The Thanks and The Giving

Well, it happened.
It's December once again. *Pats self on back for making it another year*

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. All the usual suspects were in attendance with the addition to a few new people who were 'orphaned' for the holiday. There's nothing I like more than feeding orphans.

My Aunt, Uncle and Cuz Patrick drove down from ATL for a few days; it's always a treat to spend time with them. 

Aunt Trisha and Uncle Jim (or AT and UJ as we call them) will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this month. WHAT A LOVELY UNION!!!

After dinner these three baristas were in the coffee area whipping up some frapaCappaChino something or other.....

Sometimes I get so excited to see my kids I just want to Nom nom nom on them.....

Thanksgiving morning Lolo strolled in at 5:30 from her shift the night before. She showered, went to sleep and woke up at 1:15 for our 2pm meal. She then got dressed again and left at 4:15 for her next shift. We were so happy to have even a few hours with her on Thanksgiving.

We had about 12 minutes in between our meal and her leaving to take a family pic for the Christmas card. Is it perfect and up to my standards? No, but I'm lowering my standards these days. Having all four of us together at once is a feat in itself.

Growing up, I could never imagine having the Popo at our house on a holiday and someone NOT going to jail. I've come full circle. :)


The Coach got some baby time.... Gosh do babies love him.

I wish I could update the blog more, but I've been a busy bee with some charity work and fundraising....plus we have 2 parties that we're hosting this month. December is upon us and I'm rolling with it as best I can. I've got almost all the decorations up and I might shop for my people at some point.....
I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.

XOXOXO

Giving to others is the best feeling ever felt.

Oh boy did the Coach and I have some good feels this weekend.

About a month ago it was brought to our attention that  there were quite a few families in a rather poor community East of us that were really struggling; this is a farming town with lots of families that work as 'pickers'.
This area has always been known as the 'poor' area; but they were even more devastated after hurricane Irma. We were told that the kids were wearing clothes to school that clearly were not meant for them, shoes that were way to large to be for them.
One of Coach's softball players lives in this area and she was telling him about how some families were down to having so little.
The Coach was touched by this and asked her if she could get us some family names and wants/needs lists from these families.
Well, it took her a few weeks, but she (along with her Mom and some school teachers) came up with 15 families that really needed help.

We got the lists and started asking good friends to help us with this endeavor. We sent 5 family lists to  our peeps on the East coast in Jupiter. The Coach and I took on 6 families and I shared the rest with some local friends/family.

Most people asked for clothes, cleaning supplies, personal supplies. (deodorant/soap/shampoo)
Some asked for beds, as a lot of them sleep on the floor. We were lucky enough to have several beds donated; but not enough. Some got beds, all got sleeping bags and pillows though.

It was a huge undertaking that took weeks to get together before we could all meet one morning in their neighborhood to distribute. Coach skipped practice that morning and most of his girls with parents showed up to help distribute everything. It was what I call organized chaos. We had about 30 volunteers to help get everything moving.

From 8am to 10:30 two truck loads were given away to deserving people.
Most of the children could not contain their joy to receive new clothes, shoes and things as simple as a basketball or doll.

No pics of the families as I didn't want to put them out there on the web.

A few pics of us loading one truck the night before in our garage.


We labeled all the items by family name; some had larger piles than others depending on how many kiddos they had.

I was shocked we were able to get so much in one truck. There was another truck that was full of furniture.

The Coach and I, along with our friends were so pleased at how this all turned out.

For it is in giving that we receive.

-Francis of Assisi

It's November for Heaven's sake!

Did you buy your turkey and plan the menu? No? Well, when are you going to put up the Christmas tree?
I swear, every year I say I'm gonna be more prepared and every year I wonder what the heck happened.
I shouldn't be surprised; I've met me before.....I know thyself.

I like to take on a lot and then wonder why I can't get 4,678 things done.

We've been very busy doing some good deeds for others, so my people will have to take a back seat on gifts this year. I've shopped so much lately for some families who really are in dire straits that I'm kinda shopped out.

Sorry familamadingdong.
Will a gift card and some mints from the bottom of my purse do?

Speaking of my familamadingdong. Lolo came over for dinner last weekend. Well, Lolo and her fur child Max. I love any time I get to visit with my girlies. And Max.

Lolo is enjoying being the PoPo. She works nights and is getting a lot of drunk drivers off the road....and that's a good thing. Ain't nobody got time for drunk drivers.
CALL.AN.UBER or keep your drinking azz home.

Right?

So, is anyone else feeling a bit of pressure from the upcoming events? If you're as cool as a cucumber, are you on medication?

XOXO

UnBelizable

Just prior to leaving for Costa Rica the Coach decided to plan another trip; this one would take place during his (and his BFF's) birthday.

He texted me and asked if I was open for these particular 5 days and after I checked with my assistant and my assistant's social assistant, I found out I was free.

Where are we going I asked? 

The Coach: Belize.

Suz: Belize?

Well, that came out of nowhere.

Turns out we were only flying INTO Belize. We were staying on a small island 30 miles off the coast of Belize.
I suppose that still makes IT Belize, but don't ask me anything about the country of Belize, because I really only saw the airport (small and nice) and this little island.

We flew into Belize City and from there we took a helicopter to our island.
Yeah, I was totally feeling like James Bond or Cher.

I'm not a fan of flying, but being in a helicopter is so much easier than a plane. So, yes, I'm requesting a helicopter for my next birthday.

Plus, the views were breathtaking.

The Belize great barrier reef is second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

And then you add seeing the Blue Hole  in person. 

WOWZA. It's a large sink hole that is popular with divers; it's over 400 feet deep and over 1,000 feet in width. 

Nope. We did not swim or dive in this area. We did however snorkel all around our little island and saw a lot of beauty.

 

Don and Kelly with a large starfish. We actually found a lot of these; don't worry, we only took one out for a pic and he was quickly put back in the sea. 

The view from our upper deck.

Our island was really small; actually smaller than our property at home. It held a small home with two bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a living area and dining/kitchen.

Kelly and I pretty much stayed on the island aside from one boat trip to another little island bar for a cocktail. The boys ended up going fishing and really enjoyed themselves.

We ate like (Island) Queens and Kings.

The front yard with a dock and helicopter pad. Not too shabby....Actually, it's UNBelizable.

 Fresh lobster caught that day.

 A Belizian sunrise.

One evening we had a rowdy game of Jenga.....the completion was fierce.

We had so much fun and we can't wait to go back.

The ONLY thing that I didn't love was ALL the litter that washed up to the island. Every.single.day. Kelly and I did have fun collecting all the different shoes/flip flops. (There was a dedicated staff member who cleaned up every morning though) BUT, the styrofoam was just endless and not fun to see. Ughhh....stop using styrofoam people. IT never goes away.


Coach's Bday.

We kayaked, snorkeled, ate, watched the porpoise play, drank, laughed and truly enjoyed ourselves.

The water was SO crystal clear I could hardly Belize My eyes.

Have any of you ever been to Belize? Going there we thought we'd have to use some of our terribly broken Spanish....turns out everyone there speaks English as Belize used to be a British Colony. Who knew?