I'm Dreaming of a (Slight) White Christmas

All our Christmas decorations are still in the attic of our old house. Almost thirty year's worth and sure wasn't going to buy new ones for one Christmas in our temp house.

We bought one small strand of lights for $3.99 and spent another two bucks on tiny ornaments for the large plant in our tiny living room.

BAM!

I had another strand in a box with us here and Massey strung them around our screened in back porch and suddenly it was Christmas at the Clampetts.

Jed (Tim) worked out of town all week and our former manager from Ecco came down for a two day visit with his girls, Massey and me.

We spent the early afternoon at my brother's lake house on his dock on a fabulous, warm sunny day. We showed him all around our side of Orlando and took him by the house we wanted to buy in a few short months.

He agreed, it's perfect for us.

While we were at my brother's, raided his wine cabinet and went home to consume two bottles in our tiny Temp house.

We all showered and changed. He ordered (and paid for) us an Uber to go to Chroma for dinner.

He bought the first round of cocktails and the party started again.

I won a contest at work a couple of weeks ago and the prize was a fifty dollar gift card for the restaurant. I get fifty percent off so we had a hundred bucks worth of food for free.

We started with house made flat bread with guava, goat cheese, crushed marcona almonds, speck ham and micro greens. Then we had wild Tuna Poke with sesame, avocado puree and served with fried Won ton crisps. We enjoyed smoked wings from the Josper with a bleu cheese mousse, topped with pickled celery and celery leaf. We shared a skirt steak with a wedge salad. Bleu cheese crumbles and buttermilk dressing, heirloom tomatoes and fried shallots. Parsnip mash was delectable, General Tso Cape Canaveral shrimp was sweet and a little spicy and even had the awesome Chroma sliders, house ground short rib burgers with white cheddar, bourbon onions and bacon jam.

All the pork is local from Okeechobee. The chef buys the entire pig and makes all of our bacon, salami, speck ham, sausage and pulled pork in house.

We were stuffed and  more than satisfied.

We Ubered back home (once again compliments of Slight) and popped three more bottles of wine.

We played spades, listened to great music, had a slumber party on our new king size memory foam adjustable mattress. Massey and Slight held hands while we all cracked each other up over the memories of our times and travesties while working together at the world's busiest Crazy House aka Hartsfield.

Mark said he'd never been on a more comfortable bed.

 And this was from a guy with serious back issues.

I told him to skip our guest bedroom and enjoy the goodness which is a great, adjustable matress. He said maybe my husband who was out of town would feel differently.

My response.

Have you changed teams since I moved from Atlanta?

His answer...

"No."

Well baby, get ready for the best night of sleep you've had in quite a while!

Ziggy was our chaperone, sleeping and snoring between us.

Mark woke this morning about the same time as me, when Massey let one of the dogs out and considerately started a pot of coffee for us all.


It was a "bitch Please" moment.

I'm a crazy woman, and kinda like it that way.

Mark had a great time (I think) and Massey and I had a most awesome time. Mark said it was the first time in years he had slept through the night without ever turning or moving once.

Guess I have that effect on men.

Dang, is that a good thing or bad  thing?

I'm a goof ball but I'm okay with that.

What's even better is when my husband got home this afternoon from his week long road trip actually smiled when Massey and I told him about our visit with Slight White and said would be happy to help him get the same mattress at a significant discount.

Life happens for a reason. Sometimes you realize it right off the bat, somtimes it takes years but there is a reason to Life's madness.

Never give up.

Never.

We've had more hard knocks in the past ten years than a knock knock joke but you know what?

As hard as it's been, somehow seems so much sweeter now.

You have to work for what you want. You have to earn what you deserve and be a good person along the way and in my mind is the biggest factor of all. And even when you don't get what you deserve when you think you should, keep on keeping on. Be a fighter.

Resiliency is everything.

Never be a quitter.

Quitters never win.

I'm no quitter, just an old person who is lucky enough  to finally be a winner again and wants to inspire others.

Pay It Forward.

It's a concept which could change the world.

Literally.