Hoiday # 5 - Camp Cornish

Our final family Christmas.

We are at Camp Cornish for the gathering with my parents, Gramma and Grampa A, Morgan, Jon and there little one JP.

We all arrived Friday night and got settled in.

Big C and I headed to bed late for us around 9 pm, little C was not interested in sleeping so we left her with the rest of the adults. She was brought up shortly after to nurse and go to bed. She managed to nurse but not to sleep, she actually left our room and when down stairs again. We were fine with this since the lights were on so some one must have been up. Gramma A and little C stayed up until 1 am. What a little night owl. Little C was then up at 6 am ready to go.

We spread out our stocking and gift opening to not over whelm the little one. The weekend was filled with lots of fun times, family and a lot of great food.

We were in charge of breakfast Saturday and served up omelets, muffins, english muffins, friut, OJ and we even brought along some of our own apple butter made with the apples of the tree in our back yard.

We had a wonderful weekend.

Holiday # 4 - NH

So this is our 4th holiday celebration, if you count our first one in CT, then actual Christmas week in FL, then we as a family celebrated our Christmas on New Years Day - it was a very low key event, although we learned the maximum number of clementines little C should eat is something less than 5.

We still have one to go in Cornish.

This weekend we were in NH visiting Big C's Gram and uncle Jack. And again we had more wonderful visits with everyone. We arrived Friday night, got to bed early, and got an early start to the morning.

Little C tried out her ski's inside the house and out. We celebrated our Christmas Saturday morning after breakfast. Little C brought home a first words radio toy and an stuffed life size emperor penguin. Little C loves the penguin and carries/ drags it around the house everywhere she goes.

We provided lunch, big C made chili, a green bean salad, and we brought bread. Everone seems to have liked it and we managed not to poison anyone.

Big C, myself and Mike headed out to the dump leaving little C in the capable hands of her Grammy and Great -Gram - apparently she didn't even know we were gone until she heard us come back.

We had to cut our trip short, we came home Saturday night after dinner, unfortunately little C got sick and we felt it was best to finish the weekend out in our own home.

We are hoping we didn't share anything more than good food and family time.

Vacation Day 6 - Heading Home

We got an early start so we only saw uncle Joe this morning.

We had a quick breakfast then it was off to the airport. Uncle Joe led us through the construction and got us to the right place.

Our flight home was uneventful, little C fell asleep quickly and only woke up when she sensed the presence of food.

We arrived in CT just after 2 pm, Big C's parents met us at the airport and we swung by their place to pick up the rest of our luggage and Christmas gifts. Liz had packed us a picnic lunch/ dinner and we were back on the road for 3:30, which got us home for 7:30/ 8pm

Florida Day 5 - On the Road Again

Port St. Joe to Tampa

This time the trip went quicker, of course we had less stops and we got an early start, having packed up the night before.

So not much note worthy about the drive - except that I think we all have had enough driving for awhile - although we still have a bit to go.

We arrived in Tampa a little before 4 pm. We had yet another wonderful visit with family, my cousin Emily had arrived with her two children and we were able to catch up. The evening was again filled with wonderful food and family time. And aunt Bev had picked up matching robes for the children for a group photo a tradition with them. It was wonderful that little C was included. In fact I remember some of these photos from my childhood all of us cousins in matching nightgowns.

Florida Day 4 - Port St. Joe & Appalachacola

We had a leisurely Christmas breakfast in bed, while we watched the last 5 minutes of "The Christmas Story" - we were interrupted the night before by a certain little girl.

We then got ready for a nice family lunch, with my aunt Jean and uncle Joe and cousins. We picked up Grammy and headed out. Again another great visit with family we hadn't seen in ages. There were two little cousins for little C to play with ages 3 and 6. The girls had a blast together. They chased the guinea hens, visited the dogs and little C got to play with a cat and she got to meet some chickens and horses too.

It was an afternoon filled with great food and wonderful time with family. Uncle Joe brought out his banjo and the was music and singing, little C loved it and was dancing her little heart out.



We finished our day with a little swimming and then packed up.

Florida Day 3 - Port St. Joe

We slept in, all of us!! which was really great after the late arrival yesterday.

We finally found ourselves at Grammy Fleetwood's after finding breakfast and getting a little bit lost. (OK...... I read the map wrong and had us heading south/east when we should have been heading north/west).

It was really great seeing Grammy again, it had been a long time since our last visit, little C was about 5 months old the last time she saw her great-Grammy, so over a year had gone by.



After our visit we had enough time to stop pick up some groceries for a light dinner and breakfast. We ate our dinner on the terrace at our rental place - we stayed in a condo, a very nice place, very relaxing.

Then we had time for a bike ride out to the beach to watch the sunset and stick our toes into the Gulf of Mexico - it was a refreshing dip, and little C got a bit more than she bargained for when she fell in. Although I think she was willing to go swimming after that, but I wasn't going in.

The sand was so white little C was expecting snow when she first saw it, She was a little disappointed when she stepped out on it. - We built a "snow man for her to make up for it.



We finished off out Christmas Eve by watching most of "the Christmas Story"

Florida Day 2, Tampa To Port St. Joe in 12 hrs!!!

This portion of the trip was by no means record breaking travel speed, but for the most part we had a lot of fun. This is the longest car trip little C has ever taken and she did very well - although by the end she wanted nothing more to do with the car.

Following waffles (made with pecans, the first time I've had them that way, YUM!) and some last minute visiting, we got off to a great start with some wonderful driving by Joe and Big C. Joe led us through the construction going on and onto the correct highway.

We leisurely made our way up through the state, stopped for lunch at a great seafood market/ restaurant, Charlie's in Crystal River- It was great. The food was wonderful, we had really good food and We finished up our meal with some fried ice cream. Little C REALLY enjoyed herself too and the ice cream.
We had a activity tote that little C's Grammy made her for Christmas that kept her well occupied in the car and in every restaurant we visited, a priceless gift.

A Little further up the road we turned off the main road and detoured to Manatee Springs State park where we checked out the spring, walked the board walk and played in the play ground. It was a good chance to get out and stretch our legs.



The rest of the trip was just driving, driving and more driving. A quick stop for dinner in Perry and then we continued on to Port St. Joe - Arriving at 10 PM. Quite the long day but fun too.