Monday - December 2

Our very enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with all our kids/grandkids is over but what a memorable time it was!!!   Sooo thankful we were all together and loved every minute!    I’m starting this blog at 9:15 AM Monday as Mark and I are truckin’ down south with Daisy pulling Toad heading to Florida.    We hope to do half or more of the trip today. 
What a treat to have sunshine and dry pavement after the icky day last Tuesday for traveling.    After that nasty day, it was sunny and gorgeous every day, but some mighty COLD nights!   Here’s a brief recap of the past few days….
Thanksgiving….Brooke’s parents, Bob and Judy, brother, Scott, sister-in-law, Leigh and Caroline and Cooper arrived and we all (22) enjoyed a bountiful feast at the Catawba Country Club.   What a spread….and beautifully decorated for Christmas.    Everything was sooo good and then back home for naps, boys played outdoors, and eventually poker and euchre.   We dined on all kinds of yummy hors d’oeuvres for our evening meal.
Friday…we were all up, dressed and off to have Miss Blair baptized at St. Aloysius with Deacon Tom doing the honors.    Drew is Blair’s Godfather and Aunt Leigh, her Godmother.    “Blair Bliss” was just a perfect little angel throughout the ceremony, including pouring 3 scoops of holy water over her head.    After a bunch of pictures, we went back home for lunch and then a leisurely afternoon of more games, including dominoes.   I brought some solid chocolate “domino” treats from Lisbon for prizes whenever someone went out.   Kids were sooo rambunctious, so Davis had the bright idea to duct tape their mouths (his, Liam, Connor and Brady’s) and see how long they could go without talking and then each would get a chocolate prize!    We adults enjoyed the peace and quiet and by golly, those boys made it thru, ripped off the duct tape and enjoyed their domino treats!    Annette made delicious lasagna for dinner. 
Blair Bliss on her baptism day
 
Blair and Mommy
 
Blair and her grandparents

Mark and I with our grandchildren

Our kids (holding shutter-fly books I made from our NC vacation this past summer)
 
Saturday...Ryan left at 5 AM for Pensacola.  Bob and Judy came.    The kids played outdoors a big part of the day, along with Patrick and Philip.   The big news today is that Blair rolled over for the first time and then did it several times from back to tummy!   What fun we had with she and Luke.  We gals played euchre and I went to 5:15 Mass with Brady, Anne, Patrick and boys.    We celebrated Drew’s 14th birthday with white chicken chili, assorted yummy cupcakes and presents.
Our "Drewby" is 14!!!   WOW....
 
    Liam, Connor and Brady have spent the past 3 nights on Daisy (along with watching a movie each night), but tonight, Liam and Connor are inside the house as they are leaving very early tomorrow for home.   Brady, Drew and Davis spent the night with us and watched “Mighty Ducks” with Grandpa.
Sunday…Anne, Patrick and boys left at 5:30 AM…..rest of us slept in and then all went to church at 11:00 while Brady, Annette and I stayed home with the babies.    After lunch, Philip and Annette got their car packed up, loaded Luke up and off they went spending  the night in Savannah    Anne and all arrived home safely in the early evening!    Michael opened his birthday gifts from us (just a little early, but we won't be with him on the 12th, so....)
Monday…said our goodbyes to Michael, Brooke, boys and Blair.  BIG thanks to them for hosting all of us and what a grand job they did!!!     Brooke took boys to school, I fed Blair her bottle while Mark got Toad hooked up to Daisy and we were off at 8:00.  Good day for traveling with not much traffic and lots of sunshine.    Felt so good to step out of Daisy in Walterboro, SC where we had lunch and got gas.   We were 50 miles from FL when we turned on the air conditioning and then traffic picked up, too.       Philip checked in around 2:30 and they were almost home!
Tonight we are at the Stagecoach RV Park near St. Augustine, FL.    Since we are several miles from the historic area (which we both love), decided to eat close by at a Ruby Tuesday.    Long day of travel (460 miles) and about 4 hours coming tomorrow till we get to Lukeville!
Good to be back in the land of palm trees but hard to believe it’s already December.   The Christmas lights and décor are everywhere – always seems strange to us with the warmer weather.    But the nice weather will be short-lived as Wednesday we fly home and going to be getting some good old-fshioned IL  December weather – COLD and maybe SNOW?
I have lots more pictures, but having S L O W internet here in the park, so this is it for tonight!

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