Family December Celebrations in Florida

 

We finally arrived at our Florida beach house, pictured below.

 

The house is just a few blocks from the beach located on the Gulf of Mexico.  We only had a few blocks to walk to it, and with planning John's birthday party, setting up for Christmas, we only were able to take small amounts of time to spend at the beach.

It was a wonderful party for his 80th birthday, with little over twenty in attendance.  We had a delicious Italian catered meal for the occasion.  What made it especially special was that we as a family were all together, which had not happened in a couple of years.  Mike came in from Los Angeles, Dan and Amanda from D.C., as well as Melissa, Spencer and their three children.  Also my sisters, Linda and Julia, flew in to celebrate with us.  We had not been able to see them either for a couple of years.  And yes, we all were tested for the covid virus.

On one of our walks outside I could not help but notice a flowering tree decorated for Christmas.  The sun was shining on it, which already added beauty to it, and then there were the Christmas decorations; white snowflakes on the tree and a Santa standing below it.  Christmas always seems strange in Florida.  The same can be said for the decorations in the main room of our rented house.  We kept the crepe paper bunting, for which we put up for the birthday party (strangely red and black), in place for Christmas.

Someone stuck a metal crane (lawn decoration gift) in the plant, and then the crepe paper decoration above it seemed to give a right feel for our celebrations that week!  Yes, we did have a beautiful decorated Christmas tree, but for some reason it seemed more fitting for me to take the above picture to sum up our week!  Strange but good.

A couple of days before Christmas we walked through Largo City park which was lit up with many Christmas lights and decorations- we have enjoyed doing that in past years.  As we were headed out of the park the Grinch stopped to talk to our grandchildren.  Nathan, the oldest, would have nothing to do with him because "he stole Christmas".  However, Sammy, our youngest grandchild, was totally fascinated by the strange man.

Christmas day was a big party all day.  There were many gifts to be unwrapped, especially by the grandchildren.  We had a few guests for our Christmas dinner, and then Spencer and Melissa, with their children, took leave to spend the rest of their Florida vacation with his family.  John and I, along with Mike, Dan and Amanda, walked to the beach to watch the sun go down.  It was a good ending for our Florida Christmas.