Christmas 2013

My parents and brother Michael drove from Kissimmee, FL. to visit us in St Augustine for Christmas and my mom's birthday this year. They arrived on Christmas Eve despite a fatal truck accident that completely shut down I-95 for a few miles. We went to lunch together on the Intercoastal at Barbara Jeans. Everything there was SO delicious - especially their crab soup and crab cakes. We sat outside and it was a little cool but the sun was shining down.

On the way back we went to TPC Sawgrass for the Festival of Trees. It was not much of a festival. There was one tree in a few rooms and they all looked pretty similar and weird. Won't be doing that again.

After relaxing a little at the house we went to St Augustine to do a trolley ride for the Night of Lights. National Geoographic in 2011 and 2012 chose it as one of the top 10 light displays. We were able to get on within 30 minutes of waiting in line. It was pretty chilly outside. It was fun listening to Christmas music and yelling out to people passing by, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas". However the light display was a little lacking in my opinion. Maybe I am just accustomed to seeing spectacular displays, but for this to be top 10 in the world I was very disappointed, but we still had a nice time.

We walked around a bit trying to find a place to eat and finally ended up at Mojo's since there was only about a 10 minute wait.

Christmas morning Omar and I made birthday breakfast for my mom...thick bacon, scrambled eggs, cinnamon-raisin toast, grits, and orange juice. We opened presents and then worked on Christmas dinner/lunch. We had a delicious lunch of home made ham, scalloped potatoes, almond orange salad, and rolls.

We played the new game Omar got for Christmas, "Ticket to Ride: Europe" and went and saw the movie the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Thursday they went home. It was a short holiday but it was nice to have them come up. It was Michael's first (hopefully, not last) time ever coming to our house even.