Monday, November 21st - Thanksgiving!

Monday: Returned from Naples by way of Okeechobee, stopped to visit Joy, chatted for an hour then back on the road (no photos).

Had a late lunch at the Pig Stand (Ormond Beach I95/Route 1), took a pork sandwich home to Carolyn and picked up Ginger.

Gifts from Chris: sushi mat, Asian pear and a pomelo (similar to a grapefruit, native to Southeast Asia).

Colt's Pig Stand (Ford had beef brisket, said next time will try the chicken):

Home with Ginger!

Tuesday: AA golfed at the FIGC Academy. We took popcorn to the River House, happy hour with Kathy. Hugh and Maureen are in Tampa visiting Erin and family.

Wednesday: Prepared food for Thanksgiving Day: Mashed potatoes, the turkey, made turkey broth, baked two pies, pecan and pumpkin.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! Roasted the turkey, baked green bean casserole, made stuffing/dressing and gravy. Carolyn arrived with sweet potatoes and a bottle of champagne. We enjoyed our thanksgiving meal then took the dogs on a walk before eating pie!

This champagne was pretty good, but we still like Freixenet (Carolyn brought) best:

Did not care for this champagne - Brazil:

Photo of Grands at Nicole's, Kilee surprised everyone coming home from college:

Maine family at Heather and Chris' new home in China Maine:

Friday: We ate leftover breakfast casserole and PIE! We did laundry, vacuumed (Bella sheds) and "swiftered" the wood floors, finished washing dishes from yesterday. We took AA to the golf course, went to the Men's Warehouse to buy Ford a sports jacket but they didn't have his size, then took leftover thanksgiving food to Larry. We watched the end of the World Soccer Cup ("Football") against England (ended in a tie). After Larry's, Christmas shopped at Michael's (bought gifts for Mia and Avery) and last, picked up AA at the golf course (she drives back and forth). I made homemade lemonade from two of our ponderosa lemons:

We enjoyed leftovers for dinner and watched a variety of movies as we have free HBO/Showtime/Premium channels through the long weekend.

Saturday: NFJG Tournament, two-day at King and Bear. I stayed home and made homemade sloppy joe for dinner, packed away the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Fall decorations (in the garage attic), put up the Christmas lights on the back deck, put out about 50% of our in-house Christmas decorations - the tree will be next weekend; then made an appetizer for the River House (mozzarella cheese, basil and cherry tomatoes on small bamboo skewer), cleaned out one kitchen cabinet, mixed up Ginger's fresh dog food (and refilled her treat bag), washed dishes, laundry, walked Ginger and managed to follow a movie on TV - Mr. Malcom's List. Warmish day, about 74 degrees, but damp, cloudy (rained slightly in the early morning).

Still have pumpkins at front door (until next weekend):

Jesse made this grape vine "wreath" for us last year - snowman!

Deck lights:

AA came home from the tournament with her knee, too sore to play day 2, so withdrew. 

Sunday photos: V's Pizza, watching Jaguars at Cultured Collective and played game given to us by Cathy and Werner (ask question on card and everyone has to answer).

Sunday: In the morning, Ford and I tackled our master bedroom closet. The walk in closet had become a dumping ground for hiding all sorts of clothes, shoes, future gifts, crafts, etc. We hauled everything out (except hanging clothes and drawers), sorted, threw away and organized. We can actually walk in the closet now! Next is AA's bedroom - complete clean out so we can clean the wood floors. By noontime, we decided to Christmas shop at the Barnes and Noble (books for the Bailey Family and Greyson, plus one for me and one book for AA). Our late lunch was at V's Pizza in Mandarin. 

After being at home, watching the Jaguar football game on our TV, Ford and I went to Collective Cultured Beer Garden in Orange Park to watch the end of the game. It was exciting and after a late touchdown and the successful two point conversion, they WON! Jacksonville is happy tonight! Celebrated with some champagne! 

School back in session tomorrow - an early morning for all of us!

NFJG Two-Day Tournament King and Bear 11/26/22

AA has a sore left knee so we made an appointment with the Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute (JOI), which isn't until December 16th. In the meantime, she says it only hurts going up stairs and inclines, and jumping so will see how she does in this tournament, may not play any more until the specialists appointment. 

Ford and AA drove to the course, a bit cloudy and damp, but warm so no worrying about playing chilled.

Tee time:

Photo Hole 14:

Day 2: AA's knee was too sore to play the second round, so withdrew. Probably no more competitions until her appointment with Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute. 

Weekend in Naples - LPGA and Cousin Chris

We drove to Naples, FL on Saturday morning, seemed like a forever drive on the road! We arrived in plenty of time to check into our hotel (Courtyard with mini-kitchen). We drove to the golf course and headed to Chris' home at 5:30 p.m.
We met Laurie and chatted with her while Chris was cooking in the kitchen, so many good things, short ribs, rib-eye, rice, stir-fry veggies, spinach dip as the appetizer, and pastries for dessert (Ford selected the red velvet cupcake, AA and I shares the fruit cookie tart). Photo of their backyard (stole from Chris' Facebook):

Their home is right on a canal, water views all day long, Chris said it is not a good fishing area so he seeks out the pier or other lakes. His living room had a rack of many fishing poles, garage full of disc golf equipment and a lovely screen porch. We chatted about Chris' time in Maine, about 1993, BIW, snow skied, went to the Byrnes Irish Pub (Naples, ME), been to 32 countries, doesn't eat fish much, loves spicy Thai food. Both Laurie and Chris do not drink alcohol. Laurie grew up on farm near Rochester NY, moved to Albany NY, trained therapy dogs, gets migraines if she drinks alcohol, says no to spicy food, lobster and shellfish, she has three kids (one moving to Arizona), rode horse in water, wants to drive her Jeep on a beach, dislikes flying, they drove to the Grand Canyon.

Print in their home and in our hotel room:

Dinner:

Gifts from Chris and interesting foods. He made a delicious dipping sauce of siracha:

The LPGA tournament was very nicely run, the golf course was immaculate, no rough areas! We watched many ladies play including catching Lydia Ko at the first hole (she won at -17 under!).

The 2022 LPGA Tour season finishes with the CME Group Tour Championship, which will be played November 17-20 at the Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, FL.

Added my purple rain/wind breaker as it was cold!

Free Publix ice cream samples: Pumpkin pie, Christmas mint and eggnog. All YUM!

Followed several groups:

Windy and damp weather!

For dinner, Ford found an Italian restaurant close by. Was very good food, enjoyed our meal. Back to the hotel, got up in the morning and drove to Nana Joy's for a quick visit.

Garlic bread knots - delicious!

Restaurant and menu:

And one picture from Carolyn of Ginger - all is well at her home: