Okay, so they don't serve hot chocolate ...

... they serve ice cream products in Largo Park. The park is decorated beautifully for Christmas. You can park and walk and so we did -- Roxanne, Kamen, Tim, Sandi, Tyler and me. We had a great time to the backdrop of Christmas music. It was a little on the cool side but not enough to bring out any hot chocolate vendors -- oh, no! Just the ice cream truck! For this transplanted northerner, I found that quite amusing!

Tyler, Kamen and Tim enjoying their ice cream. Tyler enjoyed it so much, his lips have turned the color of his ice cream!! And then we were on to a neighborhood who raises money for Hospice. Most of the homes in a large area are decorated to the max. Along the way, you will find folks like the lady below. They give away candy canes and, of course, we donated some to the Hospice Fund.

I was taking pictures of the house behind her and Tim assured her that her house would be on my blog -- and maybe she would end up in the news. Okay, that's stretching it! She said, "I appreciate the compliment on the house -- but it's not mine! I'm just here collecting money for Hospice!" Too funny ... We were really glad we chose a night early in December. We will probably go again on Christmas Eve which is a long time tradition -- but chances are, it will take much longer to get through. A lot of other people have the same tradition!! By the way, do you see the snow in the photo below -- well, artificial snow and people get quite creative in Florida to provide the atmosphere of the Christmas season!

Life's Most Embarrassing Moments ... another one!

Last evening was one of those times when you could classify something as very embarrassing -- but I'm not sure if it was more embarrassing for me or the other person.I was attending Carols, Candlelight and Communion at Clearwater First Church of the Nazarene. They had it in their Fireside Room and the place filled up quickly.

I sat at the end of a row of seats since I had my cane and didn't want to stumble over myself since I already do that quite handily. A couple (who I later found out are long-time Nazarenes) wanted to sit in the same row and asked if they could come by me. I told them, of course. I decided that the best thing to do with my cane was to pull it back towards me and out of the 'traffic area' in front of my seat. The wife got by just fine but the husband had not seen my cane there. As you can see in the photo, it has one of those sort of foam grip handles so when he passed, it sort of grabbed the back of his pants. (I know, you get the picture and it's not pretty!)

I didn't even realize what had really happened until he got beyond me. He looked at me sort of strangely -- like he couldn't believe what I may have done, then noticed the cane and mumbled, "Oh, I didn't see your cane." I guess he thought I had been a little too personal but I assured him that there was no harm done other than some embarrassment. I started to say that I undersood how he could have misunderstood and that got to sounding worse so I just stopped while I was ahead. I have no idea who was more embarrassed but it just struck me funny! Oh, well ...