December...in a nutshell

I can't believe that Christmas is done and December is already almost over! Time really does fly but we've been really busy. Last week, my parents flew in and stayed for 5 days to celebrate Christmas with us and they left yesterday, just as David's brother and Dad (who reminded me that I need to update the 'ol blog) got into town. Whew!

So here's December, in a nutshell :)

Sarah, Paul and Mary came to visit right after Thanksgiving (which is close enough to December, right?) and we had a blast playing on the beach, and eating a lot. Unfortunately, we had a cold snap and they didn't get to do very much beaching but we had a lot of fun catching up with them, chasing Mary around and eating a lot. Somehow I didn't take any pictures all weekend but Sarah has a pretty hot picture of us in our "hammer pants" around somewhere...

For David's Christ Fellowship "Christmas Party," we went gleaning at a farm in Belle Glade. It was intense. Basically, we picked all the corn that the machine missed, and it went to food banks. We ended up eating a lot of corn and bringing a whole lot back home with us.

On my birthday, David took me out to dinner at Seasons 52, which I love. I love that I can eat a lot but not leave feeling totally disgusting and that it is decently priced for the quality of food. But most of all, I love that the Seasons 52 in West Palm Beach is on the Intercoastal, so we got to sit by the water and watch the boats. It was awesome.

But the real celebrating happened that Saturday. Our friend John, who David works with, gave us tickets to go to Lion Country Safari. If you think this is a totally lame way for 2 adults to spend a Saturday, you're wrong. It was great. We saw lions (duh), elephants, alligators, monkeys, pythons and all kinds of great stuff. We got to feed giraffes and a goat even tried to eat David's pants! We drove through the safari part twice (because it was that cool. And because going 8mph is great for your gas tank...) and then got out and walked around the zoo-ish part. I don't know if I would pay to go back (okay, I do know and I wouldn't) but for free, it was a pretty great day. And to cap off the day, I got the interior of my car detailed. Happy birthday to me!

It was really windy. My hair is not that crazy in real life, promise.

The time between Christmas and my birthday was mostly spent doing a lot of shopping and getting ready for our families to get here. My parents came last Tuesday and we had a lot of fun playing tourist with them around Jupiter and West Palm Beach. We went to CityPlace a few times and took them to the Breakers, where we looked at all of the beautiful decorations and had snacks/drinks at a bar made out of an aquarium. We even spent Christmas day at the beach and my family was brave enough to get in both the ocean and the pool. I think David and I are becoming true Floridians because it was way too cold for us. Dad, Adam, David and I wrapped up the week by kayaking on the Loxahatchee River. With a strong current. My arms are still sore but it was a lot of fun. I forgot to take my camera so pictures to come once I steal them from someone else.

Here's a picture of my favorite present that we gave to my family - their name in pictures from the Marina. Theirs is framed and in sepia instead of black & white but this is the general idea:

And now...we're just waiting for Christmas part 2 with the Aldridge/D'Ambola clan!

Hope you had a great, relaxing December too!