Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Friday:)  Yes, Friday.  Backtracking....when our little girls came, I will admit that it was a letdown for me that it was usually very difficult to spend holidays with all of their grandparents, together.  J is from one state, I am from a different state...and both sets of parents ditch those states for the winter anyway!  But the good news is, they ditch it for Florida!  And guess what, we are now only two hours from the border of Florida, so my wishes came true---now we are able to spend every holiday with all the grandparents---my mom hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas, and J's dad and R host Easter (they live two hours from my parents).  Anyway, it's just under a five hour drive from our house to my parents'...so rather than leave on Wednesday night after he gets home from work, we opted to leave Thursday, well, around noon (you know, after sleeping in, packing, loading the car, running a couple of errands, hot breakfast, cleaning up, playing with friends...ok, I think it's really cool (having come from so far north in Wisconsin that we can now say, ok, let's run down to Florida now; and it is no longer a major ordeal!)  

 

 So, we of course had dinner with my parents, J's dad and R, and close family friends who go back and forth between WI and Florida as well.  As a side note, the actual Thanksgiving meal served ON Thanksgiving day was: brats, sauerkraut, veggie pizza and water melon:)  Friday was of course a different story---oh and there was dessert, lots and lots of dessert!

Another favorite pastime in Florida, we picked Meyer Lemons...

And oranges....

LOTS AND LOTS of lemons and oranges; I am unable to distinguish them with absolute certainty:O

And of course we did some sledding, you know, because we were in Florida...and that's what Floridians do, after picking lemons and oranges.

In skorts and flipflops, of course.

 At the town's tree-lighting ceremony we had a blast: carolers, crafts, musicians, dancers, food, rides, ponies, stilt walkers, sledding, etc etc---oh and I was talking to a couple of guys who had been playing Christmas Dixie (joking with them that they were lacking a clarinet, and they said they really were, the guy has never shown...and they offered me a spot:)  anyway---turns out the tuba player's son is an economics professor at Atlantic Armstrong State University in Savannah, home of the Savannah Winds---the only group in the area...I've been going back and forth on joining because they are such a serious group---guess what...that was the straw that broke the camel's back...it's time...so I contacted the conductor and will join the group in January!!  No more whining or bandless dreams:)

 We decided to head out on Saturday so we could go home and deck the halls.  Since it was only a five hour drive and it was only Saturday, we decided to go visit Amelia Island, via a very beautiful scenic route...the infamous Highway A1A...but on the way we decided to take the route to take us on the Ferry across the St. John's River...it took awhile...a long long while (because somehow, north of St. Augustine, we lost Highway A1A, found ourselves somehow no longer on it:O)  and after ALL those hours in the car, we owed the girls a ferry ride...so, we found the ferry, after some backtracking....and enjoyed ourselves a THREE MINUTE FERRY RIDE!  

We never made it to Amelia Island:/

BUT, there were pelians, LOTS AND LOTS of pelicans!!!

(and on the ferry,  we were within two feet of the pelicans...guess what---THEY STINK!)