Christmas in Florida 2009

We have spent more than half of our married life living in New England and are often asked; "how do you celebrate Christmas in Florida."

Duuuuhhh - just like we always did with a few modifications...


We start out attending every "Christmas" event that our grandchildren are involved in.

Grammy and Carly at Ben & Carly's school Christmas program

as you can see, Ben is glad the program is over!

We decorate for Christmas

string lights in the palm tree

we DO live in Florida!

use a FAKE snowman!

and a fake tree

some things don't change!

remember the REAL meaning of Christmas

 

kids and presents

Carly dressed up as her favorite character in the movie we went to see

The Chipmonks the Squeakual

good food on a special plate

hmmm wonder if anyone in Louisiana recognizes this plate?

Carly practicing her dance moves before we went to see the movie.

and YES she danced at the movie!!!

Nice and Eze ... not Nice and Easy as some smart mouths called it!

Off to Nice and Eze... 

Nice was fascinating

 Loved the town square

Russian Orthodox Church built by Nicholas II

Harbor

Leopold II's Home

Our ship in the harbor below

Awesome trip with my best friend!

and she took me to Eze too!!!

Eze is a medieval village high on a rocky outcrop above the harbor dating back to before the time of Christ. 

Eze Church

 

Overview map of Eze

 

 

 

Castle Ruins

 

You can see our Ship in the harbor below.

 

 

 

 Castle Ruins in Eze

 

 

 

Monaco and Monte Carlo

OK, the French Riviera is cool... we can't afford to live there, but it is cool!

We went ashore early in the morning. 

First miracle of the day, Judy is awake!

Harbor Fortress

 

 

Monaco

Church where Grace Kelly & Prince Rainier

were married and buried.

 

 

 

Inside the Church 

 Princess Grace's Tomb

Hey!  Tourists have to take pictures of something.

Courtyard in front of the Royal Palace (behind the camera)

 

 

View from the Palace

Monte Carlo Casino 

We climbed a million stairs.  Judy

was pretty happy to find this along the way!

Thanks to Israel and all the walking we did there

we did not need the Defibrillator!

The harbor near where our ship was anchored. 

RCCL Voyager of the Seas

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

I didn't do it!  It leans, but I am not responsible!!!
If you had told us years ago that one day we would stand in this place, I would have told you "not likely!"  But once again God shows Himself faithful in that He does indeed give to us the "desires of our hearts"  
Pisa and its leaning tower are awesome!

On the way to Pisa

Somebody is HAPPY!

and ... "Gob Smacked!"

 

 

Baptistry

 

 

 

and... the Baptistry leans too!

 

 

Oh YEAH, Judy took me with her!

Inside the Pisa Church

The Pendulum Chandelier

and our day ends with yet another Towel Critter...

On Holiday! Moving on to Rome...

We went to Rome on day three of our cruise.  How can you visit Rome and not visit the Vatican?  Pretty impressive.  Click on the pictures to see the full picture.

St. Peter's Basilica

  As you can see, Judy was pretty excited to be in Rome.

  

 

The Vatican Museum is huge and filled with incredible treasures.

 Emperor Constantine

 Mosaic Floor

Sistine Chapel

 Vatican Garden

St. Peter's Basilica

The small pitched roof to the right is the Sistine Chapel

Inside St. Peter's

Michelangelo's Pieta

AWESOME!

Inside the Dome

Altar

Altar up close

The sad note for us on this day was that this beyond beautiful building was built to honor God but man spent more time and money on honoring man than they did God! 

This statue is a typical example... It is one of the largest most ornate statues in the church and it honors a man.  Revelation 2:9 comes to mind...

The end of a perfect day.... AND

No cruise would be complete without "Towel Critters!"

On Holiday!

What happened to the Melton's?   

Quick catch up... we left Israel October 29th, arrived at home in Tampa on the 30th, spent time with family and friends and left Tampa Nov 7th "On Holiday" as our British friends have taught us to call vacation.  I know we seem to travel all the time but most of our travel over the past two years has been missions trips or to visit family - those are fun but more often than not, there is a lot of work involved.  It was time - it was time...

 We flew to Barcelona Nov. 7th and took a seven day cruise on the Mediterranean on board Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas.  If you click on each picture, it should come up in a larger format so you can see the whole picture.

Our cabin was awesome... 

Al & Judy Melton (just in case you forgot what we looked like!)

Our first sale day was at sea , great day to relax...

On day two we visited Pompeii and the Amalfi coast...  if a picture says a thousand words, then these replace a book!

Mt. Vesuvias from Pompeii

 From Pompeii we went on to the Amalfi Coast...

Ignore the sign... we were having a capuccino! 

Drop dead gorgeous... great trip, one that we would do again in a heart beat!  Thus ends day two of our cruise.  Day three we went to Rome!  stay tuned - sooner or later, I WILL post more.

Super Busy Week

But it always seems to be like that the closer we get to going home time.  

Israel has been celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot.  We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be in Israel during this time.  The Jews build booths or Sukkots and for one week live in them - some even sleep in theirs.  They can be incredibly fancy or just a simple tent in the yard.  They do this as they reflect back on that time when their nation came out of Egypt and lived in tents in the wilderness for 40 years.  It is a joyful time with singing, street parties (yes we went to several - I told you it was a busy week!), and much celebration.

There are even booths at restaurants, the city hall (largest in Jerusalem), and at the Western Wall.  The Jewish men go to the Western Wall and wave branches of 3 different trees tied together as they pray. 

On the way to the Wall.  Not sure who the guy is in the middle - but he was someone important.

Gathering at the Wall

3 Species of trees and the citron (lemon)

The largest Sukkot at the Wall and people eating inside.

 

Family Sukkot on the roof of their house.

And hovering right over the Western Wall, where the Temple once stood, the Moslem Mosque of the Dome of the Rock.

Many areas of the Old City are beautiful

75,000 people from all over the world marched in a parade this past week to honor Israel.  Basicly, they just said "Hey Israel!  We love you!"  It was pretty awesome and a joy to behold.  We are glad we were off and could attend.

 

Yep!  Military recruits - Kids... but they grow up to look like the next picture

You have to be crazy to mess with Israeli soldiers!

 

The strongest ally and friend that Israel has - the SIGN not the flag!

The Lion of Judah!  Israel's only hope...