Orange juice

Orange Juice

Mom's orange trees were loaded this year. She had way more oranges than she could eat. Also she was having fun with the new orange picker she got for her birthday. Any way she brought us a whole sack full. These type of oranges are real Florida oranges. They are better for juicing than eating.

We don't even have a juicer but with these oranges you don't need one all you do is cut the orange in half then pick out all the seeds, stab with a fork and twist it. The juice flows out like a faucet. Mmm... fresh squeezed Florida orange juice is the best thing ever.

Blue Berries

We got some blue berry bushes and are going to try our hand a raising blue berries. We thought to our selves, if we have to have bushes why not get ones that are either pretty or have food on them. So with luck we will be enjoying blue berries every year. We will have to wait until after New Year's to get them in the ground as we decided to go to our friend Lou's big New Years Eve party.

Christmas 09

We had fun decorating the tree. It didn't take long at all this year as we used a PLASTIC one. (yuk) Usually we get a permit from the forestry service and go out and cut down a sand pine in the forest but Chris thought it would be easier to go with plastic. Less mess. No sap on the carpet. And it was. But as I said we have not had a plastic one and there was a little difficulty putting it together. We got it used with no directions. Chris never reads them anyway. He jammed the pole into the base. We had to buy a base for it cause the original was missing. So when it didn't fit exactly we continued on. The real ones never fit right. We matched the colors on the branches to the trunk one row after the next. Then Veronica noticed they were getting bigger as the went up. "That's because the bottom is smaller to fit presents" Chris assured her. They got bigger and bigger till finally Chris had to admit "I think it's upside down." Which would have been great but it was too wobbly.

There was a flurry of getting things ready and before I new it Christmas had arrived. The girls tore threw the presents with their usual gusto. The dog was, hands down, the happiest one as he had gotten a stocking full of new toys. He took each one and piled them up. It was cute. Then he spent the rest of the day begging for ham. We enjoyed eating snacks of the season. Cakes, cookies, fudges, dips, crackers, cheese ball, brownie, breads, ect. We had some of all that stuff. When the dinner was done we could hardly move to eat it. But the ham came out really good so we did. Aunt Patty stopped by with Evan. Jessica had to work so they were going to have their Christmas start late. But really they had already had their Christmas about two days earlier when Even go to go shop with a cop. It's a program that the Mt. Dora police provide to kids that have lukemia, like Evan. He was suppose to go earlier but he had come down with a fever of 103 and couldn't. But they didn't forget about him they made a special trip just for him. So... Hat's off to the Mt. Dora police. They really made a differance for little Evan.

We all love to see Evan. He is always so happy and full of life. We got him some parachuteing toys. Him and the girls had fun playing with them in the living room.


All in all I'd say eveyone had a great Christmas and we are looking forward to next year.

Lighting up the city.

We took a trip to the Venetian gardens after Thanksgiving and saw the park all light up it was pretty awsome.

Here is me and Chris with some friends. The closest thing to snow men we get around here even though it was pretty chilly that night.

Thanksgiving

In this picture I'm wearing an apron my mom made for me a long time ago. When I was little I remember her wearing one similar to it every year at Thanks giving as she prepared the meal. People don't where aprons anymore and it's a shame. They just say something about the cook and let you know when it's time to eat. When the apron comes off.


Some people sat around and enjoyed hors devours and others enjoyed checking out guns. For some reason we had an odd amount of guns at Thanksgiving. Which is even stranger when you consider no one went turkey hunting this year. Maybe next year we will. But I'm saying right here and now I do not pluck or clean birds. I just cook them.

And here is the yummy yummy star of the show. Before carving you should always check the internal temperature of your bird or you'll end up like we did with it being a little too pink. But it was not a problem we popped it back in for a while longer and it came out just fine. All in all I'd say the food was pretty good and the company was even better. Can't wait to do it again next year. Oh, and yes we have been enjoying turkey soup and turkey sandwiches and turkey, turkey, turkey. MMMM....

Catch up post.

Oh, I have been terribly neglectful about posting anything. So I will try to catch you all up in the next couple of post. Well, before Thanksgiving, literally the day before, as we were getting her from collage Erica joined the Army. She had trouble acquiring funding for college and thought to herself. Here is a way to pay for college and to have a career and see the world, and defend her country. We are very proud of her for making this decision.