DECMEBER 17

In the middle 90's we celebrated our 25th anniversary by taking a Caribbean cruise.  We took my in-laws, my mother and our son.  I bunked with my mom and our son shared a cabin with his father. Yes definitely a romantic cruise !!  Our last stop on the cruise was Key West.  Jimmy Buffet was a favorite musician of my husband and so we purchased a Margaritaville ornament.  It represents not only the song but the restaurant.  It was an interesting trip and that is when the term "herding cats" became a common utterance of my husband!

DECEMBER 16

As I mentioned in a previous blog, the beach has played an important part of our lives.  In the late 80's we purchased a condo in Myrtle Beach with friends of ours.  So for most the remaining 80's and up to the late 90's we vacationed there.  It was not on the beach but rather a golf course.  We decided to sell it after our friend passed away.  We have enjoyed going there every year and had also rented it out.  It was seriously damaged by some tenants who shot fireworks off inside the unit and so I did not regret selling it.  In the late 90's we bought a time share on Hilton Head Island and that is where we currently routinely "beach it".  Here are several ornaments typifying the beach.  The flip flop ornament was bought in Myrtle Beach a couple of years ago and I am not sure where the others were bought.

DECEMBER 15

Since we are discussing trips I would remiss if I omitted Ireland and a very brief stay in England that did not include London.  It started out as a business trip to Dublin for my husband where we met up with friends who had been to Ireland 2 other times.  Thus we drove through the northern part of the Republic of Ireland and a short drive through Northern Ireland.  We stopped at the Belleek factory and while I loved everything, I realized that my home would not house all that I wanted to purchase. We bought a small vase and a shillelagh ornament.  A shillelagh is an Irish walking cane. Ireland is a glorious country with friendly people.  However a couple of young boys took great delight in directing us the wrong direction and were on the ground laughing when we had to drive back past them in order to catch a ferry.  Once again we have fond memories whenever this ornament goes on the tree.

DECEMBER 14

In 2008 we were fortunate to be able to take a cruise in the Baltic Sea and visit the Scandinavian countries as well as Gdansk Poland, Tallin Estonia and St. Petersburg Russia.  The trip was fantastic and there were 6 couples on the trip. We purchased an ornament in St. Petersburg as a reminder of this tremendous trip.

DECEMBER 13

Florida has been a destination several times over the years.  This next ornament was purchased in Bradenton Florida at the South Florida Museum.  It is a depiction of it's most famous resident, Snooty the Manatee.  Snooty is the oldest known manatee in the world.  Snooty was born in capivity on July 21, 1948 and is 68 years old.  We visited the museum when we were there one year and fell in love with this slow moving beauty.  We just had to have a permanent reminder of him.