Dec 09

This year, we once again attended the annual White Elephant Party at Denis and Jane's in Charlotte. There were many familiar faces and quite a few new ones, with an abundance of great home-cooked food. The weird and whacky selection of presents under the tree drew much laughter and changed owners several times.
Ted's cousin Mary also lives in the Charlotte area. We celebrated her husband Stan's 75th birthday with the family. In the front are Mary and Stan with grand-daughter Clara draped over his shoulders; in the middle are grand-daughter Della with parents Chris and Mike; Anne and Ted at the back.

After a quick visit with Anne's brother, David, we continued on to New York to stay with Ted's Uncle Jay and Aunt Joan for Christmas. Ted wanted to help his uncle clear out some of the accumulated junk he has stashed away over his lifetime in multiple garages and basements. However, Ted did not count on Uncle Jay's stubborn tenacity and not much was thrown out. The view above of Powell's Cove and the Whitestone Bridge is from our balcony window. We managed to visit the city twice to photograph New York decked-out for Christmas.
We caught up with friends Guy and Bonnie at Queens Restaurant in Brooklyn. The food was delicious and the outing was a wonderful break from the family in College Point.

Ted failed once again trying to see other former co-workers who could not be bothered to take a subway to meet him. (You have to let this go, Ted!)
A couple of days before Christmas, we got SNOW! It was beautiful and the neighborhood was out shoveling the next morning. Uncle Jay and Ted worked hard to clear the sidewalk and free the cars.
On our leisurely way home we wanted to see the snow scenery on the Blue Ridge Mountains. We had hoped to drive the actual Blue Ridge Parkway, but it was closed! We did find some other interesting back roads with spectacular views and one dinosaur.
Our drive took us once again to Floyd, Virginia and the Country Store where we sat in on a Sunday bluegrass jam session. It was nice to get out of the car, off the snowy roads to relax and listen to some live music.

Jan 2010

It was wonderful to return to the warmth of sunny Florida! Unfortunately that lasted only for a few days, then the cold weather caught up with us.

Ted and I devised a system to protect our delicate bottle palm from the freezing nights - lots of pvc pipe, a fisherman's pole stake and a golf umbrella topped off with two king size sheets. We must patent this design!
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