4 Days of Christmas

Skruffy scored with a new blanket from her Aunt and Uncle back in Sacramento.  Bubba, well he got a bunch of treats…but the diabetic old baby got babied with this nice fleece blanket.  She knew it was “hers” very quickly.  Can’t wait until Bubba comes over for a visit and finds that “she” has her own blanket now.  Bubba’s blanket is ten years old, falling apart, and he loves it to death…along with his backup beach towel that we use with his blanket.  Glad the post office came through and got our package to us in time for Christmas…and yes, there was a little something for Marcia and I too...and we sure appreciate that!  We sent another Arkansas Petit Jean Spiral-Sliced Smoked Ham for the family dinner at Arny and Sandy’s house.  We hope to be there for Christmas next year to enjoy one ourselves with them!  On Christmas Eve we did head to Brooksville for the Theodore Christmas Eve gathering, and then came home and watched our church service over the Internet.

   

Around 11 am Christmas Day we decided to go for a bit of a drive, going over to see Marcia’s son John first..  Next stop, the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs to see what was open.  Most shops were closed, a few were open, and two restaurants looked to be a bit busy.  It is nice that they decorate many of the sponge boats, and have the large Christmas Tree near the Fisherman’s  memorial.

    

Then we scooted over to the Dog Park, which is not far from the Docks, where at first Skruffy was all alone…

Then Max arrive, and they had fun playing together.  Of course, Max can run twice as fast as Skruffy, but she is much faster this year than last now that she has shed a few pounds…Diabetes and Pancreatitis does that to you…and we have been good about keeping her weight down.

Then these two larger dogs came…one of which should have been in the large dog area (the other side of that distance fence…it was empty), and the other could go into either.  Well, these two just surrounded Skruffy, but she held her own.  The larger one got into a small squabble with Max, and we decided to leave.

Not sure if Skruffy is saying good bye…or telling that large dog to go to the other dog pen…either way, I knew it was time to leave, even though another small dog was arriving.

Next we traveled back over to Crystal Beach, where there were only a handful of people, and a great skyline for taking pictures.

     

Nice calm water, cloudy sky, some birds…yep, it was a nice day at Crystal Beach.

      

Always birds at Crystal Beach...at a wonderful Christmas Day high of 78 degrees, around 74 degrees while we were out.

     

Such a quiet, relaxing place.  We stayed for less than a half hour, enjoyed the view, and then we headed over to the local mountains.

You didn’t know there were local mountains near us in Tarpon Springs, now did you?  Bet you did not know that there were huge dinosaur looking creatures there too…like this one in the middle of the picture (above).

Ok, so it is just those rocks in the middle of this picture…but when I saw it through the camera as Marcia was taking pictures it looked like a mountain…so I had her take a few close up pictures.  It wasn’t until we got home and on the computer that I saw the little Gecko there on the rocks.

After our drive we got home, got the roast into the oven, and rested until it was ready 3 1/2 hours later.  (240 degrees, slow cooked).  We also had some shrimp (which is also what we took up to Brooksville the day before).  I cleaned the shrimp tails, and Marcia lays them out on top of sliced lemons, melted butter, sprinkled with select seasonings, and cooked for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, pull out and cover for 5-10 minutes. Yummy!  

Monday we had a relaxing day at home, except for when I went over to the RV for its Monday morning start up and battery recharge.  On the way there, my sister sent me a text to say that mom had fallen around 5:30 am Pacific time, and they were in the Emergency Room…but four hours later she was headed home to the assisted living place with no broken bones, and little memory of the fall. 

Today (Tuesday) we had lunch with Cousin Mary, who we see often while here in the Tarpon Springs area.  Mary is around 85 years old, lives alone, and her and Marcia are cousins.  Mary’s sister passed away a couple of weeks ago…met her sister’s son for the first time at the Theodore Annual Christmas Eve get together on Saturday.  

And with that, you now know how our four days of Christmas went this year.