Christmas Past

So it's all over for another year. What was all the fuss about, eh ? All those hours of frantic shopping and stressful arguments with counter staff when the advertised goods weren't in the store. The credit cards are all max'd out and little Billy Bob won't be going to college in 10 years time after all. Well not a good one anyway. Maybe a Community College.

Was it all worth it ? It's the annual question we all ask ourselves. In the UK it's usually asked by the time Her Majesty pops up on tv mid afternoon to tell us how concerned she is about the poor in some distant part of the Commonwealth that she last visited when Philip wasn't ga-ga and a liability every time he opens his mouth, Charles still had a full head of hair, Fergie and Diana were still at the sperm stage and Pitt (The Younger) was Prime Minister.

Oh of course it was worth it. We all got the lovely pressies we'd hoped for and have receipts for the ones we didn't. We COULD wear the matching glove and scarf set from Aunt Elsie but we'll probably pass them on to Nigel, our gay friend from the Rugby Club. And when will Uncle Norm realise that cars have heaters now and we don't need those horrendous pseudo leather driving gloves with the missing fingers that he gives us EVERY Christmas. We still have the boxed ones from 1963 Norm !! Even eBay won't take them anymore.

Here in sunny Buttonwood Bay, Santa still came a calling even though chimneys are few and far between and the reindeer had a hard time negotiating the palm trees. I got loads of goodies including tickets for an airboat ride which I'm really looking forward to as gators are pretty much guaranteed. Just how close up we get to them is out of my hands but I'm taking the camera for sure.

About 350 of us had the park Christmas meal and a jolly time was had by one and all. I've not downloaded the photos so that'll have to wait for another post. In the evening we went to visit with friends for more eating and drinking so it was a long but most enjoyable day.

Things are a bit hectic here right now as Deb has decided that she just MUST hold her first grandchild and so we're leaving in a few minutes to go to Orlando where she'll fly out tomorrow morning and return to snow covered Michigan (not Mitchigan) for a few days. It was all just planned yesterday and so things have moved fast. Den will be sleeping this afternoon and so I'm going with Deb today and driving back alone with the truck so Den can have it for work tonight at 11pm.

I only mention this as it'll be my first time driving the 1 ton monster and I'm slightly nervous about it. It's 22ft long and as wide as a bus - you need a 3 lane road to do a u-turn for a start so I'd say parallel parking will be out of the question. I'm glad I'm not going to Sainsburys in it as the carnage in the car park would be up on YouTube within minutes. I'll also be returning in the dark - not making this first trip easy am I ??

If there is no post from me for a while, you'll know the trip wasn't incident free. I've 3 toll booths to get through and I could really mess things up if I miss the coin receptacle. I'm not used to flinging in my quarters from such a height. All good fun.

So I hope all my Brit readers are having a fabby Boxing Day. I wish I could watch Match Of The Day to see the highlights of the Chelsea game. It had to have been a cracker. Dropping down a couple of divisions, my lot left it till the last minute AGAIN to score what turned out to be the equaliser so it was a case of us getting a 'good' draw. Funny how the timing of the goal can turn a disappointing draw into a great draw.

Right, we're off. I need to go get the stepladder so I can get up into the 'cab' and put on my 'Tommy' platform boots so I can reach the peddles.

Wish me luck.........and have the bail bond money at the ready.