Hooray for Hollywood...That scary, balleyhooey Hollywood.....

Since I have not been able to do any decorating this year, Salt and I decided to take a trip to Disney to check out the decorations and some of the Christmas skits and shows. We both LOVE Disney, but Disney at Christmas is magic.

This is the tree at the entrance to Hollywood studios....

Love watching the little kids waiting patiently (or not) for their autographs.....

The Disney Chanel kids....

One of my all time favorite attractions Indiana Jones the stunt men (women) are great.

We have never done the American Idol experience. It was great, kind of like being there on a smaller basis.

The judges....

This was the winner out of the three contestants we saw. He was sent back to compete last evening and won that contest also. This gave him the golden ticket which entitles him a guaranteed audition at any one of the locations this year. 27 of the winners from Disney have made it to Hollywood. Last year one of the Disney contestants made it to 5th place. Oh yeah, he is the one we all voted for!!! We will be anxious to watch next year and see how far he gets.

Beauty and the Beast....be our guest, be our guest.....

In place of the usual 3:00pm parade, they had a "block party" with all the toys and lots of dancing and singing.

The Lights, Camera, Action stunt show. It was so interesting to watch all the different tricks they use in the car chases. This was one of the motorcycle stunt men who wore 6 different layers to pull off this stunt off... totally on fire.

Of course, we didn't go without our traveling buddies, Linda and Wally Medley....Here Linda and I pose with one of the toy soldiers.

Mulch, Sweat and Tears....The Redneck landscapers/band. I love all the little side acts you come upon on the street corners.

And my favorite light display.....The Osborne Dancing Lights. There are over

5 million lights, choreographed to Christmas music.

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My favorite building....

We have been telling Wally and Linda about this display since we all bought our season passes. Finally, they get it!!!

Wally thought he needed this hat.....we all knew he was grumpy without the advertisement!!

Over the River and through the woods.......

Tuesday morning we jumped out of bed and headed for Orlando (thanks for the ride, Terry) and a 3:0 flight. The first lag of the journey (to Atlanta) went without a hitch. After we boarded the flight to Syracuse, we were alerted that the luggage handlers had run into the luggage door with the loader and put a hole in the plane. After boarding another plane we were off for our trip to Grindstone.

Here we are with the van loaded, ready to head back to Florida.

Even though it was a cold visit, it was very successful and we had a great time with the family. Emma got to open her presents from Poppy and Grandma while we were there, which actually worked out well since we don't get to see her open them on Christmas.

Emma stayed with us at Possum Lodge (owned by Urch and Harry Slate). We didn't want to bother to open our house up for just a few days.

Betty had a pot of chili and corn bread ready for us when we arrived.....Yum!

She also did all the cooking and cleaning up on Thanksgiving day. What a treat that was.

I couldn't help but smile when I looked in on Emma and saw her hugging her "Pokemon" cards that Aunt Urch bought for her on the way to the airport to pick us up.

I chuckled when Betty was ready to put the Turkey on the platter. This is the platter my brother Tom gave me for Christmas when he was 12 years old. It has become a family favorite!!!

We managed to get everything packed and loaded in two days. Emma worked with me on wrapping and boxing all the small stuff. Frank helped Salt load the heavy furniture. We were on the barge and ready to leave by 4:00 on Thanksgiving day. We arrived back in Umatilla (1,300 miles) on Saturday afternoon. Salt and the boys had everything in storage by Sunday morning and now we are just waiting for the closing on the house..... :)

Burgers on the grill....I've really had my fill of burgers on the grill!!

Once again, Doug was our grill man for a great luncheon at his and Darlene's home in the Villas. Everyone (except Susie Muldoon) has arrived and the season festivities have begun!!

Gathering in the garage for a few snacks before the feed.....

Salt and I leave tomorrow morning at 3:00am for Orlando, where we will catch a 5:30am flight into Atlanta and then on to Syracuse. Urch and Emma will pick us up at the airport and after a quick grocery stop in Watertown, we will head to the island (in the rain if the forecast is correct).

The U-Haul truck will be waiting on the dock when we arrive and we will start packing on Wednesday and hopefully have it loaded by dinner on Thursday. Betty is cooking Thanksgiving dinner and then Emma will be opening her Christmas presents from me and Poppy.

I'm movin on.....

Oh my gosh....I am SO far behind in blogging (but I do have lots of excuses...) and I really need to catch up before I can't remember what we have been doing. Our winter calendar is filling up so quickly, I will never catch up if I don't get going.

We put an offer on a house in Mid Florida Lakes and it was accepted, so we will be moving in on December 15.....in time for Christmas...Yeah!! We have decided to fly back to NY for Thanksgiving and then drive a U-Haul back with some of the furniture we want down here. We have been shopping like insane people to get all our furniture we needed to purchase before we leave.

We joined a group of our friends at a Mexican Restaurant Sol de Mexico the first Friday in November when we attended the Margaritaville Street Fest in Eustis.
You are never quite sure what you may see at these fests. This guy was being wheeled around like a King.

And this store (where we have been doing a lot of shopping) is called The Peddler's Wagon. It is home to "Snickerdoodle", a female cat who usually lounges in the front window. If not in the window you can be assured she will be on the checkout counter.

Some of the street entertainment.....

Salt and I journeyed off on our own on Saturday and while shopping for a new sofa bed for the den, also attended the big craft fair at the Villages. Along with lots of good music, we also enjoyed some great Greek food.....

Salt enjoying a gyro along with some 60's music!!!

Oh yeah, and I can't forget my BLACK eye and gash above my head. I tripped over a speed bump. Of course I wasn't paying attention to where I was going; was much more interested in talking with a friend.....DUH! Everyone thought I should go to the hospital for stitches but I came home, disinfected it, put some crazy glue (new skin) and some butterfly bandages on and it is hardly noticeable!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

We all gathered in downtown Umatilla, to watch the annual Christmas parade and our friend Terry who rode on the resort's float as one of the Gingerbread men.....

The first part of the parade is always the Humane Society with some of the "adopted" pets in their holiday best.....

This was my favorite.....

And of course we all love the little baton twirlers....there was a very large group this year.

Some of the beauty queens.....

Pearl and Pat.....the M&Ms lead the Olde Mill Stream float.

And here is our little Gingerbread house with all the "sweets". The girls did a great job again this year!!!! Oh yeah, Terry is the Gingerbread boy on the right!!!

These are the Rebel Rappers...They were so cute. They stopped right in front of us and did their entire routine. They held up the entire parade, but we loved it!

Oh yeah, put a bunch of seniors on tricycles and let them go wild.....

Oh...here is Smokey the Bear and one of the park rangers. Every year I sing the childhood song we learned in school and no one else seems to know it but Smokey and the rangers love it!! "Smokey the bear, Smokey the bear, a rowling and a growling and a sniffing in the air. He can spot a fire before it stars to flame....that's why they call him Smokey, that is how he got his name.....

The Leesburg queens. Leesburg is the little town we are moving to.

A couple of teenagers get into the spirit.

Another of my favorites......

And Santa with shades....

The latest update on little Greyson and his mom (Jada) and dad (Garrett). Garrett is serving in Afghanistan and was home for a few weeks R&R.