Christmas in Biloxi..the Nina & Pinta...but no Santa Maria

Thursday we drove to Biloxi to spend Christmas with Jody & Renato. We met them for a late lunch then toured a replica of Columbus' Nina & Pinta. Both we hand made in Brazil a few years ago and have been touring northern South America and all or North America, including the Great Lakes. They have also been in documentaries for television. It's amazing how small these ships are and how strong the men were who sailed off in them in the 1600s considering most thought the world was flat and they would fall off.

Renato made a pizza for supper on Thursday.....ever had hard boiled eggs on a pizza? Sounds a little strange? Guess what....it was dog gone good. I hope Jody is taking notes when Renato cooks.

On Christmas Eve we all went to church then over to Renato's brothers home. We learned about how Christmas is celebrated in Brazil. There we 12 or 15 relatives and friends and Ivan, Renato's brother, was BBQing some steak. He slices it thin and everyone snacks on it. There was a large large table outside piled high with fruit; apples, oranges, grapes, pineapples, melons and more; very colorful. And, of course, lots of beer. A little before midnight out comes a turkey & huge ham.....and the feast continued. We were told the party will continue all night but the four of us went home to bed.

The moon eclipse

Did you go outside at 2 or 3am to see the eclipse? We did. We missed the last one in the 1600s and will the next one 80 years from now so thought we'd best check this one out. The weather was good, 60 degrees and no clouds. There were a few neighbors out also, seems the retirees can find the time to do this.

Off to see Clayton & Pat

On Thursday we had a rental car for our trip to visit Clayton & pat outside St Augustine. FL. It's 420 miles so we didn't want to take the truck. We arrived about 6:30 and we had a nice steak supper. On Friday Clayton got to mix up half a recipe of Grandma Bahnmiller's Lebkuchens for Christmas. He wanted to do this so we certainly wanted to help! Later in the day we ran some errands & played some euchre & had a few drinks. We also got to see the wild turkeys that roam around the edge of the woods behind their home. That night Pat took us out to dinner (along with Tom & Kim) at a nice restaurant....it was Clayton's birthday. Saturday morning was baking day and we finished about 175 cookies. Clayton & Judy untangled and hung his birthday present from Scott, the green bamboo bird pictures. That evening we went to Tom & Kims for supper them we all had a hot game of dealers choice poker. I think pat & Clayton were the big winners. Sunday we drove back home and that evening we played euchre at the RV park, I was the low scorer so got my one buck back. We took Patches with us to Clayton & Pats and she was very well behaved, I think Clayton kinds likes her & she had a good time.

LuLu's Christmas boat parade

This evening we went to our third Christmas boat parade, it was as good as the first time we went. We took Dennis & Kathy with us after a nice shrimp supper at the Oyster House.

RV park Christmas program

Tonight the RV park held it's annual Christmas program. I went the first year we were here and not since. There was a lot of just singing by individuals or groups which does not excite me. I do remember one lady who was excellent.....she was a ventriloquist with her dummy. Unfortunately she wasn't here this time. I went to see a couple of our friends & neighbors who played Santa's elfs. Cute huh? Their hats vibrated and jingled which you can't see in the picture. There was a cute poem but otherwise just a bunch of singing.

Santa arrives in Gulf Shores, AL

We went to the first annual Gulf Shores Christmas parade Saturday afternoon with Tom & Ann. The Budweiser Clydesdale's led the parade on a nice 65 degree sunny day. We saw the lobster man, doesn't every Christmas parade have one? Boats too. There was lots of candy and beads being thrown for the kids to collect. Gotta have beads at Christmas. How about the Mardi Gras looking shrimp on the front on one float? It was a nice day for the parade.

Back at our winter home, Gulf Shores, AL

We returned to Gulf Shores Sunday for the winter. It was a short 2 hour drive from Jody & Renato in Biloxi. We are 3 or 4 weeks later getting here so the sites we usually take were not available but we are still pretty close to our friends and have a good site for the winter. We are back into euchre twice a week (I've won $9) , cribbage, poker (Judy started a ladies poker game today, 12 played while I lost my shirt with the guys), bingo, indoor water aerobics and Curves has relocated even closer. We ate Sunday evening at the Shrimp Basket, all you can eat for $10, the shrimp are local. Monday we went to the pecan farm in Summerdale to get 10 pounds of cracked pecans, Tom & Ann went with us to get some also. We made our annual trip to Lamberts (throwed rolls restaurant) with some friends Wednesday afternoon. We are disappointed that the Galley on the Bon Secor River has closed due to the BP oil spill this summer.

Today we finished the inside Christmas decorations after doing the outside yesterday and stopping by our street's happy hour at 4pm.

The weather has been sunny but chilly, high 30s/low 40s at night and 60s daytime. As long as the sun is out 60s is fine. All is well.