We made no plans to travel over the holiday, but that changed at the last minute.
The first week of the Christmas holiday was at home. Brandi had joined her girlfriends for an evening of making wreaths, and another for making Fall flower arrangements, and I did the holiday gathering for work which doubled as Susie's small retirement party. So we were active enough, but skipped most other events. One shopping day together to pick over the sales racks at Macy's before it closed here in Toledo, I found a couple nice Nautica shirts for $20 or so which Brandi could wrap for me. And Rebekah stopped by on a visit to her sister Kim's to say hello. Christmas morning was at home, once Brandi won the tree-lighting battle. And she served kielbasa for the holiday dinner. But generally the month was quiet, and Nick finished the semester with a 4.2-something so he's done all he needed for his grades at the halfway mark of senior year, and made some headway on scholarship applications.
At the last minute we booked a room at Margaritaville Resort in Jacksonville, FL, a suite on the beach. Acting on a couple days' notice, we could tell it would be 70+ degrees and sunny, so no risk of driving for fifteen hours to sit in the cold elsewhere. The hotel was OK, awesome view, clean beach, and the restaurant right in the hotel where we could eat from the balcony and dodge the birds, but likely not worth a return visit. Brandi watched the seals from the balcony (they were surfers in wetsuits, really), walked the beach twice a day being careful not to touch the jellyfish that washed ashore, and we ate like kings, as usual. It was nice to not think for five days, not work, and do nothing, just have carefree thoughts, like how Brandi would like to be buried at sea (in a ball of flames via pyre, but teetering on a small boat ignited via arrow from shore.) Nick's dining preferences have completely changed (he says that happens every seven years), whereas he never ordered a pile of crab legs, and his one shot at the best burger on the beach he ordered a pile of pasta. We hit as many places within walking distance as we could: Larry's Giant Subs, Beachside Seafood, Brix Taphouse and the best was Salt Life Food Shack. And one hushpuppy not to be named for its own protection. Overall, it was enough but not too much, and we made the right call. By the time I update this blog again, Nick will be 18.
And the final post of all 2024 pics is here on flickr.
