Christmas in Florida was extra early this year since we're leaving soon for our Asia adventure. Connor came in town on Thursday evening, and Paige has been dying to open the gifts as soon as he was home. We forced her to wait until Saturday, but don't feel bad for her because she still got to open her gifts twelve days early.
We purposefully tried to spend less and buy less this year with our upcoming vacation, so it was a short event today. Especially so since Connor opted for money instead of gifts.
As is tradition before any big trip, Connor is having medical issues. Over Thanksgiving we noticed his hearing was really bad. He's been struggling with a cough and cold ever since he started college, so it's possible and likely it's related to that. Andrea got him an ENT appointment and after their hearing tests, it was clear that he had an infection and needed medicine as well as tubes. It was painful for Connor, but they got tubes put in both eardrums immediately, cleared out the clogs, and he's doing better now. Hopefully there won't be any complications during our trip, and hopefully his ears will work better for him as well.
While the fossil isn't really needed until we're eventually in the house we're building, there was a holiday sale and I got the approval of Andrea and Donna (our designer), so I bought it early. It's a bit much for my little office in our rental, but I cleared a spot for it and got it mounted with the help of our handyman. It's heavy. I was a little worried we were going to drop it, and also worried the mount will come loose from the studs, but so far it's holding.
Millie Mae got her hair cut recently, and prior to our Asia trip, the rest of the family got haircuts as well. Millie went with Paige and Andrea to Julie's house to hang out while they got haircuts and to socialize with Julie's dogs.
I got my hair cut over my lunch break, and since I know Millie loves to go to Trasca, I knew she wouldn't want to miss it. The barber shop I go to is very happy to have dogs join them. I was not sure where Millie would sit while I got the haircut, but she was very content to sit in my lap, mostly under the cape. She loves to go everywhere with me. Are we ridiculous? Yes. But we love each other and we had a fun day together.
Paige's club High Schools Against Cancer had their third event at the hope lodge this past week. Andrea did a lot of planning and picked up a number of craft kits for the event so the participants could paint and decorate three different Christmas themed crafts. There was a snow globe, gingerbread house, and gingerbread man mug. Paige's friend Kendall brought a hot cocoa machine and a number of the students brought snacks.
The event started after the residents were served dinner and it was a slow start at first. I was worried that nobody would want to participate, but eventually a number of people came over and they all seemed to enjoy the Christmas music, crafts, and hanging out with the high schoolers.
We hope that we made the holiday season a little brighter and fun for the patients and their family members.
Since we're planning to travel to Asia over Christmas and New Years, we did some of our Christmas shopping early and we're also planning to be a little thrifty on gifts so we can spend our money on souvenirs instead. We gave the kids the option for some money for Christmas, or for gifts. Connor chose the money and Paige wanted gifts. We did most of our shopping online, but Andrea and I enjoyed going through the PVIC shops during their member discount event and we bought a few things. It was decorated nicely for the holiday and I snapped a pic of Andrea with some of the decorations.
Paige works independently on most things, and doesn't really need my help too much with her schoolwork, however I've had a few opportunities to work with her lately. We like to do the homework in the downstairs bedroom on the Mac laptop, and Millie keeps us company, although she is a little distracting.
Paige finished up her Chemistry online this last week and got an A overall in the class, which was certainly a challenging one.
The weather's been beautiful lately and we've enjoyed eating outside whenever we can. Recently, Millie's been joining us fairly often. I go to Trasca with her for lunch during the week, and we also like to go to the nearby Mexican restaurant Anejo which has a nice outdoor area. Millie hardly even eats much dog food some days. She's a spoiled pupper dog, but she's wonderful and deserves tasty lunches too.
This year we drove to Wild Dunes South Carolina on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to celebrate the holiday together.
We weren't sure if anyone would be joining us this year so we bought a medium sized house which would have been decent for our family of four, with the Gobles it was a little tight but it worked. The fact that there were only two bathrooms was really the only issue at times. Otherwise, it was a cozy house with a comfy couch and it was in a different area of the resort where we hadn't stayed before.
We did the morning peak performance tennis clinic on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Paige was tired on Wednesday, so she didn't do tennis, so she took a few pictures and videos for us. The tennis this year was a great level on Sunday and Tuesday when it was just our family of four in the clinic. We had some amazing points and it was awesome to see everyone playing their best. Wednesday was a bit of a disappointment. We were on a court with some fairly beginner players and it's interesting how everyone's level of tennis drops in those situations. We had some enjoyable moments, but came away a little frustrated afterwards.
The Gobles joined us on Sunday and they are always game for Pickleball. We played quite a bit with them in the evenings and they've improved dramatically since the last time we all got together. Graydon especially was playing great, and the weather was perfect for our outdoor activities. The house came with four bikes, which we used to get to pickleball, to the beach, and to just ride around the area.
We ate at Mcalister's Deli a few times as well as one of our all time favorite restaurants Page's Okra Grill.
The most special part of this trip was that Andrea found a house that allowed us to bring Millie Mae.
We were worried that Millie would be a little high maintenance, especially if we had to leave her alone at the house, but she actually came pretty much everywhere with us and she would just stay in the car when she wasn't allowed in a restaurant with us. Millie behaved very well, enjoyed plenty of treats, and got a lot of exercise and playtime with us. One afternoon, I went out to the point on the far east side of the island to hunt for shark teeth, and Millie came along with the kids for the adventure.
It was great to have a lot of time with Connor. He's been away at college, and has been super busy with his frat and with his schoolwork. It's been so nice having him around, and he even mentioned to Andrea that as he's gotten older he appreciates our family time at places like Wild Dunes over the years. We're happy that he enjoys it with us, and thankful that Andrea was able to get us all together again this year.
Paige was in a great mood for the trip, was a good friend with the Goble boys, and she played her guitar and sang for us. I think she had fun, and she always brings a lot of silliness and humor to our gatherings. Paige was the one this year that started off the "What's everyone thankful for this year" discussion during our Thanksgiving meal. Paige also had a nice surprise to find that one of her friends from camp, Evie, lived very close to where we were staying. They met for lunch together one afternoon and had a nice time catching up.
Since we aren't planning to see the Gobles over Christmas, Andrea brought their Christmas gifts early for them. Graydon's gotten taller and grown up a lot since he moved back to Kansas City.
Griffin's gotten much more independent and he used the potty on his own a few times. He is chill at meal times and I enjoyed watching him carefully eat his lunch at Page's Okra Grill. He got the ketchup bottle and squeezed himself a nice amount for his chicken, and his outfit was spotless afterwards. He's such a big boy.
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we slept in instead of doing tennis, and we all went to watch the Thanksgiving Parade. The floats were creative and different than years past, and we ended up with a couple balloons and big bag of candy.
Our Thanksgiving "dinner" was at noon, so more of a lunch, which we think is the best way to do it. Most of us got the turkey, and although it was different than a couple of years ago, it was still tasty.
We wrapped up our stay on Friday with one last visit to McAlister's Deli and then we bid South Carolina and Gobles a fond farewell before heading home. Happy Thanksgiving!
Paige and her club High Schools Against Cancer hosted a trivia night at the Hope Lodge on Tuesday the 18th of November. Andrea helped to find some good trivia questions as well as some fun take-home activities for our guests. Paige pulled questions in to a Powerpoint style presentation and she did a great job introducing the club and starting off the trivia.
There were three rounds of 10 questions each, and Andrea picked up some tasty prizes for the winners. We also brought in a three pumpkin pies for the event and expected that it would be too much, but it turned out to be a perfect amount. There were no leftovers and everyone loved the pies.
It seemed like everyone enjoyed the trivia night, and Paige's classmates were warm and personable as always. We're proud of them for the work they're doing and hope that we brought some happiness and fun to the patients this holiday season.
