Christmas 2018

So I danced at the hospital's Lights of Love with some volunteers before Christmas vacation....

And then we flew to Vail for some skiing with the boys and Drew's girlfriend, Camille. My ski boots did not fare so well...being apparently dragged behind the plane on takeoff and landing.

And my longjohns were in the same bag, sadly.

While in Vail, I succumbed to a hawker selling youth, and can you tell which eye she spent 30 minutes rubbing serum into? Camille guessed the wrong eye. I did not buy the serum (but found it later on Amazon and bought one for me and one for my MIL - teehee!).

Here we are in the gondola....

And the boys on the street....

And all of us after a snowmobile ride - lots of fun!

Now back home for actual Christmas. This was a crazy moon at the beach... not a Harvest moon, maybe a Blue Moon? That's not it....I don't remember.

So everybody came to the beach, thus the Foosball games began. Joe remains the reigning champion.

I hate waking up early but sometimes it has its rewards.

This made me think God just woke up behind that condo.

That water was like a mirror - so cool.

Later Tracey stitched while Jake guarded.

And the weather was nice so we decided something different than the usual Christmas activities was called for.

So we went to OWA!!!! Of course the boys had to try out the kiddie rides just to be funny.









And if you're doing Owa for Christmas, why not the Florabama!!! Bushwackers for Christmas!

They encourage graffiti, so when I saw these cigarettes sitting on the table, I had to leave something for my Dad (who died of lung cancer back in 2000 at the age of 58, so of course that made me cry a little).

And I think my neice sat on my brother's shoulders to write all our names on the banner.

So aside from that bit of sadness, 2018 ended up being a great Christmas all around - look at these happy cousins.


Postscript: I don't remember if this was Tracey hydrating me after Owa or after the Bushwackers...

And I finished the green socks that were started in Belize!

25th Anniversary in Belize (2018 catchup)

But first, the boys made a homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving dessert and that was nice.



And we ate on my grandmother's antique china - also very nice.

I finished this sweater just in time, which is a cool pattern where you knit whatever gauge you do and then find the appropriate directions, complete with various sleeves and borders. Little bit see-through.

And then it was off to Belize! This was our 2nd trip, but the first time we took Lucas for Spring Break and stayed on the mainland. This time we jumped on another tiny plane and headed to Ambergris Cay and the city of San Pedro - Madonna sang about it in La Isla Bonita.

This is my view from the balcony, and that's the sock I brought to work on. I should mention at this point that when flying within Belize, you may not have knitting needles or tiny scissors of any sort, and so my precious scissors gifted me by Becky were confiscated because I was doing Alabama Chanin sewing on the plane but the knitting was in checked baggage. (Moment of silence please for the sharpest scissors I ever had.)

Belize is the easiest Central American country in which to vacation (in my humble opinion) because it is 2.5 hours from Houston, the official language is English, it's on Central Standard Time, and they use the American dollar, plus the Belizean dollar is twice the American - no complicated arithmetic! This was new construction being held up by trees, apparently, until more rebar presents itself. Interesting.

Pause for beauty:



Haha - that's the dessert the resort (Victoria House - fabulous) sent to our room after dinner - total surprise!





And this isn't beautiful, but there aren't many cars on San Pedro because it's so tiny, so everybody drives a golf cart - precious!

This was some wildlife that ventured into the open-air restaurant.

This is a Cuban and fish tacos from the coolest joint in North San Pedro called Truckstop. It's a bunch of container trucks that all serve different kinds of food and have live entertainment. We took the boys back there for this Thanksgiving - more on that later - and they had a Family Feud game with families from the audience that was hilarious.

This is behind the containers where they have a huge space with Cornhole games, ping-pong, giant Jenga, and they put up a movie screen behind this pool for movie nights...that you can watch from the pool - what?!

Dean knew about "Chicken Drop" which is on select nights at a local bar, and for $1 you can pick a number and if the chicken poops on it, you win $100. Very touristy.

We did take a fishing trip and I caught a bonefish, which you don't eat, apparently, because it's full of bones, but it's sure pretty to look at before you throw it back. And if you wonder why I'm so buttoned up, this was a half-day fishing trip with no roof or shade whatsoever - I was NOT going to burn in Belize!

And this was in the iconic bar at the airport heading back home where the owner is a little old short guy (think the Oompa Loompa from Johnny Depp's version, and I mean absolutely no disrespect, but he's quite something) who's kind of hard to understand but does all kinds of tricks like yanking your napkin out from under your drink, etc. He's not in the picture but Dean couldn't resist the mooner next to me. We were figuring out how to AirDrop pics to each other on our phones when a chick in the bar yells out, "I got your pictures, Dean!" Good times...

Fall 2018 Update - Groove

Okay, so the coolest thing I did in 2018/2019 was get my Groove certification! I've been watching Body Groove videos by Misti Tripoli on YouTube ever since my sister showed them to me, and when they said they had training classes to lead Grooves with kids and families, I realized that my calling is to dance with my patients and inspire kids to get moving, and this will fit the bill much better than the Dr. Fun dance channel, so I pulled that big ole trigger. I also invited my sister to keep me company in San Diego, where the training was.

Just a shot of Atlanta's underground jungle - there are fake birds flying overhead and fake rain - so cool.

So we arrived Thursday afternoon, had some drinks to get ready for 1.5 hours of dancing with complete strangers, and headed to the resort where the Community Groove was. It was a packed house and definitely culture shock, but kind of liberating. After that, Tracey had to sit in the lobby another hour and wait for me to finish the first official class.

Our room looked over a lagoon with cool fog every morning, and Tracey stitched and read while I was in classes for 19 hours over the weekend.

This was the epitome of training - putting in your earbuds, firing up your playlist, and grooving around the resort in public - yikes! We got lots of weird looks but had so much fun.

After that I had to do 6 practice classes with at least 5 participants each and send one in for evaluation and certification. This entailed lots of research into sound systems, speakers, receivers, headsets, etc. Totally out of my wheelhouse.

This is my first Groove party at the hospital, and they even had an Azalea Trail Maid come! Unfortunately, I only had 1 patient and her grandmother show up, but the 3 of us danced anyway. The second party was even more interesting, as an elderly couple showed up by themselves, and I talked the husband into dancing with us instead of sitting in the car waiting on his wife. They were completely willing to come to another class, but I broke it to them that I'm only certified for kids and their families, not adults. So I moved on from the hospital to the Crichton Boys & Girls Club, and danced with 40-50 kids over this past summer - lots of funny stories there. The sweetest was having kids run up and hug me when I walked in and one girl telling me I was her best friend. Another was having a couple of the older boys roll their eyes and yell, "Not HER again!" And there was that one escapee who ran out of the gym after the coach broke up a fight and when the coach went after him it sounded like I was in the middle of a prison riot. I'm still working on the appropriate location for future Groove parties.

Okay, this is Halloween at the office...

I made my fake fur wrap out of fleece and the black dress is the first one I ever made back in about 1996 or so. Still fit in it - booya!

This was at the American Heart Association national meeting in Chicago at the employment fair trying to hire a partner. I think I looked more like a cougar on the prowl...hmmmm.

And this was for "Couples' Weekend" in New Orleans. We bowled, so Dean went all out and found us matching bowling shirts!



And this was just a funny moment while Jake and I were watching Bruce Almighty.

More updates on the way so I can look back and remember what the heck I did all year.