Well, it’s holiday season and Chuck and I have been fa-la-la-ing our hearts out. First up, right after Thanksgiving, it was time for the annual Christmas light installation. This took a solid weekend and Chuck enlisted the help of our friends Kyra and Tim and their kids (this relieved my mind because it meant that Chuck wasn’t clambering up and down ladders and climbing around the roof on his own). Our light display involves both our back and front houses. Over the years Chuck has picked up several lighted reindeer (we have four now, a small herd), a set of three lighted choir people, two LED trains that he mounts on the roof, a red fiber optic Christmas tree, and new this year a train with a freight car and a caboose, and three lighted gift boxes. Oh, and strands and strands and strands of lights, both bulb and LED.

This past weekend we had a bunch of folks over to see the lights in Naples, which is quite close to us. But we failed to take into account that the night we chose was also the annual Naples Holiday Boat Parade, the single biggest party night in Naples each year. It took us over an hour to cover a mile along the canals due to the amazing crowds. Many homeowners had hired bands or singers to serenade their parties and all of us walkers also got blasted by the symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>music. We had planned on a calmer, more laid-back scene, but everybody still had  a good time. Next year we may go back to the gondolas.

This year we have managed to avoid doing much cooking at our house, instead mooching at other people’s houses. We spent Thanksgiving at a friend’s house, and since Chuck and I already gave each other our big gifts (he got a lovely leather jacket and I got two more Tim Cotterill frogs), we decided to treat ourselves to a local getaway Christmas and avoid doing cooking over Xmas too. We’re going to stay at a nice hotel (the Langham in Pasadena) on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, hang with friends, go running and generally chill. The hotel is kind of extravagant, but thanks to an awesome website called Perfect Escapes, it wasn’t nearly as crazy as it would normally be.

But before that we are heading off to Colorado where Chuck’s late stepfather is being honored as a “historymaker” in a book being published called, “Westminster:The First 100 Years.” Chuck, his two sisters and his brother will all be on hand. That should be pretty neat!

So happy new year everyone! We hope you enjoy your holidays as much as we are enjoying ours, and that you enjoy good health, good friends and good times in the coming days. I know we will!

Pics here.