Life is Good!

Some people say they're "shaking the dust off" when they step back and take a break. For me, it was "shakin' the sand off" since we just spent eight days in Florida. The salt air and sunshine cleansed me, facilitated great relaxation, and gave me time to reflect on how I can attack 2012 with gusto.

We had a WONDERFUL time with our family. Not really sure if we would want to kill each other or create lifetime memories, the trip went pretty darn well. You see, we did not want to have any unfulfilled intentions. My folks are aging more than I'd like to admit and I never want to look back and say, "Man, we should have taken that trip and we missed our chance." So we took the trip.

All the travel plans went perfectly, the temperatures were way above normal, and we crafted new traditions. Calm and relaxed on the very last night in Florida, I sat outside in the 73-degree evening and reflected upon the trip, adoring the colored Christmas lights wrapped around our balcony.



On December 22, my folks and Brady traveled to our house in Chicagoland. As our flight out was at 6:00 a.m. from Midway, we sought to avoid a "Home Alone" moment and set no fewer than five alarm clocks! We landed in Tampa and checked into our hotel in Treasure Island. We immediately found the nearest outside beach bar and everyone sampled blackened Grouper (the best fish ever). Sauntering along the beach that day, we all devoured the sunshine, soaking up as many rays as possible. Life was good.



The next day, Christmas Eve, we headed over to Anna Maria Island and checked into our beachhouse. It was just fantastic; a three-story house with a pool and five houses from the white-sand beach. At 82 and sunny, we hurriedly grocery shopped for Christmas dinners and hit the beach for more Vitamin D absorption. It was Christmas Eve and we were playing in the sand on a beautiful beach! Life was good!



Deciding upon midnight mass for Christmas, Jack created a culinary masterpiece of grouper, salmon, crab cakes, and mahi-mahi for dinner. Our beach house had a whole-house stereo system, so we piped in Christmas tunes to solidify the atmosphere. Before mass, we took a ride around the small island, admiring the Christmas lights. Mass was beautiful and we all paid closer attention to make sure we grasped that it was, indeed, Christmas. In sandals and capris, after having a Christmas dinner of mahi-mahi, we weren't sure it would feel like Christmas. However, it did. And life was good.

Per my vacation tradition, I awoke at dawn on Christmas morning to walk the beach (I get up early every day on beach vacations; there is just something magical about dawn on a beach). I arrived back home to cinnamon rolls baking in the oven and the whole family out on the deck, sipping coffee and lounging in the sunshine. Does it get much better than that?

Jack whipped up a prime rib for dinner and chose to sear it on the grill before slowly roasting it in the oven for several hours. He left the grill unattended and Brady and I, floating in the pool, noticed flames licking out the sides of the grill. Black smoke billowed! Unsure of whether to douse the grill in pool water or stand helplessly by, Brady yelled for Jack to help and I stood frozen in place, nervous about the buzzards circling overhead! They saved the prime rib, but it made for some interesting bird-watching!

Christmas Day was weird, though. Different. After my folks tired of the beach, we all relaxed in the pool and via speakerphone, we called each member of the family to wish them a Merry Christmas. After eating the wonderful-but-torched prime rib, we retired to the living room to watch "The Christmas Story." It's not Christmas without Ralphie. Life was good, though!

The rest of the week went by blissfully uneventful. We alternated between beaching, pooling, sightseeing, and dreaming up ideas to get the entire family down for Christmas 2013 (y'know, if the whole Mayan thing doesn't happen in 2012!).



OH, and we ate a lot. Scallops, shrimp, and fish, oh my! In addition to our usual favorites, we squeezed in two visits to Starfish Company (this really hole-in-the-wall of all hole-in-the-wall restaurants that cooks off-the-boat fish) afforded us our share of grouper and soft shell crab.



Mom put aside a breaded crab leg as a joke and not looking before he grabbed a "french fry," Brady unsuspectingly ate the crab leg. That's a picture I wish I had!

Jack and I did manage to steal away for a couple romantic lunches. We use these times to plan our lives and goals and reconnect for the craziness that is sure to find us in 2012. One of our favorites is Columbia, for their tapas and champagne sangria. True to form, we sat there in the sunshine, sipping sangria, and charting out our shared and personal goals for 2012.



Our goals are pretty similar...trying to take better care of ourselves and becoming the best versions of ourselves. All of our sub-goals cascade from those two primary aims. And, of course, to drink more sangria!

So vacation was pretty spectacular. Jack and I booked our next trip and already programmed the count-down app to tick off the days until we depart.

Until then, it's time to put our proverbial noses to the grindstone and crank out a lot of work the next five months. With Jack in school and me resuming grad school (first class is Synoptic Gospels!), it'll go fast. But we're ready to go and to make it a great 2012. Life is good!