Citrus Bowl Parade 2016

Yeah!  The last of the blogs for 2016 and I am all caught up!!!!

Thursday was the Citrus Bowl Parade.  I haven't been to one since the kids were little.  Being Stephen had the day off, I asked if he and Levi would like to go with me.  He was also watching Amber's nephew Calvin.  No problem, bring him along too.

We were fairly close to the grandstand seating only diagonally across the street.  We got a good view of all the performers because they were stopped right in front of us as the holding area. It was being filmed to be televised New Year's Day.

It started of with the Fire Dept.

They even had their dalmatian.

Levi was taking it all in.

We had read "The Villages Twirlers and Drum Corps" on the Agenda for the parade, but didn't realize what it was until they arrived.  We have a retirement community near Leesburg called The Villages here in Florida.  I think it is great that these retired people have not stopped living, but keep right on going enjoying life.

 Hats off to them for not limiting themselves to what others might think.  Instead, they are free to be themselves!

I wonder if they all played in a marching band in their younger days.

 Sporting the Buffalo Wild Wings sunglasses caught when the float passed.  He also caught a necklace!

One of the college teams band from Louisville, KY.

I had never heard of Elena of Avalor.

Evidently, it's the newest Disney Princess.

 It was roasty, toasty for Dec 29.  It was in the mid 80's and in the sun, it was HOT!

Good thing Levi had a short sleeved shirt in his bag.  We changed him as you can see he is sweating.  Poor thing.

Had to get of shot of this band in honor of my dear friend Nancy.  She lives in Quincy, IL and we've been friends since childhood.  Who knew their local high school performs in the Citrus Bowl every other year!

Nancy's cousin's daughter was among the band members.  She's in there somewhere!

Although the parade wasn't as snazzy as in years past, we did still enjoy our day.  Especially because we were blessed with gorgeous Florida weather.  Today, as I post this, we are at a chilly 60 degrees.  What a difference a couple days make in the south during winter.

Christmas 2016

We had everyone home for Christmas this year.  We all went to 4:00 Mass on Christmas Eve, and came home to finish cooking an Italian dinner.  I think I bit off more than I could chew because even with the extra help, dinner still didn't get served until 7:30!
Good thing Valerie had made Bruschetta for an appetizer.

The menu was Eggplant Parmesan, Chicken Alfredo, Tomato Cucumber Salad, Roasted Italian vegetables, and Tiramisu for dessert.

Fr. Pedro asked that when we had our Christmas meal, to light the Advent Wreath Candles as well as a new candle in the middle representing the light Christ brings to us. Then pray for our world, country, priests, communities, families, and his list went on and on. Valerie originally thought we were to light a candle for each cause and thought, "that's crazy, the house will burn down!"  We had a giggle over that, said our prayers, and enjoyed dinner.

Christmas morning began early.  Stephen and Amber were over before 8:00.  Stephen had to work, so as long as he was in uniform, ready for calls, he could enjoy the festivities until calls came in.  Luckily for him, the roads were clear and drivers were behaving themselves.

Gotta love the mess!

For breakfast, I fixed 2 different breakfast casseroles,sausage, and bacon the day before.  This way the casseroles were cooking while we opened presents and reheating sausage and bacon went quickly. We tried a new recipe for french toast blueberry casserole with homemade blueberry syrup.  We actually took suggestions from both recipes and combined into one.  It was very good.

Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole

 The other casserole was the standard bread, egg, sausage and cheese one.

One of the gifts was for both grandkids for them to enjoy when they come to our house.  Chloe and Levi played so well together.

Trying to get a picture of these 2 is quite the challenge.

Clif comes to the rescue.

But I do have to commentate on them from Levi's perspective.

"Do you really want to sit here and get your picture taken?" 

"This is so boring. I've got better things to do."

"I'm out of here.  Hopefully they won't mind."

All kidding aside, we did get a good one of him.

I didn't realize, I must have had my camera set on video taping and I was snapping pictures as I went along.  This video captures it all.

We got Chloe a Clap and Sing Microphone.

Levi was having a good time with it.

We were blessed with a wonderful Christmas Day.  Stephen had a safe day at work. Michael, Valerie, and Chloe spent the rest of the day with her family. And Amber and Levi stayed with us until Stephen got off work, then went to her family.  I enjoyed my time playing games with Amber while Levi slept.  We haven't been able to do that in a while.  Spending time with family is my favorite thing to do. 👪

Helping Hands

It was good that I was in Tallahassee for that week because I was organizing the Helping Hands Event at our church that was taking place Nov 19, two days after I got home.  I was able to finish last minute preparations without interruption while Chloe was in school.

We had about 160 volunteers split between 2 sessions that came together to package food for citizens in Burkino Faso, Africa.  It is by far the most rewarding event I have participated in.

The core team arrived between 7:15 and 8:00 depending on the duties.  We had to be sure the hall was set up with all the supplies before the participants arrived.

The truck is unloaded and the participants are arriving.

This activity prepared the participants so they could connect with the people we are serving overseas.

They were encouraged to write a prayer to them and to also reflect on which station impacted them the most.

By the end of the second session our prayer offerings were overflowing.

We had a briefing on what Catholic Relief Services (CRS) does to give a "helping hand" which includes teaching them how to farm the difficult land in which they live as well as provide them with the supplies to do so. This also includes educating them and teaching them trades to earn their living.

We moved into the packaging area so they could receive instructions as to how to properly package the meals.

Stephanie from Stop Hunger Now kept the ball rolling.

(This organization partners with CRS as well as other organizations to stop global hunger).

It was wonderful to see so many families working together!

Even children as young as 3 had a job to do!

Each time we reached 1,000 meals, someone banged the gong.
Energy filled the air. Once 10,000 meals were packaged, the session ended.

Even Chloe helped.  She let me use her hands to make the hand prints for the signs!

We repeated the same process for the second session.

Clif was a HUGE help.  He originally came to help us only to unload the truck.  As soon as he realized how big of an endeavor this was, he decided to stay and help all day.  Stephanie was most appreciative because she said she never had a volunteer who knew how to load and unload a truck.  At the end of the event, she usually has to secure the load.  Only today, it was already secured thanks to Clif!  Job well done. 😅

Just over 20,000 meals were packaged and are now on their way to Burkino Faso, Africa!

Thank you Lord for the Blessings you give us.  We in turn can pass the Blessings along. 😇