It's the Redneck Yacht Club

Another week to catch up on. We have been on such a run again that by time I get home in the evening I am just too tired to blog. Being able to stay outside so late with the beautiful Florida evenings, we never hurry home.

Right before Christmas we decided to go out to Sam's with some friends and stock up on goodies for the holidays. On our way home we stopped at the Olive Garden and Salt and I used the gift certificate Robin and Mike gave me for my birthday....thanks kids...great gift!! Love their Soup and Salad lunches! NO, I don't have Mickey Mouse ears on. I had my sunglasses on top of my head and sat in front of two plants!!

We started the Christmas week with a delicious brunch at the home of Terry and Susie Muldoon. Terry cooked his famous fresh pineapple pancakes.....along with tons of other goodies.

I think this is the first time I ever attended a Christmas Brunch where you could cook and eat outside! The weather was beautiful!
Here is Terry showing off his skill with the grill!

Salt, Doug and Darlene Rowe waiting for the food....

We hosted the Christmas Eve party and just did tons of finger foods and desert. We knew Ruthie was doing a big Ham Dinner on Christmas day so we needed to take it a little easy....yeah right!

Dave and his fancy duds....

Ending the evening with a fire in front of the Christmas tree.....what fun!

Christmas day was a big dinner at Gene and Ruth's but I forgot to charge my camera battery so I have no pictures from Christmas day. I will have to get some from Gene and add them later.
All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. We missed the kids and grand kids, especially after the wonderful Christmas we had last year at Disney. It just wasn't feasible this year but they have guaranteed me they will be home this summer. They all seem to agree they want to spend their time on the river.

Here we are on Daytona Beach....We had a big breakfast at Cracker Barrel so decided we should stop and walk it off before we attended the Lipizzaner Stallion show.

The show was great....these horses are absolutely beautiful, so well trained and so proud!! This was the beginning of the show where everyone stood and sang the Star Spangled Banner...of course I choked up!!

This was called the dance of three....all of the horses were so in sync it was amazing!

The horses were first trained for the battlefields during war.....they have all these maneuvers that were used on the battlefield to fight off the enemy.

This guy was the featured rider and it was so cool to watch him....he sat in the saddle and you couldn't even see him move in the saddle. He was SO bonded with this horse.

Salt and I found a free afternoon to go see the new Will Smith movie Seven Pounds ...what a great movie. It was a happy/sad movie and VERY moving.

Then on Friday, myself and three girlfriends had a girls day and went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet....another good movie. I didn't realize that the story was written by F Scott Fitzgerald, which explains a lot. I definitely recommend it!!

We had planned to go to lunch and do a little "after Christmas sales shopping" but Ruth received a call from her husband. He and Salt had been out boat shopping and he needed the checkbook....RIGHT AWAY! Yep....they....well Gene bought a pontoon boat.

So......today I packed a picnic lunch and off we went for the maiden voyage.


Here is Ruthie boarding....


Salt the mechanic....


and the skipper...(captain??)

Doesn't he look happy to be back on the water and behind the wheel!!!

Dave and Gene brought their fishing poles but we did more cruising than fishing. They are saving all their luck for next Tuesday when the boys have chartered a boat to go out deep fishing. We are praying for lots of Grouper....are they in season?????

Tomorrow night cocktails and snacks at our house and then off to the clubhouse for a 50's and 60's band.....yeah. Fireworks at midnight!!! Life is good!