Cheeseburger in Paradise!

After the nightly round of golf, the guys called and told me to meet them at the Tiki Bar in Orange Blossom Country Club for drinks and dinner. They had a special; Margarita’s for $2 and Cheeseburgers for $3, what a cheap date. The DJ was leading the poolside games for Margarita glasses and Joe and Molly won the modified beer pong. It doesn’t get much better than this.

The second year in the Villages was fun filled. We had a crowd for Thanks giving and the Christmas white elephant gift exchange party was a smash! Molly’s sister came to visit and we had an 8 cart caravan tour to see the lights around the different Villages. We had an old fashioned progressive dinner for New Years, traveling by carts for a six course meal. We also celebrated belated weddings for Elaine & Kevin and Ron & Beth as both couples snuck away to Vegas to get married depriving us of a good party.

Our visitors were non stop. Dave & Carol, a friends from the Model Shop, spent New Years with us. Sue & Tom came down for a month, They settled in like they belonged here. Wayne’s best friend since high school, Kevin and his family came down several times. His wife Michelle has health issues that would be greatly improved down here and we hope to lure them in when their kids are a bit older. Billy Jo visited Beth several times, as did several more friends and all of her kids and grand kids. Molly and Joe had their houses full of visitors all winter. Rich’s family and friends rolled in and out and we all couldn’t be happier showing off our Shangri la.

We all had our parents down for a visit. Wayne’s parents are almost 90 and still struggling up north in the snow on the farm where his dad was born. I would love to have them live down here but roots that deep are hard to dig up. Every year it worries us more to have them 1500 miles away. They retired over twenty years ago and are still stubbornly staying put in a house that is too big, on a farm that they cannot manage, in a climate that is too harsh. I had hoped that being here and seeing how easy the living here was would convince them, but no luck yet. Rich's Mom came down the year before. She is a warm wonderful person, that he wishes he saw more of. She got us to go to Bingo and made me feel like a rookie as she had to watch my cards and hers! We hope she will come down from that Frigid Canada North Country again soon!

I miss my kids terribly. They drove down in January and we celebrated and exchanged gifts. I wish they were closer. Briana and her boyfriend are now driving over the road big rig cross country. She decided criminal justice was no longer what she wanted to do and dropped out of college. She’s a hard worker and makes me very proud. Erika is almost done with her teaching degree. She is struggling to decide if her calling is politics or teaching. She wants to move to NYC. I am sure she will be a success at what ever she chooses, I am proud of her too.

This list of visitors is only about half of the crowd we had down last year and I am totally looking forward to next year’s crop. We should get paid for all of this free advertising. I say the more the merrier and hope more of my friends and family join us here in the Villages.