A Fun December Weekend for All

This weekend, Meg kicked off the Christmas season by going to her first office holiday party.  Nick was hosting Trent for the night, so Carson went as her plus one.  They had a great time socializing with the other staff and made great use of the dance floor.  They left a little early so that they could hang out with Nick and Trent for the rest of the night.  On Saturday, Meg and Nick continued the Christmas spirit by attending ZooLights at Lincoln Park, and Sunday visited their first ever Kris Kindle Market.  They enjoyed both very much.

Cal also made the most of the holiday season in Chicago.  He attended the Kris Kindle Market as well and had his first egg nog of the year.  He started his Christmas shopping in between watching the conference championship football games and working.  He also rented several movies and really enjoyed The French Connection.  I wasn't surprised as that was one of Doug's favorites as well.

Brett and Cameron had visitors this weekend as Grandma and Grandpa spent several days in Bloomington.  They went out to dinner, shopped at Brown County and played multiple board games.  Brett finished his Christmas shopping while they were out and Cameron beat them at Sorry.  It was fun listening to their stories, and I was very happy to hear that all of the Heinisch children had a fantastic first weekend of December.

Tikis, Cactus and Hula Santa

While I was packing to move this summer, I was also planning in my head how I wanted to organize and decorate our new home in Ocala.  It not only really helped make packing a lot easier, but really helped once we arrived in Florida.  I soon had everything unpacked and was ready to put my decorating ideas to good use.  

I had explained one of my ideas to Doug while we were still living in Syracuse, but he couldn't quite grasp what I was talking about.  My plan was to "connect" the lanai to the back patio creating an outdoor living space.  It all made sense to Doug once we made a walking path out of pavers from the back door to the patio and then added a table, grill and tiki bar to the chairs and fire pit that we already had.  It really looked nice and we all had fun using the space during Thanksgiving break.  

This Friday night, we put the patio to good use by watching the IU basketball game on the projector outside.  While we were outside, we talked about adding tiki torches to the space as well. Until today, however, I did not realize how much Doug really liked that idea.  As we headed to Lowe's, he told me that there were two things that he had always wanted - a tiki torch and a cactus.  I was completely surprised when he said that as I had never heard him talk about either one before this past month.  Happily, we were able to find both at Lowe's and soon had three burning torches around the patio along with a newly potted cactus.  Those additions along with the lighted palm tree and hula Santa that I recently found at Bealls made for the perfect finishing touches on our backyard living space.  

Best College Sports Night Ever

Tonight had to be the best college sports night that I could ever remember.  No one was named national champion, but the evening felt like a huge win for us.  First, IU basketball played Maryland at Assembly Hall.  Everyone had been down on IU this year as they had lost several key players form last year's team.  They hadn't looked the best in their first few games, but seemed to be doing a little bit better in the last two.  Thus, tonight's complete dominance of Maryland was a total shock.  I was glad that Cameron had decided to buy tickets and enjoy the win from the famous Assembly Hall balcony.

At halftime of the IU game, we turned it over to the Pac 12 conference where Washington had to beat Oregon to make it into the college football national championship foursome.  We were really hoping for a Husky win as their starting quarterback was Michael Penix, Jr.  He had led two of the best Hoosier football teams that IU had had in several years.  There was talk of him even being a finalist for the Heisman this season.  We were glad to see that Washington was controlling the first half of the football game and concentrated on IU basketball until the Hoosiers won.

We weren't surprised when we flipped it back to see Oregon come out strong in the second half.  They were the favored team.  Washington had lost their large lead, but were still hanging tough.  It was an exciting game with the lead changing multiple times.  While we were watching football, my Mom, texted the group chat - "Go Northwestern!"  Since we knew that they were playing #1 Purdue in basketball tonight, we switched it immediately to see what was going on with that game.  Northwestern actually had a one point led with under five minutes left in the game.

The rest of our night was spent flipping back and forth between football and basketball.  Both games were very exciting.  Washington held off a late run by the Ducks to become Pac 12 Champions.  Purdue tied Northwestern with a last second shot, but the Wildcats held on to win in overtime.  It was late when we went to bed, but I didn't care.  I was so incredibly happy.  It was the first time that I could ever remember three of my teams winning in a single night.  

The Last of Our Florida Moving To Do List

This week, we were finally able to finish our moving to-do list.  On Tuesday, Doug and I met with a local lawyer to change our will.  It not only made sense because of our move, but also because Cameron was officially an adult.  We no longer had to make provisions for him as a minor or for his college tuition.  We set that up when we sold our home.  We also could take out anything special for Meg as she had graduated.  Thus, it was pretty easy and straight forward.  I only had to make sure that we had the correct beneficiaries on our accounts and life insurance policies.  

Today, I finished the last item that we needed to accomplish from our move when I filed for our Florida homestead exemption.   It was also very easy and I finished well before 9 a.m. this morning.  Since I had already visited the lab for blood tests, I had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted.  I don't usually have the Pilot for the entire day, so I took full advantage of it.  I stopped at Target, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby all before lunch.  I shopped at Bealls in the afternoon, bought groceries at Walmart and picked up Lee's Famous Chicken for lunch.  By the time I picked up Doug from work at 5 p.m., I was completely exhausted, but happy, as we were officially done with our moving to-do list.  

Christmas Decorating in Florida

I noticed last year when we were in Florida during the month of December that there were more outside decorations here than in Indiana.  In fact, we saw yards that were completely filled with different lighted holiday characters.  This year has started the same way and I have enjoyed watching the light shows grow day by day in our neighborhood.

I began decoration our home today and was surprised at how much fun I was having.  I usually dreaded holiday decorating, but this year felt different.  It could have been because I got to find new places for our stockings, Santas collection and music boxes.  It could also have been because I bought some new decorations that I was excited about displaying.  I really think, however, it was because the weather, 70s and sun, was perfect for it.  I could work inside or out and not have to worry about the cold or wind.  It was the first time that I had put up all of the decorations outside myself with only a little help from Doug.  He normally had to do it, because it was too cold for me.  When I sent pictures out to everyone tonight, I was proud of how the house looked.  Now all I needed to do was finish the Christmas tree and decorating for our first Christmas in Florida would be complete.

Block Out the Hate

I have realized over the past year that I just can't stand anything that is negative.  I don't think about things that were hurtful from the past.  I don't ever try to remember times when I was hurt or insecure.  There's nothing beneficial about those memories, so I leave them buried deep in my mind.  I avoid all situations that might make me sad, mad or feel bad.  

Because I have spent so much time avoiding negativity in my own life, it is hard for me to listen to others talk about times that they were upset, mad or treated wrong.  Meg calls them haters and that's a perfect description.  Some people just love to hate.  It seems that the more someone likes something, the more the detesters loathe it.  

I know that I cannot control what others say or do, but I can manage how I handle the negativity of others.  I can ignore them, avoid them or confront them.  I can also talk less about what I really like so that others only put down things that I don't care about.  Movies, shows, songs, and sports are all safe topics.  My family, friends and myself are not.  It's going to take some work, but I know that staying positive and avoiding the negativity will really help.  This time of the year is full of so much love and joy.  It should make it a lot easier to block out the hate.  

The Day After

I appreciated that Meg stayed an extra day this weekend or I would have really been sad on Saturday.  Instead, I had one more day to hang out with her and enjoy the very last minutes of Thanksgiving break.  We went shopping in Orlando and had lunch before I dropped her off at the airport.  It was the perfect way to say goodbye to the holiday and to look forward to Christmas vacation.

Today wasn't quite as bad as I expected it to be.  I spent my time putting away the Thanksgiving decorations and picking up the house from all of the visitors.  I talked to Brett, Cameron and Meg.  They all had easy flights home and a good start to the work/school week.  Cal didn't call, but he did text me to let me know that he made it safely, had enjoyed his mini-vacation and was already catching up on work.  

To make the day after a holiday break a little bit better, I started planning our time together at Christmas.  Everyone was coming back to Florida, but I thought that this time we would come up with a two day get away for all of us.  At first, I thought that it would be easy.  Everyone was interested in going to Universal, so I checked the cost for two days in the parks and an overnight stay.  I was shocked that the cost was double what I thought it would be, so I decided to research a different trip.  Doug had told me that some one at work had highly recommended St. Augustine to him.  As soon as I saw the top ten list of things to do, I was ready to book a trip - Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth, Old Town Jail Museum, St. Augustine Distillery Tour and Ripley's Believe It or Not were just a few of the activities that I saw.  I knew that it was perfect for our family.  Thankfully, everyone agreed.  The best part was that I would have something fun to look forward to instead of being sad that our time together was over.