Merry Christmas!

This was a busy holiday, filled with many eating opportunities. We hosted dinner Christmas Eve, with Ken, Victoria, Allison, Andrea, and Alice joining us. We are getting pretty good at trying new recipes (contrary to Martha Stewart's recommendations) and had a delicious spread.

Rich joined us Christmas Day and we had even more food to enjoy!

Santa found our house and was very generous this year. Good thing we had a skinny tree so all the 'loot' would fit in the corner!

Thank you Mr. Claus for a wonderful Christmas!

The Rockettes - Up close!

The Girls got out of doing the Christmas dinner dishes and headed out for a night on the town. Well, not so much on the town, but out of the house and to the Performing Arts Center. Victoria scored 5th row seats to see The Rockettes!


We arrived a bit early and we (Victoria, Patty-Patty, Leann and Bonnie) did our own interpretation of the Rockettes in the lobby.
One who shall remain nameless, but always has her camera, got some great pix during the 2 hour performance!
We were so close to the stage that we started calling them the 'Crotchettes'. :)
This was absolutely amazing! All the Rockettes marched out, very stiff-legged and got into an X formation. Then they slowly marched and turned the X at the same time. They ended up in a line and all turned facing the stage right. All of a sudden, they started locking arms and the first one started falling backward....very slowly. By the time they got about 6 or 7 from the end, the whole line of soldiers fell like dominoes. It was really unbelievable! We thought the winter wonderland was the finale, but they had one more thing. A live nativity complete with 2 camels, a donkey, sheep, 3 Kings and their entourages.

Thanks Victoria for coordinating a fun night out. It was a terrific night!

Christmas Dinner with the Broomelli's

Ken & Victoria hosted Christmas dinner on Sunday and put out a fabulous Italian spread! Patty-Patty and Bonnie were there too. The food was delicious and the camaraderie festive!
Chef Ken prepared separate dishes for the vegetarians in the family. It was nice that Allison and Andrea were in town for the holiday and were able to participate.
A tradition Bonnie brought to the family is crackers! What fun to pull apart the paper crackers and collect the toys, a crown and a fortune!
We ended the evening with exchanging gifts. The girls (Victoria, Leann, Patty-Patty and Bonnie) were excused from doing the dishes as we has tickets to the Rockettes and had to get to the show!

Thanks Broomelli's for a fun Christmas dinner!

Neighborhood Boat Parade Party

Each Christmas season, our neighborhood in Tampa has a boat parade. We have yet to enter because the party at the neighbors is way more fun! Capt. Ken, Victoria, Patty-Patty, Kevin and Wendy - all having a terrific at the Hungarian Tiki Hut.

Our neighbor, Buck, is a regular entry in the parade and as usual, has his boat decorated very creatively! Last year it was Festivus, this year is was the Dancing Penguin.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and great to catch up with everyone.

Merry Elfin Christmas!

We've made total elves out of ourselves! Check it out by clicking the link below.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1506411584
Merry Christmas!
Leann & Frank

Merry Fishmas!

Ok, so maybe I wasn't the first to come up with this idea, but it is very appropriate for celebrating the holidays when we're at the Fish Camp. Don't worry, no rules for Fishmas like there are for Festivus.

But when we're on the boat, we do wish for fish!

Merry Fishmas to all!

Getting ready for Christmas

Last year I had an idea to do a Florida State tree and found all sorts of FSU ornaments along with garnet and gold decorations. And I found a small tree. Well, it turned out to be smaller than I thought (3 feet from table to top branch!). Needless to say, I didn't get to use 2/3 of the decorations I had. But it was quick to decorate and added some festivity to the Tallahassee apartment. (It may be small, but it's no Charlie Brown tree!) :o)

Our decorating theme in Tampa, which started the day after Thanksgiving is "minimalist". We did icicle lights and some net lights on the bushes along with some quick garland and a wreath on the front door. Since we're traveling so much, we decided not to get a real tree this year. So, off to Target to fetch a lovely 'slim style' pre-lit tree. Guaranteed assembly in 5 minutes! Sure thing....5 minutes to get the 3 pieces together, but then another 30 minutes to 'fluff it up' and add a few ornaments. (But no needles and no watering!) A few other festive things inside, including stockings and I'm calling it DONE! Kind of hard to feel Christmasy when it's 80 degrees!

Merry Happy Ho-Ho-Ho!

What's been happening since Thanksgiving?

Well, we spent the weekend in Tampa. Our 3rd Annual Chili Cookoff was a success for our Bucs Tailgating group! It was a lot of fun, lots of people and many really good pots of chili!
Monday morning we packed up the car and truck and headed east to Stuart for fishing. It's been way too long since we got our lines wet! The first day produced several dolphin (but only one in the boat) and a few sailfish bites, but nothing stuck. The next day was a bust! We trolled and trolled, listened to the chatter on the radio and returned to the dock empty handed. But after dinner with Captain Pete, we were re-energized and looking forward to getting back out on the water. We could only do a half day and had a pretty good strategy. Early on we got a hit and pulled a good sized bonita into the boat. After a few more hours of trolling, working our plan, and seeing lots of 'signs' (birds, flying fish, jelly fish, a coconut and weeds) we only had the one fish in the box. :( But, it was good practice for next week.
We're headed to Tallahassee for the weekend for some FSU basketball and cooler temperatures.
Happy Friday! Happy Birthday, brother Daniel!

Thanksgiving in Tampa

We spent Thanksgiving in Tampa this year. Allison, Andrea, Frank's mom Alice and his brother Rich were all here for the holiday. It was nice to spend time with family and for everyone to hear Allison's stories from the time she spent in Hawaii and Thailand.

Even though there were only 6 of us, we had enough food to feed an army. We had 4 kinds of turkey breasts (2 fried and2 roasted), along with all the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, including pumpkin and pecan pies. But we added a little Florida flair by having fried fish (mahi mahi) and hushpuppies.

After dinner, we played a game that we have played during our neighborhood Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone picks a plate from an assortment of randomly decorated plates and has to come up with a story of how that plate was a part of the first Thanksgiving. There were some very creative stories! And because his was the farthest from the truth. (Something about a Foo Young Jones being part of the first Thanksgiving and the symbol he created that became the symbol of peace for the Pilgrims and Indians). Like I said, there were some creative stories.

At the end of the evening, after the kitchen was cleaned up, we all relaxed and enjoyed the movie "Evan Almighty".

And now, we're on to Christmas!

From NC to FL in 10 hours, but the day doesn't stop there...

We are living up to our name! We left NC at 8:30 Monday morning and arrived in Tallahassee about 6:00pm. Had dinner with Allison and Andrea where we were able to catch up with Allison who recently returned to the states from her world-wind travels. After unpacking the car and changing clothes, we zipped off to the FSU Basketball game at 9:00pm. There weren't too many people in attendance, but we were able to spend time with friends Ron & Lynne.
Maybe while we're in Tallahassee we'll get to play golf!

A somber experience...

This past weekend, we traveled to Blacksburg, VA for the FSU-Virginia Tech football game. Before going into the stadium, we walked across the campus to see the memorial that has been established in memory of those who lost their lives in April during the shooting on their campus. Unfortunately, the battery on the camera died and I wasn't able to take any pictures of the awesome tailgate or during the game.

Still a little color in the mountains

What a nice surprise to find a few trees with colorful leaves! This is a view from the front porch.
This is a view from the other side of the front porch, looking towards Grandfather Mountain.
Carolina Blue skies today, but quite chilly! This is a view through the golf course.

Tailgating in Tampa before the Bucs game

With 4 cars and 4 tents, our tailgate is really starting to look professional! Living room, dining room/kitchen and bar! The weather on Sunday was fantastic! A bit cooler than previous games, with sunny and clear skies. It was great!

Our theme for this game was 'breakfast/brunch'. The food was delicious - hash brown casseroles, bagels, donuts, muffins, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, pigs-in-blankets, mimosas and fresh stone crab claws! Nobody went to the game hungry. :) Plus we had enough leftovers to make quesadillas after the game.

Red sky at night....

What a beautiful sky we had the other night when we were home!

Seminoles win!

Homecoming game against Duke and the Seminoles win! Must have been the 'garnet and gold' sunset that did it.

Fun in Tallahassee

We decided to stay the week in Tallahasee since there were 2 home games back to back. We had a chance to visit the driving range, get a few things done and of course, eat!

Our list of 'places to eat in Tallahassee' has grown! Ted's Montana Grill, Riccardo's, The Original Wharf, and best of all....The Kast Net - where you can get a side of eggrolls with your fried fish/shrimp/oyster basket!

We had a fun adventure on Saturday and headed south with the Wilmot Family to Wakulla Springs and St. Mark's Lighthouse. It was really a nice trip of educational, environmental and gastronomical proportions. :)

Weekend in Tallahassee

What a fun weekend! Our friends Toby & Bob from NC (by way of Miami) came to stay with us for a weekend of festive football activities.

We had a great opportunity Friday evening to introduce them to more of our Tallahassee friends and to Andrea.

Then Saturday morning, we were introduced to what might become a new game day ritual for us - oysters and bloody Mary's at the Shell Oyster Bar! Glad we took Jon, Rick, Bob and Charlie up on the invite!

By noon we were setting up for the FSU-Miami game and tailgating with Rick, Joanne, Tim and Megan along with the whole Holley family! Great tailgate, lots of fun and good food. And the weather was PERFECT!

What should have been a win for FSU, wasn't. :(

From ACC to NFL football in 2 days!

The Bucs played the Titans in Tampa. Our theme was ribs and Frank imported a secret rub and sauce from NC for ribs and chicken while Eric had his own secret rub for ribs and brisket. All the grub was great and as a group, we continue to raise the bar each game.

And the Bucs won!

FSU vs Wake Forest in the cold!

We were very excited about going to the football game at Wake Forest because it would be cooler weather, tailgating out of the back of the car and bundling up for the game!

We had a fun time tailgating and ended up parking next to the parents of some of the players. What a fun bunch!

Unfortunately, in the end, FSU lost the game.

I've been remiss...

in updating our blog. We have been on the go/road since spending time in Boone.
Unfortunately, the highlights of the past few weeks are not very cheerful (i.e.: football teams haven't been doing so well) but we have had some fun times surrounding the games.

Happy Fall!

Fall in North Carolina

We've really enjoyed the past few days in North Carolina. The weather has been amazing! It rained last night for about 2 hours and really cooled things off. Today, the high is in the high 60's!

The leaves are starting to turn, but nothing full-blown just yet.

Carolina-blue skies and no clouds with a sprinkling of fall colors! Just beautiful and a terrific view of Grandfather Mountain!

FSU vs NC State in Tallahassee

After spending a few days in Tampa recovering from the game in Jacksonville, we headed north to Tallahassee to get ready for the next home game against NC State.

Andrea was able to join us for dinner Thursday and Friday nights as well as the game on Saturday. Tailgating was great...until the rains came and caused us to pack up earlier than planned. But, Frank did get the satellite dish working.

The game started off great with an early touchdown by FSU, but then it was touch and go for the rest of the game. Our ponchos were like light switches - off and on and off and on and off again.

In the end, FSU won and we stayed pretty dry. A fun weekend with family and friends.

FSU vs Alabama - Roll Tribe!

FSU hadn't played Alabama since the 70's and prior to Bobby Bowden coming to Florida State. So, this was going to be a big game. I'll spare you the details but the outcome was in our favor - 21-14. (Would have hoped for a bigger lead, but a win is a win!)

Go Noles!