Christmas Eve 2009

29 Dec 09--Hi everyone! It's been almost a week since my last post. Been sick as a dog, especially Friday, Saturday and Sunday when I couldn't even speak my throat was so constricted. Back on the mend now, still a bit congested, but back in the saddle as the cliche goes!

Went to Cathy's sister's (Brenda) house on Christmas Eve, where her family traditionally gets together to give each other their gifts.

Cathy's sister Debbie and her niece Sage, from Tampa, drove up for a few days so they were able to join us. I haven't seen Sage since she was about 12, so she is quite grown up now.

Sage and Chelsey both are total camera hogs! Always ready with a pose, you never catch them off guard! haha

This is Chelsey dragging Brenda outside to see her new grill that everyone pitched in to get her as a combo birthday/Christmas gift. Chelsey made her close her eyes so Brenda is dragging along. The grill is actually in the back of my car, so you can't see it...we took a family photo instead!

After everyone came inside, we had all the ladies pick out some sunglasses for themselves...always a good time doing that!

The rest of the night we sat around talking, playing the Wii games, or taking pictures of everyone posing.

I wanted to show everyone the Kindle I got for Christmas...one of the best...no, probably THE BEST gift I ever got. Reading different newspapers all the time, and not having ready access to my Time, Newsweek magazines, etc., has been a negative while on the road, so having the Kindle has been great. I got the Kindle DX because I read that was the better one if you wanted to read newspapers and magazines along with books, and I would say I am already used to it. Nothing will ever beat having a physical newspaper in your hands, but this is a good second. The last few days I have been reading the Washington Post, and once we leave here I will sign up for both Newsweek and Time magazines. I used to get Money magazine also, but that is not an option yet on the Kindle, so I will have to wait.

Downtown Disney--The Last Hurrah!

23 Dec 09--Last night was our last night in the Orlando area, so we went to "Downtown Disney", a free-to-meander-along about a mile section of properties seemingly designed to get that last nickel out of your pocket that you didn't spend at the other venues. haha By the way, I am typing this and uploading the pictures as we are driving along the highway back to Tallahassee...how "high tech", huh?!

Downtown Disney is along the lines of a boardwalk, with lots of restaurants, specialty shops, arcade halls and shows you can attend for a fee. Just being out in the crowds people watching is fun for me, and of course we had to eat, and then there was plenty of free entertainment also out in the street that was fun to watch.

Don't the bows make all the difference in the mouse ears?!

There were lots of restaurants and cafes to choose from, with most of them having longs lines, especially if you didn't have a reservation. We chose the Rainforest Cafe because it had no line for a party of 2 and also because there was one in San Antonio that we had never gone to, so we thought we would try it. That and the T-REX restaurant have fun interiors, especially for kids. T-REX was actually better, but we didn't want to spend time in line.

Here are some indoor shots of T-REX and the Rainforest Cafe...I think the T-REX was the better of the two, but I really liked all the fish tanks in the Rainforest Cafe.

T-REX

And the Rainforest Cafe

And fish in the Rainforest Cafe tanks. I have always liked fish tanks. We had one for years in Montana and then again in Texas, but they were fresh water tanks...the really nice ones are the salt water tanks!

Here is some of the street entertainment...one is a guy leading lots of kids in a dance,

and another guy is leading both adults and kids in a dance. It's funny how many adults will get out there once they get the first volunteer to go up.

They also had an outdoor Lego site where lots of people were working on building Lego stuff. Look at some of the stuff the Disney people made with the Legos. And I thought I was a creative kid! I guess the delusions started early. (Those dogs, the girl and the camera person are all made of legos.)

We could have taken a ride on this balloon, but I thought we would wait till we go to the hot air balloon festival in New Mexico next October to try it. (Sounded like a good excuse at the time.)

So, we had a great time in Orlando, and have come to the conclusion that ol' Walt Disney knew 2 things: First, how to put on a good show, and secondly, how to make a boatload of money!!! Touche! to Walt!

Merry Christmas everyone!