Oh, my, it’s been a long time since I posted.
Ok, it’s my New Year’s resolution (even on Jan. 21) to make sure I post several times a week starting now.  Our kids were home for Thanksgiving but they were with their other families for Christmas so Tom and I went to Florida to spend the holidays with his parents. An entirely different Christmas for us to not be at home, not to decorate, and to be in FL! His parents live in a wonderful golf cart community called The Villages which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Orlando. We spent 3 days at Disney World which is kind of a “strange” place to be if you don’t have kids. It was in the 60’s which was fine for us being from WA, but not so much for others. On one side there were people in shorts, short sleeves and sandals, and on the other side were people in boots, hats, gloves, scarves and winter coats!  We went to their Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. We watched a program on HGTV on how Disney plans for and decorates for Christmas. Disney works on Christmas for an entire year! Ever seen
poinsettia trees?
We were at a part of the Hollywood Studios where it looks like a city for a movie set, and the buildings were covered in 5 million lights! The lights were timed to wonderful Christmas music, and fake snow was being blasted from the top of the buildings.
Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom was certainly amazing with a web of lights over the entire castle which could be changed into a variety of colors timed with music and fireworks (which were the best we’ve ever seen)! The  parade that night was a fabulous array of floats with all the Disney characters of course, but lights, lights and more lights! Worth the price of admission for sure!

The third day we were there we spent time riding the boats all over the lake and checking out the other Disney resorts including the fabulous Grand Floridian resort. This gingerbread house is really made of gingerbread and filled the entire lobby. There were demonstrations on making gingerbread houses, and we bought cookies there which were so good. Lunch there was incredible, also.
This picture made me laugh as it seemed to be a strange representation of Christmas for me but not for Florida. I saw a LOT of plastic light up snowmen in people’s yards, but some how snowmen on green grass just doesn’t do it for me at Christmas.  We got a GPS for Christmas, and instead of making Christmas dinner (as my m-in-law wouldn’t let us help since we were on vacation), Tom and I drove around The Villages in a golf cart. Did you know that a GPS will show golf cart paths?? We had a nice Christmas, but decided to do some touring for a couple of days. We went to Mt. Dora for a day which is a cute city on a lake, but how different for us to eat lunch outside in December in the sun?

Here is what I thought was a funny sign that I took on the side of the road while waiting for traffic to move!

We did go to a wild life park in Homosassa Springs and saw native animals including manatees, black bears, flamingos, birds, eagles plus a Florida panther. It was the warmest day of our trip with the temps being in the low 70’s (and still there were people with winter coats on). Yikes!
A fun place to walk around in a wooded area that you might not think of as Florida. We also went to St. Augustine, saw the Atlantic Ocean for the 2nd time, and visited a wonderful lighthouse. There were 130+ steps to the top of the lighthouse so we opted not to go. I would have loved to have taken the trolley tour of the city but it was an open air trolley and it was too cold for my in-laws. Wonderful old Spanish style buildings, and yes, we did see the Fountain of Youth. We ate lunch at a place that had a Carribbean theme; and when the tide is in the water goes right under where we were sitting. I stopped at a quilt shop there that had this sign in the window: “Parking for Quilters Only. All others will be basted and tied”! Quite funny, and a great store full of bright and whimsical fabric. All and all a fun trip but I missed being at home with my kids. After a couple of days being home, I decided to put out my snowmen collection so it feels like winter here in WA. I love their smiling faces!

Now it’s time to get back to work…. check back in a couple of days as I will be offering sewing tips, and showing new fabric collections. Sew much fabric! Sew little time!

Piece,
Michele