December 23-28 2009. Days 157-162 Christmas in Lady Lake FL.

Christmas at The Villages in Lady Lake Florida was just as good as we thought it would be. The Villages were all decorated so nice and we loved driving around at night looking at them. We had hoped for warmer weather though but compared to what the rest of the country was getting we were lucky. It was so good to see Kevin’s mom, Allie, and she was so excited we were there. It had been 6 years since we had spent a Christmas with her. She had done so much to make the house look decorated for Christmas and it did look beautiful. When we got there on Wednesday afternoon she surprised us with the news that the next morning we were to be interviewed by the local newspaper about the trip we are on. Apparently she had been to a meeting recently and told someone there about our trip who was either with the paper or knew someone who was and they told her they wanted to interview us. What a surprise. The next morning we were interviewed by not only the paper but also the local TV station. They asked Kevin several questions on camera and then took a lot of pictures of us all and the RV. They did all this on Christmas Eve too. It will be out in mid January here in Lady Lake but of course we expect it to be picked up by the Associated Press and distributed worldwide. Yah-right! That night we went to a wonderful Christmas Eve church service at Allie’s church then had a traditional family dinner of fish and pasta. Christmas morning was so much fun too. Because we are on this long trip plus we try not to over-do it on gifts, the kids each only had 3 things under the tree from us plus whatever else the grandmas had given them. We’ve taught the kids that Christmas is Christ’s birthday and that’s what we celebrate, not a bunch of gift giving. They were very happy with what they got. Andrew finally is getting the phone he’s been wanting. Thomas got a nice camera. Daniel and Rachel each got a new scooter they both asked for plus they got some Georgia Bulldog clothes. Kevin is still forcing his kids to be Dawg fans. After all the gift opening we went to see the movie Avatar. It’s been a Christmas tradition for us to go to an afternoon movie on Christmas. Usually it’s something more like an animation film but I guess the kids are getting older because they all wanted to see Avatar. On the 26th we drove Thomas down to the Orlando airport for his flight to Albuquerque. We had been with him for a week now but we were still not happy to see him leave. He was so excited to go to see his friends though so we had to be happy for him. The drive back from the airport was very hard for Kathleen. No matter how much we think about how well he’s doing in the Navy and how good it all is for him it doesn’t seem to make it much easier to not have him with us all the time. He’s definitely grown up though. He’s so confident for an 18 year old in a very good way. We’re very proud of him. We spent a couple more relaxing days with Allie before leaving on Tuesday morning the 29th to move over to Melbourne Beach FL to then go see the Kennedy Space center.