They Know Me Well

A few days before Christmas I told the Island King that I was beginning to wonder what my parents were getting me for Christmas because my Mom had not asked me what I wanted.

She always asks, several times through December and this year she didn't ask one time. She asked what the kids wanted and what the Island King wanted but she didn't ask about me.

Which meant her or my Dad had already picked something out for me.

What could it be?

Christmas Eve we were opening presents at their house and my Dad handed me a small box. I unwrapped it and found one of the best presents I've ever gotten.


A GPS for my car!

I felt like Scarlett in Gone With The Wind - "As God is my witness I'll never be lost again!"

Most people really only need these when they travel but I am completely lacking any navigational ability whatsoever and have spent way too many hours of my life just trying to find my way out of neighborhoods.

It's bad.

The feeling of relief knowing that if I program in my home address I will always have a voice telling me how to get there is incredible.

I don't think you can truly appreciate a gift like this unless you've spent half of your life wandering the earth - lost.

Christmas Day brought another great surprise. This time from my FIL.

The Island King was handing out gifts and handed me what looked like a jewelry size box from my FIL. He commented that it sure was heavy for a little box.

I opened it to find this


Yes! I've been wanting to get up to Tower Camp for some target practice for a while now and this is just what I need.

His family teased me saying that I'm the only woman they know who would be more excited to get 38 shells than jewelry.

It's true. You can only wear jewelry but you shoot bullets - which I thoroughly enjoy.

We had a great Christmas and I loved all of the gifts we got but these two are exactly what I need.

Wordless Wednesday

It's A Bird, It's A Plane...

It's an Osprey. A CV-22 Osprey to be exact.


We were standing on the docks down at the harbor yesterday and looked up to see this Osprey flying really low over the harbor.


These things are so cool!



They are designed with both vertical takeoff and landing as well as short takeoff and landing capabilities and perform like a helicopter but with the long range, high speed cruise ability of a turbo prop plane.

The Osprey is based out of 3 US Air Force bases, one of which being Hurlburt Field.

The 8th Special Operations Squadron operates the Osprey and it was last used to drop humanitarian supplies into Honduras in June of '09.

Even though Hurlburt Field is right down the road from us, we don't see the Osprey very often so we were especially pleased when they did this low altitude fly-by on the harbor.

Thanks guys!

You Know It's Time To Fix Dinner

When you open the refrigerator and see this


I think someone's hungry.

It Was A Very Merry Christmas

I can't believe how fast Christmas went this year. It seems like I woke up Thursday morning, blinked, and suddenly it was Saturday night.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house.

Of all the gifts you could give my mom and dad - having all of their grandchildren together is their favorite.

It's funny how opening Christmas presents always starts out nice and slow


And then turns into a full blown frenzy?



Christmas morning the kids woke us up bright and early, ready to see what Santa brought and to open the presents under the tree. From there it was non stop all day.

We spent the day at my MIL's house and like my parents, her favorite gift is having all of the grandkids together.

There were more presents to open


And then lots of running wild in the backyard and dinner to eat.

We were home and sound asleep by 9 and even the kids must have been worn out because we spent Saturday napping, playing with new toys and moving slow.

It was exhausting but it was a wonderful Christmas and like the Oldest Island Boy said last night "Now we only have to wait 364 days for it to happen again!"

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

We Hope All Of You Have A Wonderful Christmas Filled With Love And Peace

Wordless Wednesday

Destin Christmas Boat Parade

Sunday night was Destin's annual Christmas Boat Parade and as always it was great.

There were big boats



Medium sized boats


Sailboats


And one little tiny boat

Santa was on a boat

These people caught the Grinch and caged him up so he couldn't steal Christmas


Of them all this was our favorite.


We enjoyed the parade and when it was over we went in search of our car, which we'd parked in the garage of the Emerald Grand.

Because I have 'not being able to find my car' issues I'd made a big deal of making everyone remember what level and section we were in so I didn't think we'd have any trouble getting to our car.

But this is the Grand and we've never been able to find our car before so I don't know why I thought this night would be any different.

We got in the elevator and thankfully were alone so we didn't have anything like last year's elevator incident happen but when the doors closed and it was time to press P3, there was no P3.

Hmm.

There was a P1 and P2 and a P4 but no P3.

So we pushed P2 and hoped for the best.

The doors opened and after wandering around for a minute we ended up back at the elevator. All we'd seen were P2 signs on the walls and even though we knew there was a way out we didn't see it. The arrows on the floor just led us right back to the elevator.

Back into the elevator we go, hoping that a P3 button has magically appeared.

It hadn't so we pushed P4.

As we came out on P4 we could see P3 below us. And then we could see the van. Yes! We've found it.

So we followed the arrows expecting to walk down the ramp onto level 3 and straight to the van.

Didn't happen.

We followed the arrows and came back to the same damn elevator.

"Did you see the ramp? How did we miss the ramp?" the Island King asks.

I have no idea.

We got back in the elevator and the Island King pushes the just plain 3. Which took us to the 3rd floor inside the hotel.

Then he pushed the L button which naturally took us to the lobby.

Back to P4 which was the last place we'd actually been able to see the van.

We're back on P4 and are looking down at the van when one of the boys suggested climbing through the railing and jumping down onto the roof of the van.

I actually considered it for a minute and then realized that the cars on this level got here somehow and there had to be a way down.

We start walking again. Following the arrows. Ending up right back at the elevator.

But this time we notice that the down ramp is directly behind the elevator and what we thought was a parking spot was a tight turn around a corner and then down to level 3.

Good grief.

And no, neither of us had been drinking LOL

We were frozen and ready to be home but we did have a lot of fun.

Let's Go See Santa

Friday night we decided to take the kids to visit Santa and then wander around Destin Commons for a while to soak up some Christmas cheer.

Like last year, Santa was at the happiest place on earth.


Some women might prefer Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale's but for me, Bass Pro Shop is the best store on the planet. Forget Dolce & Gabbana, I'll take Cabellas any day LOL

Santa was in his own little Winter Wonderland

And the boys were really excited to see him.


The Oldest Island Boy got comfortable and if someone else hadn't come up to see Santa I think he would have stayed all night.

In contrast to his sister who refused to have her picture taken with Santa even though her Mother threatened to take all of her presents back.

She didn't believe me.

After visiting with Santa the boys spent some time in the shooting range.


It's too bad those weren't real turkeys because they hit every one.

The Island King was in rare form and became instant friends with the Nutcracker.


Once we'd looked at everything it was time to brave the cold and go out into the Commons.

They have an enormous tree in the center that we were aiming for


But we had to make a stop in the toy store.

Like I said earlier, the Island King was in rare form and while we were in the toy store I heard him calling me and found this.


The Youngest Island Boy suggested we get those glasses for him as a gag gift but the Island Girl chimed in and said "Are you kidding? If we buy those for him he'll wear them!"

She's right and he won't be getting any of those LOL

We made it to the tree

And amazingly all 3 of my children smiled for a picture.

Christmas really is a magical time of year because getting the three of them to all smile at once is as rare as spotting a unicorn.

They have a beautiful Norman Rockwell display that I always enjoy looking at. I love his work and could look at it for hours.


But it was cold and we were starting to feel like Popsicles so we headed back towards the car.

As we were walking along the Island King said "Ya'll wait here, there's something I've always wanted to do and I'm going to do it now."

Which scared us a little because you just never know what he's thinking.

And suddenly he appeared in a store window, posing with the mannequins.


He stood there for quite a while and several people stopped to see what he was doing. He never moved and I heard one woman say "I'm pretty sure that's not a mannequin and if it is they really messed up when they were dressing that one."

We laughed all the way home and then finished the night in front of the fire watching A Christmas Story.

It was a great night and I hope we get to do it again next year.

Potato Skins

None of my kids will eat the skin from a potato so every time we have baked potatoes for dinner we always have a big pile of skin and a little potato left over. Which really bugs me because I hate throwing food away.

The other night I was scraping plates after dinner and commented to the Island King about all of the waste. I mean really this looks like enough food to feed a small tribe.

"Don't throw that away" he tells me. "I know what we can do with it"

So we piled it all on a baking sheet

Added salt and pepper


Brushed some melted butter all over it

Added some cheddar cheese

And baked until the cheese melted.

Wow!


The kids ate it for a snack later and there wasn't even a tiny piece left.

Adding cheese and butter probably takes away from the nutritional value of the skin but it was SO good and we ate every bite.

Now they want potatoes every night - just so they can eat the skin LOL

Public Enemy Number One

I love Legos. And I'm glad my kids do too.

They promote creativity and critical thinking skills and the boys, who usually fight like cats and dogs, get along surprisingly well when they're working together to build a city, rocket ship or some other Lego creation.

But let me tell you, when you're making your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you step on one of these


They become public enemy number one.

Stepping on one of these little land mines can produce howls that will wake up the entire neighborhood.

If I didn't love them so much I'd chunk every one we own into the Bay.

Too bad Nerf doesn't make them - stepping on a Nerf Lego wouldn't be nearly as bad.