The Holidays...

So I realized I haven't posted anything from the holidays yet and it is now almost halfway through January. So here is the quick rundown…

THANKSGIVING

(Seeing turkeys at the fair in November. They don't realize what they're in for.)

We were privileged to host a nice Thanksgiving dinner at our house. My sister Karen and niece Beth drove up from Lake City to join us. The food was wonderful and the company even better.

Family

Beth, Me, Karen (definitely family).

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went downtown to enjoy the Annual Jacksonville Light Parade and fireworks on the river. First was the parade of lights on the river.

Santa

Donovan's favorite - Mater from Cars

The dragons were my favorite.

Then came the fireworks set off simultaneously from 3 barges on the river and two bridges. The most spectacular was the firework waterfall they created down from the bridges.

We had one of these on each side of us. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful!


The first week of December, we made one last trip to Orlando for the year and celebrate the magical season in the Magic Kingdom.

It was a cold rainy day, but we had tons of fun anyway.

Donovan loved driving on the speedway, although I was tossed around a bit.

A special person makes visits to Disney...

Donovan is positive he met the real Santa.

Santa sharing a candy cane with Donovan.

Do I spy a 8th dwarf?

We were sure glad we had raincoats and umbrellas. It was a nice day at Disney.


The next day we went to Sea World.

Still cold, but not nearly as much rain.


First we met this Shamu.

Then we met this Shamu up close an personal.

We enjoyed the Dine With Shamu lunch and backstage at the whale show.

We rode on the Polar Express and then watched Sesame Street Live.

When we got home, we had the first of the Christmas parties.

Donovan decorating his cookie,

and then carefully eating the cookie.

The rest of December was filled with parties and fun.

Donovan was such a big helper with wrapping presents.

Helping Dad write the tag.

Soon came the best day of December..

CHRISTMAS!!

Santa brought Donovan a bike. I think he was a little stunned and not quite awake yet. (He went to sleep at 11:00pm the night before and was awake at 6:30am.)

The loot.

Wow, I got a new train set and tools!

Christmas dinner.

(Donovan really didn't want his picture taken, the lack of sleep was catching up with him.)

Trying his new bike out a few days later.

Donovan singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, as he did and still does about everyday.

(Dan didn't know I was filming.)

The week after Christmas we we lucky again to get a wonderful visit from my dear friend Amber and her boyfriend Andrew. We had such a great time the few days they were here.

Donovan thought they came just to see him.

It was great spending time with friends and family this holiday season. We had a good 2009 and 2010 looks great so far.