There's no place like home...

We left home on December 18th and are six hours from home as I write. The temperature has dropped 35 degrees during our journey. We left Naples with beautiful blue skies and balmy breezes. We arrived in Paducah, KY at 43 degrees, grey skies and spitting rain. But it was a lovely trip. We had the opportunity to see what Mother Nature can do when left alone. We saw bobcats, piliated woodpeckers, alligators, salt-water crocodiles, herons, egrets, Magnificent frigatebirds, red-shouldered and red-tailed hawks, vultures, anhingas, cormorants, ducks without number, osprey, bald eagles, and all kinds of warblers and song birds. We visited the Everglades, several wildlife refuges and an Audubon site. We also read about the large numbers of panthers that have been killed in southern Florida this year – most of them hit by cars.

As we were driving back I was thinking about all the things I have been thankful for this year. I am thankful that I have a wonderful and loving husband who makes me laugh and shows me the wonders of the world we live in. My daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are healthy. My father-in-law is doing well. I have the time and where-with-all to indulge in my passions: gardening, card-making and bird-watching. I live in a wonderful place where nature comes to us. I have made a ton of new friends this year; a big shout-out to my new friend Jo in Naples who told me where all the stamping stores were in her neck of the woods and to one of my bestest friends, RuthAnn, who kept an eye on our cat even though the cat doesn’t like her.

I usually don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I have one this year. Over the years I’ve had some bad habits. One of them was smoking and when I quit, I discovered how good food actually tasted when your taste buds hadn’t been ruined with cigarettes. So, now I fight the weight. I figure if I can stop smoking, the weight shouldn’t be that big a problem, so Richard Simmons, here I come. We’ll be home tomorrow afternoon and I’m looking forward to my bed and my cat whom I miss dreadfully. I will be back to posting cards again by Sunday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and a fruitful, healthy and blessed 2010.