Happy New Year

What a delightful way to wrap up 2013, with ten family members spending Christmas week with me.  I was humbled that they wanted to spend their valuable vacation with this old guy!

Christmas morning I was surprised to find my golf cart decorated front and rear causing it to be included in the family photo.  Two year old Ella was especially thrilled to take frequent rides with “Boppi”.

We delayed our actual Christmas celebration until Friday because daughter Sue was unable to leave her Emergency Room duties until the 26^th.  Being that she was flying into Tampa that afternoon, we drove to Sarasota to visit Lisa’s friends and spent the day at the beach and on their boat. 

Our traditional gingerbread village construction produced a beautiful candy covered house and a large fortified castle.  I am certain that we all had well over our allotment of candy!  After Christmas we visited a farm with many unusual chickens roaming free, a friendly hog and a large field of hydroponically grown strawberries.  We enjoyed picking a basket of the luscious berries from their suspended containers without bending over.  The real treat was eating them!

As we begin a new year with many challenges, I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words regarding the problems of life; “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.  For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever”.  (2 Corinthians 4:18)  I’ll take that for my New Year’s resolution.

Love,

Chuck