christmas in florida...

We arrived at our friend’s house on Christmas Eve evening. The meal that was planned was calamari, shrimp cocktail, mussels & crab legs. My first time having mussels and they were pretty good. They had one other friend over for dinner. Her name is Jane. We heard an interesting story about her, but since it’s not ours to tell – I will leave it only to our memory – but I assure you, it was a good one. Dinner was very nice – the weather was amazing – we conversed over wine and dessert and headed to bed.

The next day was Christmas. We exchanged gifts in the early afternoon. They got us these very cute tealight sconces from Pier I Imports, for us to use on our new deck/patio/porch over the garage. We got them some items from Trader’s Joes; Bell’s beer and cookies (YUM - doesn’t that go together well?).
That evening they had invited Terry’s brother Greg and his wife Veronica and their friends from Metamora, MI; Bill and Joann, who are snowbirds. The menu had prime rib and haricots verts. Marina made a beautiful (and tasty) Yule Log. Another evening spent conversing over drinks and goodies.
The day after Christmas, we went to the Delray Beach Tennis Center for an art fair. Picked up a couple of things; a small painting for us and a photograph for our friends Tamim & Tasneem, who we will be visiting later on this trip. After the fair, we went down to Ocean Blvd and had lunch at an outdoor café called Surf Sliders. The weather was still beautiful. We also had plans to go to Terry’s brother’s place to take a look. Gregory and Veronica are building a new home. It’s been taking about 3 years, but now it’s nearly ready to move in. It’s a Spanish style house, but on steroids. I believe it’s supposed to be a million dollar home. Really unique home – I’ve never been in one like this. A lot of color, which I like. I didn’t take any pictures and I’m a little disappointed at myself for that.
When we returned home, we were exhausted, so we all went and did our own things; either napping, watching TV or swimming in the pool. Later, when we were refreshed, we headed back out to visit the American Orchid Society Gardens. Orchid’s come in so many varieties. So many colors and size of flower, it’s incredible. The grounds were very pretty too and soon we found Terry pillaging around in the dirt looking for seeds that may have fallen from different flowering trees. I think he ended up with at least two different variety of flowering tree seeds. I’m sure he’ll be successful at growing them too.
Late the next morning, we left for Tennessee to visit our friend Tamim and Tasneem. Before leaving, Terry and Marina gave us an orchid and a small poinciana tree. I'm not very good with plants. They've given us a coconut palm too, but it quickly died in my care. I'm thinking these poor plants are doomed.