January

 I am sitting in my home office, which is the northern-most guest room of my house - it is freezing!  6 degrees.  We were so lucky last week to have been able to fly to see our friends down in Tampa.  It was a very quick trip - Friday to Monday.  But it was a nice break from the cold.  

Our friend J has a Christmas tree burning party each year in January.  He collects about 80-100 trees and we enjoyed the bonfire, white chili and hot chocolate.  It was a real nice weekend.  The last time we made it down was about 5 years ago right after DH retired.  

This past weekend my niece stayed at our house with our dogs.  We were really concerned about the winter store all over the country, but we were very lucky and not affected.  The walk from long term parking (no shuttle?!) was about .2 miles and it was brutal wind.  So, of course we had our coats and all our warm gear all the way to Florida.  When we got back on Monday, DH truck had snow and some ice on it - well, we realized in Florida - no ice scraper!  Ha.

Anyway, while in Florida my friends took us to Siesta Key, beach near Sarasota - my first time to go there.  Was really beautiful.  It stayed about 58 degrees the 4 days we were there.  It was sort of overcast on Sunday when we went to the beach, but the sun was trying to peek out and the rain held off.  There were people walking on the beach - most bundled it in coats and long pants, but a few in shorts and barefoot.  

I could not believe how many pretty shells!  SO many.  And colorful!  Gorgeous.  Since we flew a economy airline, all we could have was one small carry on - so no shells collected by me.  Darn.  I would have loved to collect some for our lake condo.  Oh well, guess I will just have to get some next time!

It was all over the news the really cold Chief v Dolphins game last weekend.  It was like -10 degrees in KC Sat night.  We could not see the game unless we were Peacock subscribers, so we just kept checking the score.  People I knew were there posting photos of peoples beers and drinks freezing and running out over the top.  Crazy!

Well I hope you are staying warm and safe where you are and your 2024 is off to a great start.  Namaste.