A Funny Kind of New Year's Eve

December 31, 2007

We spent New Year’s Eve at Ocean Resorts this year…. On the beach……

A group of people went down to the beach in the afternoon and dug a great big hole. Wood was gathered and the pit was ready for the fire.

People started to gather at about 8:00pm. The fire glowed in the dark although there was a full moon. What a neat sight! There were about 70 people coming and going all evening. Many didn’t stay till midnight so the crowd to welcome in the new year was small. Some brought snacks and some cooked hot dogs. Fireworks was shot off also.

Needless to say, it was a very different New Year’s Eve.

Back to Texas for Christmas

December 19-28, 2006

After some Christmas festivities in Florida, it was back to Texas for the holidays. BUT, we didn’t drive the motorhome, we flew. Since we were only going to be in Texas for a week or so, driving would have taken too long AND we brought Joni’s Mom, Lee, with us.

We traveled to DFW, where Delton’s brother, Ron, had left our car. We went to see Ken and Shawna’s new house. They were completely renovating it and hadn’t moved in yet. It’s going to be beautiful. Then we went to Kathy and Skip McKie’s house for some visiting and diner. Since Kathy is Italian, Mom enjoyed talking about Italian food and visits to Italy. Chris joined us for diner also. Kathy and Skip’s son, Tom, is a very close friend of Chris’. We’ve all been friends for a long time.

Then we continued on to Lake Kiowa. Ron, Delton’s brother, and his wife Trude, graciously allowed us to stay at their house while they were on a vacation in Cancun. Ron has allowed us to use his address as our permanant home address while we travel the country in our motorhome, so we were really "home"! We have lots of family in Lake Kiowa – Delton’s brothers, Ron, Larry, and Steve, and Larry’s daughter, Lisa and all their families.


After a lot of visits in Lake Kiowa, we headed to Stamford for Christmas with Delton’s Mom and brothers and their families. Joni’s Mom, Lee, was with us and was sometimes alittle overwhelmed by all the people. It’s a big, fun loving family and there are always a lot of activities going on.

Delton started our Christmas present opening with a reading of the Christmas story from the Bible.




After Christmas, it was back to Lake Kiowa and Larry and Linda’s house. Larry celebrated his birthday while we were there, so we had a birthday celebration at IHOP! It is one of Larry’s favorites. Shown is the party at IHOP.

We also got to see many of our Texas friends. Shown are Kathy and Larry Lehrmann having diner with us at the Outback Steakhouse. We visited so long we almost shut the place down.

After a very busy, active time in Texas, we headed back to Florida. Mom was glad to be back home, although she had a real good time. She said that it’s always good to go back home. We were glad we were able to take her with us.

Christmas at Ocean Resorts, Florida

December, 2006

An outdoor Christmas celebration was held at Ocean Resorts.


Santa arrived in his “summer” outfit to join in on all the fun. This consisted of his regular Santa uniform, but instead of pants, he wore his shorts. I guess his reindeer thought the weather was too warm for them. Santa arrived in his motorized wheelchair……

We had a “live band”, caroling, and refreshments.


Santa's elves enjoyed the festivities also.

Shuttle Launch

December 11, 2006


Cape Canaveral is about 100 miles north of Ocean Resorts.

A space shuttle, carrying astronauts to the space station circling the earth, was launched in December. The residents of Ocean Resorts have seen many shuttle launches over the years. We were fortunate to be able to witness this one.

We walked to the beach and looked north along the shore. We are pictured here waiting for the shuttle to launch.


Pictured is the rocket as it ascends. You must look closely as the rocket is hard to see in the picture. It's just a streak in the sky.


A night time launch allowed us to see a spectacular view of the night sky as the rocket went up. We could see the initial explosion of light as we looked north along the coast, then a streak of light as the rocket rose in the sky. We could see the separation of the booster rockets as the shuttle got higher and higher. Then it appeared to start coming down. What was actually happening was that it was disappearing over the horizon. It was amazing to be able to see this so clearly being that it was 100 miles away.