Four Christmases

We're back from Florida! We had a wonderful time with all of our family, and at the Gators game of course. This recap is going to be another two-parter, starting with all the family fun. In a later post I'll share the details of Game Day. Even with dividing these up, they'll probably be a couple of lengthy posts, so please bear with me!

We left our apartment in NY around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday (January 3) to head to the airport. We flew home with Achilles, which is always a bit nerve-wracking. You're never sure how he'll behave. This time we were testing out a pet travel anxiety remedy our pet store had recommended, plus some roast turkey which we discovered on Thanksgiving can put Achilles into a nice little coma. He actually did fairly well on the flight - he slept the first half of it, but then he woke up and FREAKED OUT for like 10 minutes. Barking, thrashing about, the works. But then he settled back down and slept the rest of the way. Okay, I can handle that.

When we landed in Tampa we waited forever for our luggage then took the shuttle to pick up our rental car. Then we headed to St. Pete, where we hung out at my Dad's house for a bit before making the drive up to Weeki Wachee to spend the night at my Mom's.

We got to Mom's around 5:30 or so. We got the grand tour of the new cottage Gary is building for them, which is coming along nicely. I'm very impressed! Then we had a delicious dinner (Swiss cheese chicken, mmmm), drank some wine, chatted, and the boys watched some football. Then we crashed. We were so tired!

On Sunday, Mom and Gary made a delicious breakfast. Then we all got dressed and left to go canoeing - Achilles included! We canoed on the Homasassa River and even saw manatees! It was a beautiful day and although it was quite a nice little workout, it was also very relaxing and enjoyable.

The W. family in front of the canoe place

Canoeing!

Mom and Gary

Achilles, very interested in the paddling

Mom, Achilles and me, all watching a pelican

There's a manatee in front of Mom and Gary's canoe! It came so close to us!

The whole gang after our trip

By the time we got back to Mom's house after canoeing, we had just enough time for a quick lunch on their porch before we had to pack up to head to our next destination. Although having so many Christmases and so many different family homes to visit enables us to stretch out the holidays and milk 'em for all they're worth, it doesn't allow us to spend as much time as we'd like with everybody. It seems like our visits always have to be cut short because we have to run to the next visit. So that's always a little tough! But, such is life.

Our next destination was The Villages to spend the night with Eric's dad and stepmom. Once again, we arrived in time for a very yummy dinner prepared by Suellen, a bit of wine, and some catching up. After dinner we exchanged gifts, then we watched some television and chatted some more before heading off to bed. Another exhausting day!

Ron and Suellen

Suellen, Ron, Eric and Smiley catching up

All of the dogs helping me open Achilles' Christmas gift: holisitic dog treats!

Achilles enjoying one of his new treats

Ron, Suellen and Smiley

Achilles enjoying MY Christmas gift - a very soft sweater!

On Monday morning, Eric and his dad got up early to play golf. Meanwhile I slept in a bit, then Suellen and I went to the library. By the time we got back, the men had finished golfing and we all went out to lunch. We got to eat outside, which was so nice. I'm really starting to understand the mentality of snowbirds, I must admit.

Eric and his dad on the golf course

Sandtraps in the shape of "UF!"

After lunch, Eric and I decided to head back to St. Pete to beat the Tampa rush hour traffic. So, back in the car we went, and off to my Dad's house again. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing. We were still so, so tired.

Tuesday was designated as my Dad's day. He made pancakes and sausage for breakfast (he makes great pancakes!), and then we exchanged some gifts. He had mailed our Christmas gift to us, but we had a couple small things for him and Heather and I had to exchange gifts as well. Plus, the animals had gifts for each other!

It's just not Christmas without subjecting one of the animals to some sort of Christmas attire. This year, it was the cat's turn.

Achilles opening his Beggin' Strips from his Aunt Heather

My dad opening the photobook I made for him with pictures from his trip to New York

Lucy opening her gift from Achilles. Poor Lucy was sick most of the week so was stuck outside. Poor girl!

After gifts, we did something that Eric and I rarely have a chance to do while we're in Florida - we went to the beach! We drove down to Pass-A-Grille and enjoyed an afternoon of sunshine, although it was a bit windier than we might have liked. We sat in the sand for a while before walking down to the snack bar for lunch. After lunch we sat a bit longer then headed home.

Eric at the beach

With my dad and Heather

Hooray for Florida sunshine!

Walking to lunch

That evening my dad made us a very summery meal of cheeseburgers on the grill, corn on the cob, and watermelon. Yum! Later that night we put on Wall-E for a bit before bedtime once again. Will we ever catch up on sleep? I feel like we spent the whole trip being tired.

Wednesday, for the most part, was a "free" day. We ran some errands during the day, including meeting up with Eric's friend Eric who let us use his Miami apartment while we were in town for the game. We met him for lunch on Wednesday to get his keys and directions to his place. We also did some Gator-wear shopping (we can't do much of that in New York!). For dinner we went to Eric's mom's house for their weekly Wednesday night family dinner. It was great to see everyone there!

Thursday was Game Day, which will be covered in depth in my next post, as I mentioned. Friday was spent driving back to St. Pete from Miami (with a quick stop at Ellenton Mall). Saturday we were back in business, with Christmas with the rest of Eric's family. Eric started the morning off with a round of golf with his brother, while I met up with the rest of the family at IHop for breakfast.

Eric and Ronnie

After breakfast I headed over to Toni and Gramz's house, and was soon followed by Kelley, Susan, Buzz and Doc. Gramz recently bought a Wii, so we got that fired up pretty quickly while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. I won a game of bowling! That was fun. I don't usually win at sports, video game or otherwise. Everyone else soon arrived and the Wii fun continued for a bit before we exchanged gifts. As the gift exchange was winding down, Eric's Aunt Patty, Uncle Steve and cousin Tara arrived as well.

Buzz, Kelley, Doc and Eric playing doubles tennis

Toni and Gramz opening gifts

Susan and Kelley

Tara, Aunt Patty, Gramz and Toni

After exchanging gifts, the Wii fun continued while others tested out a gift we gave Kelley and Susan: Catch Phrase! Our friends Jose and Karen gave us that game for Christmas when we had them over for lasagna, and we loved it so much we decided to share the joy. Kelley, Ronnie, Eric and Uncle Steve tested it out first and the results were HILARIOUS. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! Probably my favorite "catch phrase" was Ronnie's guess of a "frog leg pad." So great!

Kelley, Eric and Uncle Steve

Then it was time for the main event: lasagna! Gramz made an absolutely delicious lasagna, as always. It was so good. After dinner, we played a family game of Catch Phrase, passing it around the table. More hilarity ensued!

The whole gang, minus Doc and Toni: Buzz, me, Eric, Ronnie, Stephanie, Kelley, Susan, Tara, Gramz, Aunt Patty and Uncle Steve

Stephanie, Kelley and Susan

Tara and Aunt Patty

Gramz giving clues - she was so good at it!

Uncle Steve, Toni, Doc and Buzz

After Catch Phrase, everyone started to leave. Eric and I were the last to go. We said our goodbyes, then we went to meet up with Eric's friend Eric again to return his aparmtent keys. And that was our visit!

Sunday we made one last stop for some Gator shopping, then watched a replay of the Championship game on TV followed by the celebration in the Swamp, during which Tim Tebow announced that he will be returning to UF for another year! Do I smell another potential championship? Time will tell!

Our flight back to New York was delayed by about a half hour, but our timing worked out well. We returned the car, got checked in at the airport, went through security and were just in time to board the plane. Achilles was very good on our return flight, which was such a relief. We made it back to our aparment by 9:00 that night.

We had a wonderful visit with everyone! Thanks to all for such a great Christmas. We wish we could see you more often but we enjoy every second of the visits we do get. Hope to see you soon - maybe in New York this time?

CHOMPions!

GO GATORS!

Hello, all! Eric and I are still in sunny Florida enjoying the beautiful weather (and our family too, of course), and I promise to fill you in on all the fun things we've been doing as soon as I get a chance. We've been keeping very busy!

One of those things I need to fill you in on is the GATORS WINNING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! Eric and I were there to witness it with our own eyes, and it was incredible. Very tense, but very awesome. Like I said, I promise to share all the details (and pictures, naturally) soon, but for now I just wanted to pop in and say GO GATORS!

Hello, 2009!

Happy 2009, everyone! I hope that you enjoyed the last moments of 2008 and that 2009 is shaping up to be great so far.

As for us...we did it! We really did New Year's Eve in Times Square. It was quite an adventure, I must say. Allow me to share! Please bear with me, because this will be long. I want to remember every detail because we will NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. Here we go...

Our friends Jeff and Jaime got into town around 10:00p.m. on Tuesday night. We met them out by Penn Station, and went to KMart to do some shopping for warm apparel, like long underwear. We were moderately successful. We then went back to our apartment and pulled out Rock Band once again. It's such a fun game to play with friends!

The guitar is my favorite.

The band: Eric singing, Jaime drumming, and Jeff guitaring.

We stayed up pretty late, which ultimately led to Eric calling in sick to work the next day. He had planned to leave really early anyway, and there really wasn't any work for him to do, so it just made sense. So, on New Year's Eve we all slept in a bit then went out to breakfast at a nearby diner. From there we stopped in a drugstore for more warm-stuff shopping, then parted ways. Jeff and Jaime went to see Avenue Q while Eric and hung out at home. Let me just point out that it snowed ALL DAY. It was really coming down for a while.

Around 4:00 p.m., Eric and I began the Bundling Up Process. We wore so many clothes. I wore tights, jeans, sweatpants, two pairs of socks (including wool knee-high socks), a tank top, long-sleeved shirt, my warmest sweater, my rainboots with fleece liners, two scarves, my down coat, two pairs of gloves, ear muffs, and a hat. Likewise, Eric had long underwear (top and bottom), a long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, jeans, two pairs of socks, tennis shoes, a scarf, his down coat, earmuffs and a hat and two pairs of gloves. We basically made it our goal to wear so many clothes that we would be hot standing in Times Square. I will say that we did not succeed in that goal.

We left the house around 4:30p.m. and met back up with Jeff and Jaime at a nearby McDonald's. We brought them a bunch more clothes to put on, so they layered up in McDonald's. Then we started out to get into Times Square. The 45th Street entrance was already closed off because the streets were full up to that point. We finally got in around 49th Street. As we walked through towards Times Square, there were cops everywhere metal-detecting people with hand wands. They hand-wanded us again when we got to our "pen."

We ended up in a pen between 48th and 49th Streets on Broadway. The Ball drops on 42nd Street, so we were about 6 blocks away from the action. It actually was perfect, because we had a clear view of the Ball. If you're too close, I wouldn't think you could see anything, because you'd be up underneath it. So we were happy with our spot. We also were able to get up along the left side of the barricades, so we had a nice edge spot to take some pictures and have something to lean on. This was about 5:20 p.m.

One Times Square, where the ball dropped! You can see the "2009" above the Toshiba sign. This was taken right when we arrived, before they had raised the ball.

Ready to wait 6.5 hours in the cold!

Jeff and Jaime, trying to stay warm!

Let's go, midnight!

Let's talk for a second about the cold. It was COLD. All night, we kept our eyes on a building behind us that showed the current temperature. When we arrived at 5:30, it told us it was 17 degrees. So, that was the WARMEST weather we stood around in. It had stopped snowing, thankfully, but the winds had really picked up. According to Ryan Seacrest on the TV coverage of Times Square, by midnight with windchill the temperature was two degrees. I'm no meteorologist, but I don't think that's very many degrees.

The building behind us, showing the temperature as 17 degrees. This photo was taken at 5:30.

Eric? Are you in there?

At 6:00 we had our first exciting thing happen. They raised the ball, complete with a brief round of fireworks! So, that got us excited.

The ball being raised!

Fireworks! The ball is up!

And then, there was nothing else to do except wait. We began to look forward to the turn of every hour, which included another countdown and then the big screen flashing, "XX hours to go!" The first one of those we saw was "6 hours to go." In total, we waited 6.5 hours in the cold.

Hard to read, but the screen below the Toshiba sign says "4 hours to go!" Oh, how we cheered.

I'm trying to give a thumbs up, but my multiple pairs of gloves won't allow me to bend my pinky in. So, we have a "hang ten." Surf's up, dude.

Whenever I used to watch the Times Square festivities on TV, the thing that stood out to me most was the crowds. The crowds always looked so unbearable, and that was the thing I was really dreading the most about being there. But really, for the bulk of the night, the crowds weren't too awful. Our pen stayed relatively empty until maybe 9:00, and by that time we felt we were getting close, so who cares? And it was also pretty cool to see so many people from all over the world, all packed in together for the same celebration. For example, we had people surrounding us from Tokyo, Harlem, Chile, and Brooklyn. That's an eclectic bunch!

Enjoying the open space in our pen early in the evening

The crowds in front of us as the night went on

The crowds behind us

Me amongst the crowds

What was far worse than the crowds was really the cold. It got so cold that Jeff and Jaime left at about 7:30, because they felt there was no way they would make it until midnight. Eric and I took turns losing our "mental toughness" and doubting that we would make it either. It was the kind of cold that makes your face hurt if you take it out of your scarf for even a second. I spent probably a solid half hour contemplating how you know the difference between your feet just being really cold, and actually being in danger of losing a toe to frostbite. My right foot was making me pretty nervous, but I just kept wiggling my toes and hoping for the best. I figured if I could move them, there must still be blood flow so I was okay.

Between 9:00 and 10:00 was the hardest hour to get through. 9:00 hit and we realized that although we had already been out there for 3.5 hours, we still had another 3 hours to go. By 10:00, two hours seemed like nothing, but it was tough getting to that point. We were tired and shivering and the crowds were getting a little pushier. But, we made it. One thing that kept me going was thinking about all those years I've watched this on TV, and how I thought I'd never be there. I thought those people were crazy to be out in the cold and crowds. It made me realize that it was so surreal that there I was, in the midst of the event I had always watched on TV. How cool to be in the place that the whole world is watching!

Another thing that helped pass the time was the giveaways. Every so often, Times Square workers would come along and pass things out to the crowd. We got a blue Nivea hat and Nivea lip gloss, 3 Musketeers pom poms with Mint 3 Musketeers (which are SO GOOD, and really good cold! So if you try them, try putting them in the fridge first...they're like mint chocolate chip ice cream!), Pepsi scarves, and blue balloons with silver streamers. The balloons really made things look festive!

A sea of blue hats and balloons in front of us

The view behind us

At long last it was 11:00 and we had done our last "X hour to go" countdown. The next hour passed steadily and then it was FINAL COUNTDOWN TIME! The moment we had all been waiting for!

This is it! The ball is dropping!

VIDEO: The final 15 seconds of 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Confetti falling on Times Square

A New Year smooch

And then it was over. We had waited all those hours for one minute of celebration! The streets quickly began to clear out as they played some great music: Auld Lang Syne (of course), New York, It's a Wonderful World, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (the Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole version, which I love), etc. They had played Imagine in the last few minutes before the ball drop too, which I also loved. Everyone sang along and it was really nice. So, now that it was over, Eric and I snapped a couple more "proof that we were really there till the end" pics and made our way home. And walking brought feeling back into my toes! Halleluia.

Me amidst the revelry

Hooray! We made it!

When we got home, Jeff and Jaime could not believe that we had made it until the end. They were kind enough to go out and get us some pizza because we were STARVING. When they got back we all ate, drank champagne, and watched the TV coverage of the countdown that they had recorded for us. It was a great end to the evening!

So happy to be in a warm house!

On New Year's Day, we all slept in a bit again and then the boys got donuts for everyone. Jeff and Jaime went out to do some sightseeing in the afternoon while Eric and I stayed in and did some work around the house and preparations for our trip to Florida. When our guests returned, we all watched some football and then Eric and I made dinner. Jeff had bet us when they left Times Square that we would not make it until the midnight. The stakes? Steaks! He said he would buy us a steak dinner if we made it. So, he made good on his promise and bought us filet mignon which Eric grilled on the Foreman, and I made mashed potatoes, salad, and Texas toast. Delicious! After dinner we enjoyed some hot chocolate spiked with Bailey's Irish Creme while we played Catch Phrase. And then, it was off to bed.

Jeff and Jaime left early this morning and Eric is back at work today. Tomorrow we leave bright and early for our week in Florida, which will be so nice (and WARM!). We had such a great New Year's. Even though the time in Times Square was difficult, unpleasantly cold, and crowded, and we say we will never do it again, we're glad to have done it once. It's a nice check off the Lifetime To Do list!

Happy New Year!