'Tis the Season

Oh, the weather outside is frightful.....nope.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....not quite.  Walking in a winter wonderland....no, that's not the case either, at least not here in Florida.  That would really push them over the edge!  For the two of us it's been a totally different holiday season without the snow and cold of Minnesota.  We miss it.  We actually remind each other daily that it's December and Christmas is around the corner.  Don't get me wrong, it's a little chilly (49 degrees) in the morning and in the evening but nothing like what we are use to. 
The folks down here think we are a couple of hearty  Minnesotans and I guess we are.  A guy on our dock yesterday said he was in the office early Monday morning when the marina manager pointed to the pool surveillance camera and said, "who in the world is in the pool, it's 49 degrees outside!" The guy said he replied, "oh, that's just Tom and Sue from Minnesota, it's a heatwave for them!" (It was actually me and a gal from Michigan doing water aerobics and in my defense, the water was 85 degrees and steam was coming off the top)  I told the guy about the Polar Plunge back in Minnesota---he really thought I was nuts then!
To get into the spirit of the season, we headed to the Edison Ford Winter Estate Holiday Light Tour.  It was spectacular and we, no I sang Christmas carols all the way back to the marina.  Below are some shots of our tour~

The E-F living room decorated for the holidays

The latticed walk way between the main house and the servant quarters

Christmas trees abound....

The study/music room at E-F Estates

I loved this wreath in the dining room with the red peppers and cabbage

Tom loved this building the best. It's the back of Edison's private study

The veranda of the main house on the E-F Estate

A plethora of royal palms all wrapped up in lights for the season

My favorite...a lighted banyon tree

We've gotten off the dock everyday and checked out the Fort Myers - Cape Coral area.  Thursdays in the park near the marina, they have a Farmers Market with fresh produce.  They've had holiday tree lightings, art walks and they even do a Drumming Night in the park.  I convinced Tom that we should go to the Fleamasters Fleamarket.  We went about twenty years ago with his mom on a trip to Santibel.  If you can't find it at Fleamasters, you can't find it anywhere!  We lasted about twenty minutes there.  Twenty minutes longer than we should have!
We had a taste of home last Friday.  Our friend from Hooterville, Tory Keefe called and said he was at his home in Cape Coral and invited us to spend some time with him, John Keefe, Tim Elton, Jim & Steve Sinn and some other Stewartville folks.  We had a grand time catching up with all of them.  Thank you Tory for your generous hospitality!
We've enjoyed sunsets, holiday docktails and meeting new folks on the docks here in Fort Myers.  We are always thankful but feel especially blessed this season to be experiencing the loop this year.

A turtle pond at the local outlet mall

A festive beauty on our dock

We are heading back to Hooterville this Friday to spend Christmas with family and friends.   More later~