Above is a picture I found on Facebook of the annual New Port Richey (town just north of where we live) Cotee River Christmas Boat Parade. If parking wasn't an issue, I think we would go one of these years...but unless you want to park around 3 pm and wait for 4-5 hours, it just isn't the thing for us to do.
Christmas in Florida is not like Christmas in other areas around our wonderful country...daytime temps are generally in the upper 60's to lower 80's. At night, it normally is around 55, give or take 10 degrees. Turn the heater on for the night, A/C on for the day. Oh, people bundle up because it is "so cold"... and I get many stares because I am in short pants, sleeveless shirt, and not cold at all. I am not alone with my attire...to each their own.
A day or two after Christmas I did face-time with my oldest child, Michael, and 3 year old Addie and 2 month old Otis. Of course, Addie is the only child who can communicate, and boy does she love to talk, move around, hide, and just enjoy herself. At this time of year I get a number of people say, "You look like Santa!" A man in his early twenties came up to me in the store and asked where his presents were. I told him that he was just a bit old to think that I was Santa...but he did not like that. I ignored him and went on with my business. Anyway, with this in mind, I asked Addie if she thought I looked like Santa. Her response, "I think you look like Grandpa!" My heart melted...
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| Picture from Google |
In Florida it is legal to light Fireworks on New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Fourth of July. They can start selling Fireworks for up to 10 days before these dates. So you know what happens....we have to deal with the Booms and the Bangs from a few days before Christmas, through New Years Day and beyond. Now this does not bother me, and Marcia only gets alarmed when a "big one" goes off nearby unexpectedly, but Indy...well, she hears them before we do, and hides under the couch. If I get up, she follows me...and when they are real bad, she leads me to the bathroom, or the kitchen, or wherever. Well, New Years Eve is very nerve wrecking for poor Indy. Thank goodness we found a solution...
Yes, we get her high on ThunderWunder. Directions call for one, but I give her two about 4 hours apart. Gave her first one around 6 pm, when just a few random fireworks were going off. Around 9:30, I gave her a second one. The time she really was afraid was about 10 minutes before midnight through 12:30 or so. In fact, she climbed up into my lap between my Kindle and my head...so much for trying to watch fireworks going off on our Blink Cameras! By 1:00 am, she settled with just an occasional look when a big one went off nearby. The last one I hears was at 3:30 am...she didn't seem to hear it at all.
All of these next groups of pictures (3 above and all the rest below) were taken in the last two weeks of December. The pictures, for the most part, tell the story that...it is still spring, summer and/or fall here along West-Central Florida.
