We'll Have a Green, Green Christmas!

If  you are reading this, you found us! We are going green to see if we like it, but we also want to practice keeping up with technology so we appreciate your effort to check us out.
This Christmas 2010, Joe and I might have been singing "We'll have a blue, blue Christmas", because Conor & Meg, and Jerren & Pat will not be home to celebrate with us. Last year we were lucky that Conor and Meghan were able to get the Key West hospital to schedule us in, and on Christmas Eve we all jumped up from in front of the fireplace when a taxi arrived surprising us with Jer and Pat who flew in from CA. Wow! Now, I was one happy Mama!  This Christmas will be different, but if Thanksgiving was any indication of how much fun we will have, it will be a fun story on the blog in January (and Joe and I will not be singing the blues)!

Thanksgiving was spent at Ruth's house with all my sisters and their families and we spent the entire long weekend laughing, cooking, playing games and laughing, and laughing and laughing. It was so much fun that Christmas Eve we are all meeting in Orlando where Kim and Sloan have a membership at the Fountains. All four families of my sisters, hubbies, nieces and nephews will be in two three-bedroom condos for two nights. We have plans again for great food, games, and lots of laughter!

As many of you know, Conor and Meghan left on their adventure of sailing the world in November. I could never begin to tell you of the love and devotion that went into getting their boat the Gualby sea-world-ready. If you are interested, check out their blog, gualbynation.blogspot.com. It will fill you in on the whys, whens, wheres and hows. It is loaded with so many pictures and stories that it would be impossible to include in a paper Christmas newsletter (which launched us into creating our own blog). They left with two other sailboats, The Stray Cat and The Salty Dog: three couples and their dogs wanting the adventure of exploring the world by sailboat.

Gualby heads back in the water after months of prep work for world tour!

The crew sailing her to Key West.

Joe and Wally worked many hours helping Con and Meg with sugar scoops.

Honorary Captain Jimmy on one of the trips.  

Conor sanding sugar scoops that were added to the Gualby.

Leaving the inlet for Key West. To see more pictures, check out their blog, gualbynation.blogspot.com

Jerren and Pat 

Jerren and Pat have also been exploring. They love living on the beach in California. They have camped at every national park west of the Mississippi and have friends in every state. They have stories and pictures of bed & breakfasts at beautiful vineyards, boat adventures with whale sightings, and camping with bears and ninja mice. They have put in for an assignment at a Florida hospital in January. Rumor has it they may be ready to settle down close to us. (They were visiting us in October and did some house hunting.)

Joe and I continue to hold down the fort. Fort Pierce that is.....we love it here! While we enjoy our kids' stories and we get to visit some of the best places with them, we think we live in paradise and no matter where we travel, we love coming home. We look forward to the time when our kids return from their adventures and celebrate the holidays with us at Forever Weekend Farm.

As we always do this time of the year, we reflect on all the good times with our friends and family. We hope you find peace in the little pleasures that 2011 offers.