Standing still, dressed to kill, holding a glass of champagne....everyone having fun, trying to get out of their brain.....

Happy New Year....could 2010 possibly be any better than the last? We have been so blessed and I am grateful for the wonderful year we had. To all of you, I wish you health and happiness for the new year.
We spent a quiet but fun evening out to dinner with friends and then on to the dance at the clubhouse. Gene and Ruth cut a rug....

Marguerite without her bingo bag full of gifts......

Manny and Pat....love these guys!!

everyone having fun catching up with returning friends......

Don doing what he does best.....having fun!! He is so funny, I bet he was like the best teacher!!

Hey, if those husbands don't want to dance, you grab a girlfriend and polka down!!

And just like on Grindstone, you just gotta do the "Chicken Dance"......

A bunch of our friends having New Years Eve dinner at Stavros (one of our favorite local restaurants).....

This is Bob....look at Bob smile....why are you smiling Bob?????? Oh yeah, surrounded by your harem. Lucky Bob.....!!!!

We started the New Years' celebration early this morning with a touch of New Orleans.....

I rolled, and.....

Ruthie cooked......

Up early tomorrow morning for New Year's bowling and then to Gene and Ruth's for dinner. Think maybe I should get some sleep.........

I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company....

Yesterday was another cold day in Florida. Deciding that we would not let the weather slow us down, the Starchers Salt and I took off for Daytona Beach to visit MOAS ....Museum of Arts & Sciences, 100,000 square feet of art, science and history located on a 90-acre preserve in the heart of Daytona Beach. http://www.moas.org/


Upon entering the museum, Ruth and I stopped for a little ballet warm up with the dancing sculptures.

The first part of the museum was a museum within the museum, known as the Root Museum, www.fohbc.com/BandE_Article2html


They had a racing team....

and created the Coca-Cola Bottle.....

First taste in space....

The pause that refreshes.......

Old delivery truck....

Huge bear collection......

Bear House.....

There were SO many bears....just to show a few.....

Little bears....Big bears.....

I loved the story on how the Teddy Bear came to be....named after Teddy Roosevelt, after he would not kill a bear that had been rounded up by his hunting party and tied up. This "heroic" sportsmanship was known as "Teddy's Bear". Soon after a small brown bear was sewn and released as the Teddy Bear. Trivia, Trivia, Trivia.....I can't get enough!!

Wishing Darlene had been with us to see the beautiful quilt collection. Again, there were many more, but I would be posting forever if I included all of them.

The displays change throughout the year, we viewed a Cuban display....

Chinese......

Beautiful Decorative Arts.....this stained glass was one of my favorite!!!

There were many beautiful pieces of artwork but we were not allowed to photograph any of them. They had a huge collection of paintings of Florida 1865-1965 from the collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown. Magnificent landscapes capturing the Florida I have come to love!!

Later in the afternoon we went into the Planetarium to view a laser light show and visited the Children's Museum. We would love to take the grand kids there some time....what a fun place!

Emma would not have left the harp, which was played with a laser.......It was so funny to watch the kids playing with no strings......

Gene creating pedal power.....notice how that wheel are spinning. Guess he will be showing us up at the gym!!

And Salt demonstrates the "hardest" pulley weight pull. I'm so glad none of us have decided to grow up yet.....

And to finish out the evening......Ruth, Salt and I powdered our faces/clothes with powdered sugar and tried to convince Susie we had the Beignets without her.....nope, not growing up today!!

Tonight we joined the Starchers and the Rowes for dinner at Chilis. Tomorrow the gang has reservations at Stavros for dinner and then off to the dance at the clubhouse.

The evenin breeze'll start the trees to crying....

One of the many things I love about our little winter "hideaway" is the fact that you can go out for an ice cream cone and find a little jazz fest in an alley tavern, right next door. They were SO good!! Every day is a new experience.....



Today was a boys day out....off to the big tool sale. Boys' day out= girls' day out!! We got together for a movie (Julia and Julia) and a lot of laughs!

Tomorrow off for some after Christmas bargain hunting.

And so this is Christmas....

It certainly wasn't my best Christmas.....I spent two days sleeping, trying to kick a bug!! We planned a Christmas Eve "open house" and about an hour before everyone was supposed to show up, I got very dizzy (don't go there!) and ended up not even attending. Fortunately all the food was prepared, and Salt took over and served and played host. Sorry to all our friends who I missed.

The worst part is that no one took pictures, so I have no idea if it was fun or not? I told Salt if I were not in charge of the camera, we would never remember what we did!!

I never made it to Doug and Darlene's for Christmas dinner the next day either....I did, however, drag myself for dessert and a bonfire at the Starcher's, Christmas night.

The kids and grand kids,had a great Christmas and everyone was healthy, and happy with what Santa brought!!

Here is Emma singing at the church service on Grindstone.


After all the presents were opened, she and dad cuddled up for a little DS1....

Loving the new jacket Pop and Grandma sent her.........

To say she was excited when she saw the IPOD touch Santa brought, would be an understatement......

Christmas night....Darlene is such a sweetheart...she almost has Salt convinced she is ACTUALLY interested in all those tools that are on sale!!

Here is Ruth wrapped in her blanket.....yep, we are all big wimps now that we have moved to Florida. When it goes below 60 we bundle up!!

Bob filling his plate with all the goodies.....

Sam and Norma, Bill and Karen, Blanche....next party you can all star in the pictures when I am there with the camera!!

Ahh, scrub your floors....do your chores....

I think today was the first day in months that I did not take a picture. I stayed home and caught up on MAJOR cleaning (thanks for the help Salt!), laundry, bookwork and finished the last of the Christmas shopping/wrapping. I also made a big pot of chicken vegetable soup for tomorrow.

Pretty boring day after all the activity of the last few months....it did however, seem good to get caught up and ready for the busy two weeks coming up with all the holiday festivities.

We played Bingo tonight for the first time in a month. Salt and I both won a game which more than paid for our entry fees!! It was fun to be back with all our friends here at the resort. Our "Bingo Buddies" are a hoot.

Tomorrow we are going out to do the Christmas grocery shopping and then tomorrow evening we will be joining the gang for dinner and a visit to the Villages to check out the Christmas lights and a 50' and 60's rock band playing in the square.

How 'bout them cowgirls...Boys, aint they something....

So, the one thing Emma wanted from Texas, was "real" cowgirl boots. She called tonight to let me know she got them.....BOY was she excited! Pop and I love when we can make the grandchildren happy. Rachael will be getting her box of goodies sometime this week.

Salt and I had the most relaxing day today....a perfect Sunday. It is the first day in a month we have not been on the go...fresh pot of Starbucks', Sunday paper and the fireplace on. It has been very cold here. I am NOT complaining however, because I know my family and friends are back in NY shoveling snow. Mike and Robin had some, but Mike said tonight it was all melted.

We took a quick trip to finish our Christmas shopping (I think this may be the 4th time I have FINISHED it).

Oh the weather outside is frightening.....

After dinner at Friendly's...(yeah, the Sr Early Bird Special)....we bundled up and went to Eustis to watch the boat parade. I know I shouldn't be complaining when people are stuck on highways because of the blizzard of 09 but I really DO NOT like cold weather anymore!!!!!

The parade was very nice....after checking out the chop on the lake we were not sure they would not cancel....they did not however, and there were a lot of "rocking" pontoon boats.

We love this little town environment we have picked for our retirement home. These kids were entertaining before the parade and were just so darn cute!!!

The park (actually the entire downtown) was lit up and beautiful!!

Some of the boats......

The wind was blowing so hard this tree was just a bobbing....stayed on the entire parade though.

How cute is this boat carrying Santa?????

And my personal favorite was from the restaurant "Gator Joe's"....who sponsor the event. They also happen to be one of our favorite eating establishments....not necessarily the best food in the area, but good food and great ambiance.

Our little outside (live) Christmas tree.

We have lots of decorations out this year...even though we are late decorating. This palm tree definitely needs more lights and some re-arranging. Salt put them on during the day and it was much too difficult to determine where to string them. Mrs. Claus will take care of that today!!

After checking out the price of fresh flower arrangements, I decided to make my own....