Monthly Archives: December 2019

One last trip for 2019 with three stops designed to celebrate the season.  The first stop was in Concord, North Carolina where the Speedway is turned into a Christmas Wonderland.  They have taken over 4 million lights strung across a remarkable 3.75 mile drive-thru course.  Many of the lights were set to music you could hear on your car radio.  Half way around the track you stop at the Christmas Village with food, firepits, Festival of Trees, and a Christmas Movie Theatre.

Even though Speedway Christmas was lots of fun, it was not the main reason we left sunny Florida for the rain and cold weather of Mid-Atlantic region.  Our main stop was Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C.  For several years, we have been contributing to Wreaths Across America which is a not-for profit organization that puts Christmas wreaths on the graves of service men and women buried at Arlington.  This year we decided to go in person and help put out the wreaths.  It was an incredibly moving experience and when it was over just under 40,000 volunteers put over 257,000 wreaths on the graves.

We were instructed to lay the wreath at a 45 degree angle to help prevent the wind from blowing them over.  Once you positioned the wreath, you were to say the persons name out loud and thank them for their service or whatever else you wanted to say.  The premise behind saying their name is the philosophy that every person dies twice; once when their physical body dies and a second time when no one ever says their name again.  Many of the graves that I saw were young soldiers when they died during WWI, WWII or Vietnam and it made me feel proud to say their name again to keep their sacrifice alive.  We will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Our final stop on the way home was Charleston.  We walked along the Battery and saw some beautifully decorated old homes before headed back to our beloved Florida and 81 degree temperatures.

 

 

 

 

 

Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, like many other people we started preparing early.  Before we left for Texas for Thanksgiving, we managed to decorate two Christmas Trees and the outside of our house.

When we arrived at Debbie and Kerry’s home, we were whisked off to College Station, Texas to see and experience Santa’s Wonderland.  And it was, in fact, a “wonderland” complete with snow falling from the sky as we entered the main gate.  Not real snow, but nevertheless, snow.  After Santa made his big entrance, we were free to roam the huge grounds complete with ice slides, firepits for toasting Smore’s, shops and a 20 minute hayride through their elaborate light display.  What a great way to start the season.

The following are the light displays we saw from Hay Ride

After the Hay Ride we saw these sights

Entrance of Santa Wonderland  all lit up

 

 

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with great food, prepared by Chef Kerry, family and friends on a perfect weather day.

So perfect we could even sit around the firepit to end the day.  Great Thanksgiving.