Hellooooo, Florida!

It's very easy to lose track of time in Florida. Especially when one is on vacation in Florida. I only today realized that the date is December 20th, and if the Mayans end up being right, this could be my last day to post on my blog. So I figured I should let me family and friends know what I've been up to since we left the cold, snow-ridden North, for sunny Florida.

In a lot of ways, this vacation resembles the one we took in Nova Scotia back in September. Except this time we are in Florida. And it's warmer outside. And the shopping is pretty awesome. We caught a red-eye to Tampa Bay, Florida on Saturday night, even though Jim swore he would never do another red-eye after our last one to Nova Scotia. But money talks and the price of the flight was right.

As much as I love visiting my in-laws in Nova Scotia, it's pretty awesome that they now also have a place down in Florida where we can visit them. Jim's parent's having only moved in a month ago, we wasted no time getting our butts down here to share in the Florida way of life. Since we've arrived, a good portion of our days have been spent by the pool. Today we switched it up and went to the beach first and then to the pool afterwards.

It's hard to believe that less than a week ago this is what greeted me out my back door:

This has been my view for a few good hours everyday since arriving in Florida:

Jim's parents bought a house in a retirement community down here, and while sometimes it reminds me of the book/movie, In Her Shoes, it's really a fun, outgoing place. There's always something going on and everyone is so friendly. So far, since we've arrived, we've attended a race boat regala at the pool, played BINGO, played pool, and witnessed a parade of Christmas decorated golf carts, followed by cookies and tea in the main club room. We've also made numerous trips out to the nearby stores. Everything always seems more exciting and better when you're shopping in the states. For example, for most of my life, we've only had (as far as I've been aware) regular M&M's and peanut M&M's, with more recently mint and coconut. BUT HERE, I've seen, regular, dark chocolate, white chocolate, white chocolate peppermint, mint, coconut, almond, and peanut. It's insane and I get way too excited over these little things!

I'm going to eat all of you delicious M&M's.

So much like our trip to Nova Scotia, a good chunk of our mornings are spent reading. This is the first time I can remember flying and NOT reading a book. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was actually able to somewhat sleep on the plane. But as soon as we got here I started The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough. This book was originally on my Fall TBR list, but I never got around to reading it. Partly because I didn't think I would like it, but mostly because it's almost 700 pages and 700 PAGES! But I am absolutely loving it. It's been a long time since I've read such a long, exciting drama of a novel. The book follows the Cleary family starting in 1915 when they are living in New Zealand, barely making ends meet on their sheep farm, to their voyage and life in Australia. I'm only half way done and fully immersed in the life if the Cleary's. My mother-in-law (who originally gave me the book) told me yesterday that the book was made into a television mini-series so now I cannot wait to also watch that. If I can find it of course.

Nokomis Beach, Florida

P.S. Technically it is now 12:12 in Florida and the world has not ended. Although a torrential down-pour, complete with thunder and lightening did just start. Which is kind of creepy, no? But anyway. Still alive. So I'll be back soon with more pictures...and more book talk. Right, I should probably talk a bit more about books.