Greetings y'all from Sharon and Derek in sunny Florida! I was great to see them in their own home adjusting so well to married life.
Dad and I are so glad that we went there, to see them in their day to day living, to experience their "church" and actually see the things and places that we hear them talk about was very important to us. We met Dutch, he gave us a wet, (slobbery) welcome to his home, dad and I got to walk/run him several times each day. He is a very sweet, loving, and well mannered young dog.
We all went to Mobile AL for one night and day and toured the historic area, an old fort, then went on to Bellingraf Gardens and Home for an afternoon and evening. They had over 3 million Christmas lights still up for the season. We all walked the entire 65 acres, the weather was warm and romantic, there was soft Christmas music playing over the entire area. We have never seen a Christmas light display of that magnitude, it was truly a delight for all of us. Bellingraf Gardens is world renowned, quite similar to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada.
On Sunday after church we traveled 1 1/2 hours to Florala, AL, where Derek's parents grew up and his grandmother still lives, we spent an evening there with Derek's family, eating, playing poker, just having alot of fun. There was also a tremendous rain/thunder/lighting storm that lasted 5 hours, we've never seen anything like it before. Dad and I went armadillo hunting there too, dad shot one, he was soooo excited! We spent one afternoon on Penscola Beach with the white sand, we stopped for Mai Thai refreshment while there. We were surprised at how much hurricane damage is still visible over one year after hurricane Ivan struck. Thanks Sharon and Derek for giving us the royal treatment while in Florida!
All was well when we arrived home again, Jo ran the dairy and employees very competently, she is not timid about handling 10 employees. Dad is so glad that she is interested in and working on the dairy. There is much work to catch up on here at home and business, life continued here while we were away relaxing.
Papa will be celebrating his 80th birthday on January 20th! We are having a party for him that night at the Garden Cafe, Shari is coming from MI, and Jennifer Prieto from CO. All of you are welcome to come and help him celebrate this milestone in his life. He still works full time and is a very amazing man!
Last night we watched Bret Vriesman play basketball, we sat with lots of others from our church there at the high school. When we got home Jo brought her young singles group over to play big kahuna, dad and I joined them, dad got to be the "Big Kahuna" once, I was a sewer sucker..........
Monday night Julia is having her youth group here for dinner and a meeting.
Julia got most of the Christmas deco taken down while I was gone, so things are getting back to normal again here. I will have her post some of our photos from our vacation later today.
I love y'all Lots and Lots! ~mom~
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