Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our friends. It's been a very good year. This was the first year that our cat Caylith lived in the apartment in Alabama. She seems to like it. It is amazing how much room on a queen size bed she can take up so it is actually a little crowded when Meade is in Alabama.

Connie is enjoying her job and the people she works with. The job was affected by sequestration. She was able to still work fulltime but had to do it in 4 days instead of 5. After the sequestration was no longer affecting them she started working 80 hours in 9 days so she is spending two 3 day weekends a month in Mississippi.

Meade got a new Microsoft Surface tablet. He really likes it and gave Connie is Nook HD tablet. It isn't as powerful as the Surface but she really likes it. Meade also has a Iphone. It is definitely handy and Connie might actually break down and get one soon.

In March, the family went on a 7 day Royal Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral to celebrate Connie's Mom's 80th birthday. There were 10 of including Mom, Connie, Meade, Lee, Lee's girlfriend Jessi, Connie's brother Marcus, his wife Sharon, his daughter Nichole and her boyfriend Austin and Connie's brother-in-law David. The cruise went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Haiti. Connie, David, Lee and Jessi went on a shore excursion to the Mayan walled city of Tulum. It was interesting. The trip went well and Mom really liked having everyone together for a week.

In July, Connie and her Mom went to Chicago for a week. They stayed at the historic Drake Hotel. They took several bus tours to see the different areas of the city as well as a river tour. They also went to the Field Museum, Art Institute, Millineum Park including the Cloud Gate (See us taking our picture in the Cloud). They also had authentic Deep Dish pizza at Lou Malnati's and Chicago Hot Dogs at a stand outside the Field Museum as well as other good food.  They walked all around Chicago and were very impressed with how clean and safe it was. Connie went up to the John Hancock Observatory because she always likes views from tall buildings.

The most exciting news is that Lee has gone back to college. He is attending Florida Seminole College. He is pursuing an Associate's degree in Computer Aided Design. He is in his first semester and being committed to doing what it takes to get a good grade.

Connie and Meade went on a 5 day Carnival Cruise in September from Jacksonville. It went to Nassau and one of Carnival's private islands. Connie snorkeled. They got an upgrade to a balcony room from their inside cabin the day before the cruise for $250. They really enjoyed the two couples at their dinner table. One of them even arranged for a cake to be brought over for Connie and Meade's anniversary.

Connie has gotten hooked on Walking Dead. Two of the guys at work were talking about it a lot and one of them loaned her the disks for Season 1 and 2 which got her hooked on it. She watched the third season right before the fourth started. Now every Monday, she participates in the discussion of what happened. Lee is hooked on it too so Connie and Lee discuss it regularly. Meade doesn't understand their fascination with it.

Connie and Meade went for another Carnival cruise in November. This was for 7 days and went to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize and Isla Roatan Honduras. They had never been to Isla Roatan and it looked really nice but the weather was terrible that day so Connie had to cancel her zip lining shore excursion. Connie's Mom went with them. Once again we got an upgrade to a balcony cabin and this time it didn't cost anything. This cruise we qualified as platinum (over 75 days) which gave us a bunch of perks including free laundry, logo gifts, chocolate dipped strawberries at the beginning of the cruise, priority embarkation and debarkation. It was great.