And Happy New Year!!

After a good visit in Tennessee with family and friends, we rented a car and headed back to the boat. It was good to be back, though of course we miss the family. The weather was warm enough on the first day back to sit by the pool (but the wind was a bit nipply). It takes a while to get everything put away and visit the grocery store and get all systems running again, but it sure is nice to hit this great v-berth mattress again! And it doesn't take long to get used to NOT wearing a coat.

There was a New Year's celebration downtown, and even a ball drop at midnight, but we went first to visit with Greg and Lori and Dan and Tara and had such a great celebration on their boat that we forgot to leave. They'd moved the boat across the marina to back up to Mattisons, so we had a live band performing for the party. Good company and great refreshments, and we even stayed up past midnight! Rumor has it that the cops were called to a party on the same dock, but we didn't have on handcuffs when we woke up so we're pretty sure we weren't involved.
































The weather has been less than tropical for the past week, but there's snow again in Tennessee, so we're not complaining. Now back to work on the boat to get ready to head south.......

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas in Bradenton is beautiful, because the streets, sidewalks, and particularly the area around the waterfront (lucky us....our marina!!) have great light displays. It's a good place to get in the spirit, but the family Christmas is in Tennessee.

We went to Gatlinburg to visit with Mike, our marina manager, and his daughter Lauren, who had flown up for a ski trip before Christmas. It was fun to revisit our old haunts (we both worked in Gatlinburg before college, and Jay and our sons taught skiing and snowboarding there for several years) and have a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. The mountains were beautiful, and the lights through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were impressive. We took the opportunity to display the Twin Dolphin burgee in a new location (and a much colder one than it's used to).

We had the opportunity to visit with lots of friends before the serious cooking began for Christmas. We spent an evening with Windy and Linda and Bryce and Sue in Kingston, catching up and reliving (embellishing) our boat stories from the past.















We had a special welcoming sign at Bryce and Sue's, and also a warm welcome from their menagerie.












We stopped at Lee and Ann's for an overnight while we were in Kingston, and enjoyed their castle once again. We also went to a party at Sid and Donna's, and were thrilled when we walked in and saw a room full of friends from our old marina, Blue Springs. It was fun to catch up and see friends we'd missed.

Even with the bad weather, the family made it to the farm, and we had a gorgeous white Christmas. As pretty as it is in the warmer climates, there's nothing like snow on Christmas (and snow cream, and snowmen, and cold feet and noses and cute girl cousins together). Santa found us, even though not everyone had been good all year......




















































Surprisingly, the Captain had an assortment of Cousin Eddie Wear in his stocking. It was hard for Santa to find all the special accessories, but the look was pretty comparable (and thank you, Brittany, for letting the old fart wear your soft new robe). We took the RV to Tennessee to store for the winter, and also used it as an annex while on the farm (it served double duty -- extra sleeping space for the family and a hideout for the Captain's brown water sessions). It was bittersweet to park it, even though the reason was so we could leave to cruise again in January.