CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

Ever since Nath and Kev were born, we have never missed a Christmas together. Somehow, over the years, we’ve always managed to make a plan---all going to Zimbabwe, Kev coming to us in Australia, all of them coming to Paris etc. We are very happy and thankful we can keep up this special tradition.

Trip Main Points

(for more pics, see Xmas 08 pics page)

* Sat Dec 20: Nath, AJ and Sonya drove from St Louis to  Oviedo, a trip that took about 16 hours. Good driving!

* Sun Dec 21: Kev & Joanna took Nath, AJ & Sonya to Gatorland, always fun even if a little commercial. Very warm weather, hot even, compared to what they left in the Mid-West. The traditional puzzle gets started (see above).

* Mon Dec 22: Joanna took the 3 visitors to Leu Gardens, and the History Center (especially for an interesting National Geographic portraits exhibition). Late in the evening Rod and Viv arrived by plane from Bloomington, IL.

* Tues 23 and Wed 24 Dec: grocery and last-minute present shopping. On Christmas Eve, Rod de-boned a turkey and a chicken, which we stuffed to make our “turken”. We had our big traditional dinner that evening, complete with pie and Christmas crackers, and the turken was great (lasted us many days later too).

1. *Thurs 25: a fun and relaxing Christmas Day. Santa was very generous to all, and we all ate exceedingly well! Dinner was a braai, cooked by Kev outside---what a pleasure! How nice that a lot of the family could be together at Christmas. Sorry that Joanna’s folks couldn’t make it---perhaps another year.
   

2. *Fri 26 Dec: our big day to Seaworld, courtesy of free tickets from Al. Thanks Allie! A fun day, and everyone loved the animals and birds, especially Shamu, the Orca.
   

3. *Sat 27 Dec: another big outing, this time to Kennedy Space Center. An inspiring place. A super sushi dinner at K&J’s favorite local sushi place, and then home to watch “Apollo 13”.
   

4. *Sun 28 Dec: to Blue Spring State Park, a lovely park, but no luck with seeing manatees, as the weather is too warm and the manatees don’t need to swim into the warmer spring to escape the cold river water.
   

5. *Mon 29 Dec: easy day, out for coffee, Nath & co got ready to leave.
   

6. *Tues 30 Dec: Nath, AJ and Sonya left very early to drive back to St Louis. Got there safely around 8:30pm local time. Good job again folks! Rod went out to Blue Spring to try and get some manatee samples, with limited success.
   

7. *Wed 31 Dec: Rod went back to Blue Spring (no success), but otherwise an easy day. For our New Year’s Eve dinner we braaied again, this time with whole pork tenderloin and Kev’s special vegs---yummy
   

8. *Thurs 1 Jan 2009: an easy day, with a walk in a wilderness area close by.
   

9. *Fri 2 Jan: Kev took Rod and I to the History Center in Orlando to see the Nat Geographic exhibit. Then Joanna took me for a pampering manicure and pedicure at their local spa---my first experience, and a very nice one!  (See here )Dinner again at the sushi place, which just happens to be next door to the spa!
   

10. *Sat 3 Jan: various shopping errands---Rod and I feel we’re beginning to know this part of Oviedo quite well. In the afternoon, Kev and Joanna took us to the Polasek Museum and Sculpture Park in Winter garden---an unexpected gem. (See Polasek here)
    

11. *Sun 4 and  Mon 5 Jan: easy days, with errands and a few house maintenance jobs. On Monday afternoon, Joanna took Rod and I to Eatonville, to see what’s there related to Zora Neale Hurston. Interesting. (See book review on Zora here)
    

12. *Tues 6 Jan: Rod and I flew back to Bloomingon, IL. What a lovely break we’ve had.
    

Back to Newsletter Main Page

Back to Family Trips page

Back to USA Articles

Maybe, cos it reminds us of Christmas in southern Africa---not quite warm enough to swim, though, but quite warm enough to braai. Yay!

(Above: the extremely difficult 2,000-piece puzzle that Rod & Kev did, aided by Joanna)