I don’t know about you, but I myself am looking forward to a quiet evening.

Alton Hatfield has passed away. I knew him as Papa. I will miss him and all of the stories he liked to share.

Florida was a lovely little vacation, I never would have thought of hanging out at the beach for Christmas, in some ways it seems plain wrong. Christmas for me always means cold weather, grey skies, and lots of wind. Florida seemed positively toasty to my usual wintriness. Of course there are those out there who will tell you that since I’ve spent most of my Christmases in west Texas I have no real concept of what a true wintry Christmas entails. They are right of course, but that’s only because I’ve never experienced three feet of snow blocking the front door. Regardless, I still really enjoyed the sun, sand and surf. I mean just the novelty of seeing dolphins in the morning made all that sunlight worthwhile.

I’m leaving for Florida tomorrow so there won’t be any updates until I return. Do you hear that? Absolutely nothing will be happening for the next few days here … not that much happens most days.

Last night was a first for me, thanks to Paul’s workplace. We went on a 3 hour Christmas light tour in a limousine. It was quite enjoyable. We went to three different areas that were brightly lit. The first was called ‘the 12 days of Christmas’, the second was somewhere in Highland Park, and the third was in a way too wealthy part of Plano. I think my favorite was the second even though we had to cut it a little short since the complementary Dr. Pepper went straight to my bladder. Highland Park had some beautiful light displays, and also there were several quaint little carriage horses that were doing the same kind of thing. I was a little jealous and someday I would like to try the carriage ride as long as the horses aren’t stinky.