Happy New Year's Eve 2015

Here we are in the final countdown hours!  We sincerely hope all of you have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve.  We will probably do what we have done for several New Year's Eves lately, go out to eat and come home, early.  We usually stay in where it's safe.  They have a party going on here in the clubhouse tonight.  But we won't be going.  We have heard Mr. Johnny Irish sing and it is not pleasant.  (Sorry, dude.)  But hey, last night we drove over to the Nauti Parrot, again, and listened to some old Motown.  Yeah!  It was nice!  I guess you can tell we like to go where there's good live music.  Also, most places we go to eat are on some body of water in an open air restaurant. 

So how has your year been?  We can't complain.  The Lord has richly blessed us.  We are healthy, other than needing to lose some weight, which we are working on.  We have great daughters and sons in law and grandchildren.  We are very proud of them. 

We have learned this past year that it doesn't take very much "stuff" to be happy. 
We don't have to have satellite/cable tv to be happy.  We love to read so we don't watch tv very much.
We have great friends to do things with once in a while, but we also enjoy being just the two of us. 
We are not needy people--always needing to go somewhere, be with someone, buy something.  Okay, I just told a big lie right then.  We are always going somewhere, we are with friends a lot, and we are seriously thinking of selling our toy hauler with the truck and purchasing a motor home. 
But in my defense, we do not NEED these things, we just want them--really, really bad. 
Of course, there are also some things I would have changed about this past year.  You too? 
But as Taylor Swift says:

That's right, shake it off.  If there's stuff that happened in 2015 you wish didn't, just shake it off.  Tomorrow is a new year.  Start fresh. 

And as Elsa (Frozen Princess) says:

Turn your back on 2015 and let it go.  Start anew.  Do things differently this year.  Whatever it is you want to change about YOU , change it.  Be a new person. 

I have some changes I want to make in my life and I've already started this week.  As far as 2015 and the things I would have changed if I could go back in time, I'm going to shake it off and let it go and try to be a different person throughout 2016. 

Today is our anniversary.  So this evening, we are going to try an Italian restaurant just a little ways down the road and come back home where we're safe from the drunk partiers.

I have cleaned house today and Mike has made some needed repairs and we are good to go. 

So let all the garbage from 2015 go--shake it off.  2016 is going to be a year for new beginnings.

To Good Friends

I would like to say thanks to our friends, Stan and Sherry and Donny and Pat for sharing their children with Mike and me these past few years.  Yesterday, Kevin and Rachel, who have been vacationing down in Key West, came by Sun and Shade to visit with Mike and me on their way back north.  I hope you guys don't mind me using your pictures.  Great pictures, by the way. 

Sherry and Pat, you have two great kids here.  Of course, you know that already. 

We all piled in the big truck and drove downtown Punta Gorda and ate dinner at Hurricane Charlies on the water.  It was nice.  Then we walked around a while and came home, where they left for parts unknown.  Well, unknown to all of us but they'll know where they're going when they get there.  Take your time, Kev and Rach, getting home and have a ball exploring all you can explore.

Part of our walk.  I took this picture last night. 

Well, guys, I'm going to blog every few days from here on out, unless something truly amazing happens to tell about.  I know you could care less about our daily routine which doesn't change much since we are parked in the same spot for the winter.  It would be more exciting if we were moving around more, maybe.  We may do that next year.  Of course, each winter is a learning experience.  This is our first time to settle in one spot for four months.  We absolutely love this area but may enjoy travelling around to different cities in the future.  Who knows?  We would definitely have more to tell about as far as where is a good place to stay and where to keep away from.  We aren't overly picky but some places are just better than others. 

For instance, Sun and Shade has its good qualities and its not so good qualities.  After being here a while, we have been able to see that it's turning into more of a trailer park than an rv park.  It is not the 55plus rv park we thought it was if that's what you're looking for.  (It was what we were looking for.)  There are a lot of young working class people living here full time with children.  Not exactly what we were looking for in an rv park.  No one bothers you here.  That's good.  We have a good site.  This is a swamp, not good.  They have a nice laundry room and showers for those who would rather shower in a shower house.  We use our rv.  They have a nice club house with activities scheduled throughout the month.  The cost isn't too bad but we were told by the office when we checked in that next winter, the cost is going up.  (Somehow they have to make up for all the lost business this year because it's a swamp and campers can't pull their campers in half the park.)  Okay, that was ugly on my part, but in my defense, I haven't slept six hours in the past three nights because this swamp has my sinuses so blocked that when I lay my head down to sleep at night, I CAN'T BREATHE!!!!!!!!!!    Okay, I'm calm now.  Sorry for that little outburst.  I'm tired. 

Where was I?  Oh yeah,

On the Twenty-Fifth Day of Christmas

 

We went with some of our friends at Okeechobee to Stuart Beach.  Someone had put up a Christmas tree on the beach, so we stopped to get our picture made.

 

 

It was in the 80's and the water was beautiful with the waves.  There was a good breeze blowing.  There were even surfers.  Lots of people were at the beach and lots of people were fishing.  We walked for miles at the water's edge until we had to turn around because of the large rocks shown here. 

What a great way to spend Christmas. 

On the Twenty-Fourth Day of Christmas

We drove to Okeechobee and walked around to see all the Christmas lights at the Big "O" RV park.  They were very nice.

This is a big possibility for next winter's stay. 

 

This is a very nice park.  One of the nicest in all of Okeechobee. 

 

 

On the Twenty-Third Day of Christmas

We went to hear our fellow camper sing at the Nauti Parrott Bar and Grill.  Peter lives across the street from us and he was GREAT!  He sings there every Wednesday.  There were several of us from Sun and Shade who went to hear him sing and support him. 

 

It was open air restaurant on the water in Ft. Myers.  The food was good.  I had conch fritters and Mike had a ribeye steak sandwich and we were both pleased.  Mike said is was the best ribeye steak sandwich he had ever had.  The music was great.  The service was also great and the prices were reasonable.  We would definitely return.

Well, it's the day before Christmas eve. 

Hope you all have a wonderful, beautiful, very good Christmas Eve tomorrow and Christmas Day Friday. 

Love you guys!

On the Twenty-Second Day of Christmas

Mike washed the truck and the nose of the camper.  We are clean again.  We had dinner with a new couple retired from the Air Force.  Nice people.  We ate at the clubhouse.  They serve dinner every Tuesday night for $5.00 a person.  Can't beat that. 

One of our favorite places to stop, sit and enjoy the water during our walk.  This is downtown Punta Gorda.  We can also take our bicycles over there and ride all around the waters edge. 

Part of our walking path.

Christmas Boat Parade in Punta Gorda

On the Twentieth and Twenthy-First Days of Christmas

Sunday, Mike took care of me.  I had a migraine so I lost the entire day.  I stayed in all day and spent about half of the day in the bed.  I'll never understand how my head can have so much pain in it without killing me.  Thank the Lord, it doesn't kill me.  There were times I wondered if it would. 

 

Yep, this was me.  I was miserable. 

 

Today, however, I awoke much better.  My sinuses are so blocked that by this afternoon, I'm sporting another headache.  But while we were feeling good, we took off to check out other rv parks.  Then we went to Punta Gorda on the water and had lunch.

 

We went to Hurricane Charlies for lunch.  It was very good and this was our view.  We were sitting on a deck next to the water.   I want to go back and try some of their sushi.  It sounded really good on the menu.  We didn't try it today. 

I'm sure these daily blogs are boring because we do the same thing most days so after Christmas, I will be cutting back maybe once a week or every few days but not every day.  But for now . . .

We're gonna' chill.

On the Nineteenth Day of Christmas

We visited with Malorie, Ben and Ethan.  AWWWW!  He's so cute.  Ben and Malorie made a big pot of chili for lunch (delicious) and we had pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.  Then we all took a good long walk to the park and watched Ethan kick around a ball. 

It was a little cool today but that's okay.  It was in the upper 60's or low 70's.  Not too shabby. 

 

It was a very nice day. 

 

Ethan playing with his new learning toy. 

 

On the Eighteenth Day of Christmas

It's raining again!!!!!!!!  Oh no!!!!  We haven't dried out from the last one yet. 

This could be us before the day if over.

So our neighbors lent us some movies to watch.  The first one we put in was some kind of thriller.  We were both sitting here, "I can't watch this.  I can't look."  It was pretty gruesome.  We don't do well with slasher type stuff.

We've had several text conversations with friends today.  That was fun. 

We are stuck inside today so I guess we'll put in another movie. 

Well, that would make me feel better, anyway.  Wish I had a light saber. 

Well, all, it's that time of day . . .

See you later. 

On the Seventeenth Day of Christmas

We went to the pool.  That's right, swimming the week before Christmas!  How cool is that.  It was hot down here.  But this weekend is getting a little cooler, or so the weather says. 

Yeah, don't hate us because we're warm and tan.

Yeah, it's rough down here.  So much sand!  But hey, you know what they say . . .

 

We are just obeying the law. 

 

 

On the Sixteenth Day of Christmas

We mailed all our Christmas packages and cards to our kids and grandkids. 

 

Because Santa is down here.  So we mailed Christmas to our family. 

 

Down here, they have Christmas boat parades.

 

Pretty cool!

This is what you go through down here to mail stuff out at Christmas.  Next year kids, look for it in November.

 

 

 

On the Fifthteenth Day of Christmas

We actually did our Christmas shopping for the three youngest grandchildren. 

It was fun and it took us the entire day to do. 

Tonight, we went to the club house for their weekly "bear paws and barbecue" dinner.  Tonight, we had barbecue and sat at a table of people we had not met so far.  It was fun meeting new people.  There were seven people at our table and we sat there for a couple hours just talking. 

 

Well, it's late and you know what that means . . .

That's right, we're getting grandbaby gifts ready for mailing.