We wore ourselves getting ready for our Christmas Eve party and our big Christmas turkey dinner so today is a “day of rest.” Sure feels good to have nothing pressing.

Tomorrow the Conklins are coming over and we’ll play a little music. We could have done it today, but we needed more time to “recover.”

Today is Saturday, I had only two glasses of wine at our party (Thursday) and one yesterday with dinner but I have felt “hung over.” At least today my headache’s better. My daughter said it’s a “let-down” response. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact couldn’t sleep for a couple nights before the party and was too wound up the night after it. (Therefore I was probably only averaging only about an hour or two of sleep each night.) Last night I crashed for nearly SEVEN hours. Much better!

We’re enjoying left-overs. At noon today, John had made some yummy turkey noodle/vegetable soup with homemade noodles and lots of carrots and potatoes. Tonight it’s ham sandwiches with ham left-over from Christmas Eve.

It’s been really hot here. Today it was mid-80’s which was a record-beating repeat of every day this past week. We’re watching a football game from Texas where they’re having a blizzard. Seems really strange. I heard it’s been cool and windy in Michigan and many lost power because of the wind. Our power up north was out one night last week for about 30 minutes. I frequently check the status of our security system (which monitors motion, door-entry, power, heat, and water) and everything’s fine.

Several days ago, John decided to clean our oven with the self-cleaner. Unfortunately the process creates an ugly smell so we opened all the windows and doors, hoping it would all air out and continue to smell fresh.

Since coming to Florida in about 2002, we’ve bragged that, except for an occasional Florida crawly bug (which are controlled by our regular insecticide service), we have no insects. Ants, yes, and occasionally a cockroach but mosquitoes and flies have been non-existent. We removed our screens and we’ve left windows and doors wide open. It’s been wonderful!

But somehow the smell of the oven being cleaned attracted flies. Not just one or two appeared.. there were dozens and dozens and dozens. We swatted for a couple hours and eliminated them. Sometimes we could get three with one hit! It was awful.

So we hauled out the sliding door screens from the garage and installed them. Can’t help but feel that the flies are temporary but they are a nuisance and we can’t live with them as plentiful as they’ve been.

It’s now been a few days and they aren’t as many as they were a few days ago, but we definitely feel we need the screens. How could one oven cleaning change the balance of things? We want to go back to no flies.. even if it means a dirty oven.

Tonight the two of us took an after dark golf cart ride around Kings Point. It was a beautiful evening (about 75 degrees) so no jacket was necessary. We were enveloped in the wonderful warmth of the Florida atmosphere.

Christmas lights were plentiful and lovely. It was nice to see the holiday festive creations in our lovely community.

Our court (Newcomb) was as nicely decorated as any area we visited.

We live in a great neighborhood in Kings Point: Nantucket V.

Tonight I re-discovered that this blog is “followed” by one of my favorite “neighbors.”

She has read this boring site for years and years. I’m honored. Somehow I feel I should live up to her respect for what I write. Unfortunately I do this rather haphazardly. I write when I feel like it or when some update seems to be necessary.

I’m going to try to add more frequently to my blog but it’ll probably have to wait until we get past Christmas. Until then, I’m going to be really busy. We’re hosting a big crowd Christmas Eve and we have parties galore.

But I vow that I’ll try to write more frequently. I love writing. It’s just that I’m always short of time.

Right now I’m vegging. I felt rotten most of the day, so I stayed in. It was some digestive thing that knocked me off-center, but I’m back to normal now…. and vegging. Life is good!

We’ve gone to a couple of parties lately. Shelly and Richard included us in their Thanksgiving party, we attended a Rocking Through the Ages dance Sunday evening, and last night John sang in the Kings Point Mixed Chorus Christmas Concert last night followed by the “after-glow” party. It was all very nice but I didn’t feel up to par last night and feeling uncomfortable continued all day today. I think it’s passed now. Thank heavens!

We will be busy this next week. Sunday is the largest of our Christmas Party gatherings, the Baby Boomers Christmas Party.

Unfortunately we’ve had a problem with our USPS mailbox lately. The lock is broken/stuck and won’t be replaced until Friday. In the meanwhile, we can’t get any mail nor packages delivered via USPS. I hope it’s soon fixed because John’s cellphone should be coming as well as a bathroom rug for our newly renovated bathroom. We’re also expecting a wall art piece which you can see here but it should arrive tomorrow via UPS.

I think the art piece (photo above) will compliment our great room.

Our guest bathroom looks great with the new vessel sink, granite, rubbed bronze faucet, and new vanity lights. It’s lovely. The kitchen still needs the backsplash to be complete, but the granite, the faucet, and the undermounted sink have made it much nicer.

Our place is shaping up and we sure don’t want to start over in another place. This one serves us nicely!