and enjoy.

I hope you remember a memory from the past. Maybe one that is not pictured here. send me a comment about what made that Christmas so special.

When I am no longer on this earth I hope my children and grandchildren remember these wonderful Christmases of the past and maybe think it was special. And remember me fondly. Merry Christmas Family!

Christmas decorating of the tree

Christmas in West Virginia at my daughter Joy's house. I would give anything to spend Christmas in West Virginia this year helping Joy, Brian, Corey, Carlee and Kyle decorate the Christmas tree and bake those delicious cookies and candies. But the kids will be off to new York to spend Christmas with their dad and Corey will be off to his Mom house and Joy and Brian will enjoy some well deserved alone time. But it has always been fun decorating the tree with family and baking those cookies.

Theresa my other daughter and Ashley are way up in Maine their tree is decorated also. I got to see it via the webcam. Ashley will be baking the Christmas cookies this year and she has promised to send me some.

Since we became full time Rvers. This is the one thing I miss the most is getting ready for Christmas with family and doing the baking with the kids. Oh what a mess we would make of the kitchen but what fun we had. And oh eating the cookies that broke or weren't perfect fresh out of the oven. Oh wow! What pleasure that was.

So here I sit in Florida in 80 degree weather and dream of the wonderful times at Christmas. I will of course go and see some Christmas lights and have fond memories of doing that with my grandmother, Cousin Johnny, and his dad and Nana as we drove all over Norfolk Virginia and awed at the beautiful display of lights. Florida does have some nice displays since they have no snow. So I will enjoy them and remember.

Santa with Greg Jr & Hunter

Sunday Morning Walk

Well, after several days of cold, wet weather and high winds we had a nice warm morning so we got back to our walking. This morning we saw whooping cranes and pelicans and lots of fishermen on the pier. It was nice to get out and enjoy Florida weather. Our friends in Montana and family in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania have been having cold, snow and ice.

This afternoon we will go to the nursing home and have a nice bike ride. We are also going Christmas shopping. Leigh's nephew gave us a gift certificate for the Iron Horse Saloon where they have biker clothing so we will get us some biker stuff so we will be prepared for Daytona Bike Week in March.

Fairchild Oak tree

This is the Fairchild Oak Tree located in Bulou Creek State Park. it is the oldest Oak Tree in Florida. The park is off the Ormond Scenic Loop. I have always wanted to see it but have never taken the time to stop. I was so happy I did as it is awesome.

I saw another Oak tree in petersburgh Virginia almost as grand but not quite. The part where this oak tree is there are several others but none to compare with this beauty that has survives hurricanes and years and years.

Ormond Scenic Loop

I go to the nursing home in Ormond Beach daily to feed Leigh's dad and I always take the scenic loop through the wetlands. Today there were tons of birds so I stopped and took some pictures.

I will probably post lots of pictures in the future of something in the loop because there is just so much to see.

Today's fantasy I had on our walk

Today as we were walking I am always fantasizing about something. Today, as we walked past this closed motel on the beach, that has been closed for the last 2 winters I know of. I was dreaming, wouldn't it be nice to buy this motel . Then have some family members like Theresa and Ashley, my daughter and grand-daughter or Skip and Kathy, Leigh's son and daughter in law who are thinking of retirement working with us to run it. It has 3 suites we could use as our homes and then several motel rooms to rent.

I would make the prices reasonable for being on the beach for we would be full all the time because our prices would be the best on the beach. Then we could live on the beach and be able afford it. Go fishing on days off. Enjoy the sunshine year round. The sound of the ocean to lull me to sleep. Have a great place for the rest of the family if they wanted to visit. It was a sweet fantasy but one that will never happen but it was fun thinking about it and imagining it as I did my 6 mile walk.

Decorated houses on our walk

This is 3 of the places we saw this morning. We haven't taken our night time ride to see all the lights yet. That will be for another post. I have noticed not so many places decorated as there were last year. I guess it's a sign of the economy as everyone is broke and here in Florida the cost of electric has gone up since last year at this time.

Today Walk

Today as we were walking I remembered to bring my camera and I am going to try to divide my pictures up with wording in between. This part is some of the critters we see when we walk. As I have said before we walk 6 miles. Two on the marsh walk, two on the beach and 2 down our street. The squirrels, the Herring, and the whooping cranes were in the marsh. The birds on the beach of course. I just love see the different birds and critters along our walk. There is always something different to see each time.

Visitors

Well, we had a nice visit with our friends we met in Montana, Joan & Paul, Betty and Don. They came up to visit us from Orange City. We had a nice visit sitting around then, we watch the Christmas parade and then we headed to the fisherman's Net was a nice dinner.

It was such a nice visit. We talked about our travels and places we still want to go too. Leigh told his bear stories and just had a wonderful visit.

Joan made us necklaces, Leigh's was a arrowhead because we can't find his old one and mine was a bear necklace. They are so beautiful. She does such beautiful work.

All and all it was such a pleasant day. Good friends, good food and good weather. What more could you ask for.

Christmas Festival in Flagler Beach

Last night was the Flagler Christmas Festival. There were chorus from schools and churches and a high school band providing Christmas music to get us in the spirit, The lighting of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus for the kids. Plenty of vendors selling great food and their wares. It was just a fun night as everyone got into the Christmas spirit. Christmas is my favorite time of year as I have always been a child at heart. I love Christmas.