Friends in all kinds of places

One of the great things about Jacksonville is that it has all of the amenities of a large city, but has the small town charm we all want to raise our children in. In fact most people would call Jacksonville southern Georgia minus the red clay of course. I say all of this to lead into another post about the holiday season. It seems as though each year, especially now that Adelaide is here we are now going to more and more parties and gatherings. One of my favorite events this year was on the 23rd at the Sanchez house. I've never been to a "kids party" quite like this. We were greeted at their gate with a sign in table and were quickly each given a flute of champagne to enjoy on our walk up the driveway to the house. Of course since it was our first time to the house my mom had to inform us the the building straight ahead was not the main house, rather it was the guest house. No, I wasn't that crazy guest who took pictures of the house though a big part of me wish that I was so I could show you how beautiful it was.

There were teenagers running craft tables for all of the kids.

Grandma was hanging out on one of the patios drinking wine all night. Just ask my sister and she'll tell you exactly how many glasses she had. You can see the upstairs patio to the main house in the background.

Look beyond the people and the heater and you'll see that this gem of a house sat on a perfect spot of the St Johns River in the San Marco area.

Picture of the outdoor kitchen. Bistro AIX catered the event and the food was fantastic. One of our favorite restaurants of course so we loved our prawns, goat cheese tarts with caviar and all kinds of other fantastic food. They had burgers and hot dogs for the kids, but of course mine didn't eat it. She preferred the goat cheese and fresh green beans, not an exaggeration the kid has an extensive palate.

Ada playing with Grr on the lower part of the lawn.

Woow Dadda Woow

What are those little white spots you may ask...snow. Yes, snow in Florida. Ok so it wasn't real, but that was another surprise for the night. They rented machines that made snow to dance around in all night.

Ok, so not the best photo but that is because I was lucky to catch A before she ran away from Santa. Still not a fan of the big guy.

Adelaide in mid run from Santa and yes that is Mayor Peyton in the background.

Crafts with Auntie K

I'm glad A doesn't talk too much or she would have added this playground to her Santa wish list.

No, we didn't run down to St Augustine that evening, they had a carriage ride around the front of the property.

So long story short, it is great to live in a place like Jacksonville because how many places allow you to be friends with the nobodies like Grant and I or attend parties at beautiful homes on the river with CEOs and the Mayor.

There are no words...

Nope, no words for this one just pictures...

Daddy in a box with a banana...

now Adelaide and Daddy in a box with a banana...

Daddy fell over in the box without the banana, notice it is now in A's hand. I'm sure she didn't push the box over WINK WINK.

Christmas at the club

A possible new tradition for A and her grandparents may have started this year. Ya-Ya and Grr picked her up on a Sunday morning and took her to breakfast at the club with Santa.

All fun and smiles before they left the house.

I wasn't there, but the story is being told that she walked in and started screaming "waffles" which of course are her current favorites. She was half way through her waffles when all of a sudden she stopped eating, started slapping and now yelling Santa. I'm positive my mom was thinking, ha ha Selena is going to look like a chump when A goes right to Santa.

Oh no...Santa and Mrs Claus got a little too close and A started saying, "no Santa, no". So once again...better luck next year Santa.

Baby it's cold outside

Ok, so most people reading this probably don't live in Florida and are laughing at my title. Yes, my blood has thinned back out significantly since my return to Florida but this post is no exaggeration...IT IS COLD HERE! No matter where you live, when you wake up in the morning and feel itchy because the heat has been running all night, have to wrestle a toddler into a jacket and then walk outside to find ice all over the ground and last but not least the car reveals that it is indeed 7:00am and 22 degrees you have to admit that BABY it is COLD outside.

A's hair isn't just draped across her highchair, it is actually sticking up from the static in the house. Darn heat...bring back the a/c.

I happened to have my camera in my purse when we were leaving the house one morning. This is the neighbor across the street. This is Florida, so this is not what we envision in the mornings.

This kid has a tough life doesn't she? Sitting on the best spot in the couch, covered up with a cashmere blanket all while holding the remote so that Daddy won't change the channel from Mimmie Mouse.

Just kidding Santa

Adelaide added a new word to her vocabulary this season...Santa. Oh how she loves to see Santa on tv and to turn on the Christmas tree which is all very exciting to this Mommy. Our neighborhood does a great job of holding activities for all of the big holidays and events that occur in a year. This year we were going to go check out Santa and take A to lunch. There was a surprising twist as you'll see below.

All excited and waiting in line to see Santa.

Way to close to Santa meant screaming, crying and complete terror.

Last but not least, Daddy let her down and she couldn't run to Mommy fast enough and yelling, "Momma, uppa" the entire way.

So all we can say is better luck next year for Santa.

Almost over already...

So where have the Gasbarros been hiding? I had to take a break from blogging for a few weeks for sanity reasons. First I got sick, Grant followed and then Adelaide started barking instead of talking. So after longer than normal days at work (my manager is on a leave of absence) I would get home at night, eat dinner, take a shower, cuddle up with A on the couch for a little while and then we were all off to bed by 8:00. So my evening hours when I typically blog were consumed with tossing and turning instead of sleep due to the cold instead of blogging. Probably a good thing or else I would have just whined and complained anyway. So I may not have looked so cute during my down and out sickness period, but of course my little one was all smiles as normal.

This was taken before school one day right before she took off running through the house instead of putting her jacket on. I don't think I've mentioned how cold it has been here...yuck.

Always eating!!

Entertaining

Tis the season for entertaining, this year the holiday brought us multiple parties to attend and host. One weekend my parents had their holiday party and the weekend before that was a little get together at our house for Italian night.

The holidays also brought us sickness which is why the photos from this time frame didn't turn out so well. I hate that you can't see how beautiful my folks house looked all lit up for the night.

I don't remember what some of our crew was watching, but the kids were watching me and the camera apparently.

Most times when you host a night out people bring a bottle of wine as thanks which some of our guests did. The unexpected treat is when some of the party goers aren't drinkers so they bring homemade pickles. Grant was ecstatic over these.

Couldn't forget snorkeling

This post should have been done back in August, but I went through a little issue with my little pink camera and long story short HERE IT IS!

I couldn't neglect an exciting day from our summer vacation. If you have ever cruised to Grand Cayman you know that when you get off of the boat at the sandbar there are thousands of people jumping around and screaming. We know this, because this is exactly what Grant did a few years ago, HAHHAHAHAHA. Despite his dislike of the activity he did volunteer to jump in the water with the stingray again this year. The big difference between our two trips to Grand Cayman, this time we went on a non-cruise day that happened to be rainy. This meant that there wasn't anyone at the sandbar except our little boat of maybe twenty people which made our experience so much better.

How did Adelaide feel about our little experience...hot and cold. One minute she loved it, because she is the ultimate water rat and the next she was shrieking. By the time we had been in the water for 5 or 10 minutes she loved it. Grant may object, but this will eventually be on our To-Do List again in the future when she is old enough not to be held the entire time.

Couldn't help but to laugh at this and wonder how many stupid questions I've asked over the years.

After our water adventure we all changed and headed out for lunch. My little clown spent more time playing in the sand and running around than actually eating.

30s

I posted about my actual birthday weekend, but I would be remiss if I didn't post about my pre-party a few months ago. We decided that since a lot of us were in town for Adelaide's birthday and we had many babysitters to choose from we would go out for a 30th birthday party.

The evening started as a calm casual night at the Grotto, a wine bar in San Marco and then it went down hill once we headed down the street. The pictures tell the story of the night and I know Lindsey will appreciate the last photo of her on the way home that night.