Happy 80th Grandma Jane

Today was Grandma Jane's 80th birthday.  We all wished that we could be there to celebrate, but she enjoyed our texts, phone calls and social media posts just the same.  Meg and I had so much fun last night picking out pictures to celebrate her milestone, and today we made sure that she opened the gifts that I had shipped to her.  Grandma loved her new bathroom rug that matched her other two perfectly.  She and Grandpa planned on putting a dent in the 80 pieces of candy that we sent her as well.  I made plans to celebrate with her in January when we returned to Syracuse for a visit.  Cameron was able to give her a gift in person before Thanksgiving, and Brett, Cal and Meg all set dates to celebrate with her in December.  

Eighty sounded old and I know that my mom wasn't excited about us announcing her age.  I felt differently, however.  Eighty was something to be proud of and definitely something to celebrate.  Not every one of those years were easy, but all of them were impactful in the lives of others.  She had so many proud grandparent moments and there would still be more to come.  The four Heinisch children may not live in the same town as she does, but they will always enjoy calling her, talking to her and stopping by for a visit.  Eighty can not seem so bad to her knowing that her family loves her very much.  

Sad to Say Goodbye

We spent a good portion of our day hanging out at the house.  Cal took a walk before lunch.  Brett and Meg took one afterward.  The guys watched IU lose and Michigan win at football while I played ping pong against Brett.  Meg rested and read her new book.  It was a laid back kind of day, but a nice one just the same.  

We had talked about going to Rock N Brews in Orlando before the boys' flights tonight.  There was a wreck on the turnpike, however, that changed our plans.  The travel time to the airport was double and none of us wanted to leave at 2 p.m. this afternoon.  The boys decided instead that they would just eat at the airport before departing.  

Doug watched the travel times off and on for an hour.  Thankfully, they went down and he decided that leaving at 3:15 made the most sense.  There was really no reason for Meg and I to go with them as Doug was just driving them to the airport and turning around to come back.  We thought that it would be a better use of our time to work on wedding plans and look through pictures.  I was sad to see the boys pull out of the driveway this afternoon as we had had such a wonderful holiday break with them.  It was nice that I had something else to do tonight, rather than just be sad.

As soon as Doug pulled off of I-75, I got an alert that Cal's plane had been delayed from 8:05 until 8:55.  That sounded frustrating at first, but in the end, worked out very well.  Brett and Cameron's flight was already scheduled to leave at 8:50, so that gave the guys an extra hour before they needed to be at the airport.  I called right away to suggest that they go to Rock N Brews after all.  They were very pleased with the restaurant and it helped passed the time before they had to arrive at security.

Meg and I took a long walk while they were gone, worked on wedding plans and sorted pictures.  It was a lot of fun.  We had just talked about getting an Uber ride to Las Margaritas for dinner when Doug called to say that he was an hour away.  We waited for him and the three of us enjoyed our new favorite Mexican restaurant together.  Afterward, we drove through the neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights.  By the time that we arrived home, all of the boys' flights had departed.  I was very thankful that they all made it out without too much hassle on one of the busiest travel days of the year. 

Black Friday Changes

It's strange how much Black Friday has changed over the past few years.  It used to be that everyone got up well before dawn on the Friday after Thanksgiving to get to the stores before they opened.  Individual stores started to open earlier and earlier to attract more shoppers.  Soon Black Friday wasn't even the best shopping day of the holiday season as many stores opened on Thanksgiving night.  There was definitely a time when we would clean up from our family dinner and head to Target and the University Park Mall just as the sun set on turkey day.  

Doug and I stopped our annual Thanksgiving day shopping trip five or six years ago when we realized that the crowds were too much for us.  Some of our children still went, but our family's enthusiasm for shopping on the holiday waned.  During the past few years, Cameron and Meg still went shopping, but only on Black Friday.  This year I was excited to join them, especially with so many of our favorite stores only ten minutes away.  The experience was definitely different than what I remembered.  The stores still had shoppers, but the sales weren't quite what they used to be.  That made sense as I had read that retailers were focused on discounts throughout the month of November instead of just on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Even though it was different than in years past, the three of us still had fun and found some great items just the same.  

Brett joined us for the first hour of our trip, but then met Doug and Cal at the movie theater.  Cal had suggested going to see the new Napoleon movie instead of shopping.  They were all glad that they went, but thought that the movie left a lot of holes in Napoleon's story.  

Late this afternoon, the six of us headed to the World Equestrian Center.  It was opening night of their WEC Winter Wonderland.  We walked through the light displays, shops, and hotel enjoying all of the festivities.  Everything was beautiful, but I loved the purple ornamented tree the most.  

After the WEC, we headed downtown for dinner at Bank Street Patio Bar & Grill.  It was warm enough to eat outside and the food was delicious.  We stopped at Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop before heading home to play Chameleon with Uncle Phil.  It was a fun evening for all and the chocolate covered red fish were a lot better than anyone thought that they would be. 

 

Thanksgiving

I am happy to say that our first Thanksgiving in Florida was a success.  There were a lot of similarities between this one and those we hosted in Syracuse.  Doug still made a delicious dinner.  The television was tuned to the parade in the morning and then football during the afternoon.  We played games on the poker table, participated in several rounds of ping pong, talked about Black Friday shopping, watched the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP and thoroughly enjoyed the day just as we had so many times before.

There were some differences, however, that made this year's holiday unique.  We had mimosas for breakfast and ate outside using both our new patio table and the tiki bar.  The ping pong table was in the garage instead of the basement where we could watch matches of pickle ball in the driveway while we played.  Grandma and Grandpa were greatly missed, but we did get to talk to them several times throughout the day.  We celebrated with Uncle Phil which hadn't happened in almost a decade.  The weather was warmer than we were used to in Indiana, which was an added bonus.  Overall, I absolutely loved our first Thanksgiving in Florida where I learned that it wasn't the home that made the holiday special, it was the people in it.

Our Family is Complete

This morning Brett, Cameron, Doug and I traveled to the Orlando Airport to pick up Meg and Cal.  We left early and their flight was on time, but we weren't sure how we would be able to pick them up when they arrived.  The airport traffic was crazy and all of the parking lots were full.  Thankfully, they walked out of departures right as we pulled up.  We were all excited to see them and happy to be done with the holiday airport traffic for awhile.

Our first stop of the day was Fantasia Mini Golf.  the six of us hadn't played all together in quite some time.  There was a half hour wait, but none of us cared.  We were glad for the time to catch up with one another.  Once it was our turn, we had to split up into groups of three.  Doug, Cameron and Cal were in the first group with Brett, Meg and I close behind.  Meg started off strong with a hole in one on the first hole.  That helped her end the first nine holes with a one stroke lead.  The match was very close the rest of the way, with Meg, Cameron and Cal all tying for second place.  I had surprisingly beat the three of them by two strokes.  Brett was happy to finish in fifth and we all enjoyed our match very much.

Lunch was next on our minds as we drove to Disney Springs.  We picked Splitsville for our meal and found it to be delicious as always.  We took Cal to Gideon's next as he had never visited our favorite bakery.  We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.  Cameron, Meg, Brett and I all found some fun items at the Coke and M & M store before we headed to Ocala.

We arrived at Crazy Cucumber with just a half hour left before happy hour ended.  Phil met us there and we all tried one of their drink specials.  Doug ordered Piesano's for dinner and we spent the rest of the evening giving Cal a tour of our home and playing ping pong in the garage and games on the lanai.  Brett also had time to finish the Halloween puzzle that he had been working on the past two days while Meg made a banana cream pie for tomorrow's dessert.  It was a lot of fun and I was incredibly happy to have everyone under one roof for the first time since May.