A new tradition for Christmas

 
Sweet Emily Tess and her fiance, Chase, flew down to SWFL
on the heels of my final exams for the fall semester to celebrate
an early Christmas the weekend of December 7th. 

 
They left 20 degrees at 6am that morning, only to land 2.5 hours
later in 80 degrees and pure sunshine- we went to the beach
straight from the airport!  They needed to thaw out ❄

No danger in this guy thawing out!

Taking a stroll to the Ft. Myers beach pier...

One happy momma 💕

A Christmas tree, Florida style!

That night we made pizzas for dinner; it was Friday
night, pizza night, afterall. Then we got our holiday
baking on with some cut out Christmas cookies 🎅

A couple of beers in, and Chase was game for decorating, too!


Our Saturday morning was waylaid 
with an emergency trip to the vet for
Willis and what appears to be a nasty
abscess from another snake bite 😿


The boys stayed home to launch the dinghy
and prep the sailboat for a ride on the Caloosahatchee.

It may not be gorgeous Bahamas blue water,
but the scenery is always interesting... sometimes
gators, manatees, work boats, pleasure yachts,
a barge, cows, or a bass fisherman will pass by.

The kids seem to enjoy themselves :)

Sunday morning, we celebrated Christmas! 🎄

It's tradition to have breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and fruit :)
Nothing like the obscene Christmases of past,
but new traditions are good, too.

Nothing says Christmas like a trip to Billie's Swamp Safari! 🐊

Let's Do This!

Say Cheese! 😁

I don't know my water fowl yet, but she was pretty!

 
We went to the Swamp Cafe to snack on chili
and gator tail (Em had the grilled cheese, lol).
Afterward, we decided to walk off our lunch
with a visit through the Nature Trail.



Chase, don't get any ideas before the wedding!

I spy, with my little eye, a busy bee!

 
The red lichen was beautiful; the photo
really does not do the color justice.

Chase won the $1 for spying a HUGE gator in the distance!

Fun times with my Sweet Emily Tess 💕


These two are so well-suited to one another 💕


The fern was growing in an old stump :)


We visited a few animals, like the bob cat...
More gators, just hanging out...

...and this fat and sassy Florida panther- I love his paws!
 
Since we were celebrating our Christmas day...

who was naughty...

and who was nice???
What wasn't nice was having to say good bye... 

The weekend was over all too soon 😢

I must remind myself of the upside of things...

New traditions, like an early Christmas in Florida, can replace old ones.
Not all old traditions are left in the dust-
 Christmas cut-outs and breakfast casserole will always say 'Christmas'.
Getting a new ornament each year also spells 'Christmas.'
There may not be snow on the ground, but flip flops in December is quite nice!
Most importantly,
I have had to learn that the older generation must graciously step aside,
to allow the new generation to create their own traditions...
and that is perfectly okay, too.

Merry Christmas, y'all! 🎄🎅

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