Christmas In Florida

Hi All, this is a little late regarding the Holidays, Sorry, time has flown in the past few weeks. 

If you have followed the previous posts, you know that finding a place to live with a little dog in Cuenca has been a challenge to say the least.  We spent a lot of time looking for a nice place to live, and  we finally found a great  home. We  moved into our new digs on December 1st, and then left Cuenca  on December 9th to spend the holidays with our families in the US.  

We made sure we had all the proper paperwork to take Oscar out of Ecuador and back into the US, then we packed our bags and made the trek through the mountains to Guayaquil for our flight to Miami.

The ticket agent in Guayaquil asked for Oscar's documentation and then completely ignored it, but for some reason she was quite concerned about the size of his carrying case, (most people think it is simply a little carry-on bag and are completely unaware that there is a little 16 pound bag of fur in it), anyway the ticket agent measured it, then asked another ticket agent to check it, that guy simply looked at it and said,  "Yeah it's OK",  but that apparently didn't satisfy our ticket agent, so she started the whole re-measure the bag process again, then asked yet another ticket agent's opinion, this went on again,and again, finally after about 25 minutes  we were given our boarding passes.  

When we landed in Miami we decided that as we passed through Immigration and Customs we would take the advice of Bill Clinton, if no one asked if we had a dog, we weren't going to tell. We sailed through with no problems. I am not sure if that made Oscar an undocumented Illegal or not!!

We arrived at my Mom's house on Saturday night, her Palm trees and bushes were decorated with Christmas light and ornaments, it was a great welcome.   Tuesday Michael flew to Chicago to see family and friends.  It was perfect timing, he got to watch our niece Lauren in her Karate competition, and she won a trophy!!

Lauren at her competition

During his visit in Chicago, Michael spent time with friends, including these folks,

Our dear friends Tom and MaryJo with Michael at Champs in Orland Park.

I wish I could have gone to Chicago, but the cost of two airfares made it a little steep, so for all the family and friends that I didn't get to see, I miss you and wish you a very Happy New Year!!

While Michael was gone I hung out with my Mom, sister, brother, niece and bother-in-law.    It seemed like such a luxury to get into my Mom's car, it felt like a Cadillac compared to the Taxi's in Cuenca, AND, AND, I got to use seat belts.   

While  I was hanging out with my Mom, we went to the the barn were our niece Brigid boards her horse.  She competes in Quarter Horse Competitions, she made it to World this year!!! 

Our niece Brigid with her mom, my sister, and Allie, her horse

Allie is a beauty!

Michael returned to Florida with suitcases of clothing and linens and other items that didn't make the original journey.  LINENS, nice soft sheets and fluffy, thick towels.  These items are difficult to find here, Ecuadorian sheets are pretty close to sand paper, unless you want to pay a fortune for them, and the towels just move the moisture around and annoy you.

We celebrated Christmas dinner at my sister's house on Christmas eve.   My sister and  her husband cooked a wonderful bird with all the trimmings.  We gorged on food and exchanged gifts, it was a wonderful evening. 

                                                                         Christmas Dinner Table Setting

My sister decorates her home beautifully for the holidays, but it seems odd to see Christmas decorations and Palm trees on the same street, but that is part of the charm of Christmas in Florida.  We didn't miss the cold and snow in the least, the holiday spirit was in full force in the warmth and sunshine.

On Christmas morning we went to Jacksonville to  celebrate Christmas with my mom-in-law, two of my sisters-in-law, nieces, nephew, great-niece and great-nephew.  Our niece Jill had a great spread of delicious food and we spent the evening eating, opening gifts and playing "Headbands". 

Our lovely niece Jill

Opening gifts, our nephew Tom was thrilled with his Panama Hat!!

We spent the next week in Palm Coast with my mom-in-law and sister-in-law Maureen.  Michael's mom is a wonder with Crochet needles and makes beautiful afghans, sweaters and lots of wonderful things, so I asked her to teach me the basics, she had the patience of a saint.  I am hoping I can make good use of my lessons and start exploring the many yarn shops here in Cuenca.  My Mother-in-Law bought an IPad2, so, when I can't figure out what I am doing wrong I can Facetime with her!!  How cool is that.

                                              Sunrise over the Atlantic at Flagler Beach in Palm Coast

                                                Searching for shells on the beach, Dudley is the cute little white guy.

We strolled the boardwalk and watched fishermen reeling in Stingrays

We returned to West Palm Beach on New Years Day, and my mom spent the next week shuttling us around to pick up the last minute things we couldn't live without, Certo for my arthritis, more Linens (you can never have enough sheets), walking shoes, etc.  She was a gem, making sure she ran us around to all the places we needed to go to.

 Along with the things Michael brought back from Chicago, both of our Mom's had stored some of our treasures, so we sorted through all of them.  It was a busy week as we packed and weighed our bags determining what would make the journey. 

When we left Florida, my Mom was coming with us to Cuenca to hang out with us for a month.  We left Florida, with 5 suitcases we went to Florida with two, our carry on luggage which included Oscar.  My Mom got saddled with an extra suitcase that was actually our stuff, so technically she had two checked bags. Long story regarding baggage costs, but it was cheaper for my Mom to have two suitcases than us to have three.    We jumped on our plane, got to Guayaquil, and lo and behold, the suitcases "we" checked came through with no problem, and my Mom's single suitcase was lost.  We spent about an hour trying to sort through local "Officialdom" to find  my mom's suitcase to no avail,  we took the paperwork from the airlines regarding my Mom's  lost luggage and decided to go home.  Then we had to deal with the paperwork for Oscar,  "The Official in charge"  could not figure out Oscar's paperwork, but she finally accepted his paperwork from last June, when we had originally brought him into the country. LOL.   Then we needed our customs paperwork, but we  had messed around so much with papers during the time we were looking for the lost luggage paperwork, we couldn't find the Customs paperwork we needed. 

By 11:00 P.M. (we had arrived at 8:45 p.m.)  it was getting late and it seemed that all the officials in Guayaquil that wanted the Customs  paperwork, Oscars stuff and proof for the luggage we actually had,  disappeared, so we simply made a run for it!

Suitcase saga to continue.