Big Shoes

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."  --Stephen Wright



Christmas Part II with Kempa Chadwick

Kempa (Grandpa) Chadwick drove down from Blacksburg last weekend to bring some January Christmas ("Chichiss") cheer (Gimma Chadwick was ill). Luckily we like to leave our Chichiss tree up late into January as a buffer against the chilly winter blues and prolong the fun.  Most of the needles are still on it.  Over half.

Benjamin got to work on his wrapping paper shredding skills again... 

...And Kempa got to work on his coloring skills. 

 

On a side note, if anybody from 'Blogger' (the overlords of this blog posting service) are reading this: Hey! Your new software blows. Really, I mean, you fixed something that wasn't broken. And now it is.

Snow Day Snow Day Snow Day !

We had reluctantly slunked back to Charlotte in time for the start of the new semester.  But the new semester didn't start.  We got 5 inches of snow on Monday and a layer of ice on top of that Monday night.  We got a snow day on Monday!  Then we got another one on Tuesday!  Then, they were going to open up at 10:00 am on Wednesday morning, but NO, the roads were still icy and they cancelled classes again and we got ANOTHER SNOW DAY. 



Benjamin enjoyed the snow.  We went for a walk in the woods while it was still coming down.  He didn't make these snowballs himself, and he didn't want to throw them himself.  He did like to hold them though.

There is a big hill at the end of our road.  So on the one hand, being from Idaho and all, we made fun of the sorry ass Charlotteans and their inability to drive in a little winter weather.  Such weanies.  Booo hooo.  On the other hand, we were actually truly hopelessly trapped in our neighborhood.   On the third Snow Day we ran out of food and we had to eat the cats.



A Year in Full

On the day after Christmas, we headed south from Georgia to Florida, seeking warmth in the lower latitudes. We didn't find any. We found more cold. Crossing the border near Tallahassee, we drove through snow flurries. In Florida. I know! You drive that far south, you expect some love from the thermometer.

But it didn't stay cold for long. Old Man Winter is weak in the Pirate Latitudes. By the time New Year's Eve arrived, we were wearing shorts, and a few days later we contemplated cranking on the air conditioning. Ahhh.

We had a swanky dinner at a swanky restaurant in Naples.  As always, Benjamin classed up the place.

We took a stroll out on the boardwalk behind the Naples Grand Hotel, through the mangroves and out to the beach.

 

There was a forest fire somewhere, and smokey clouds in front of the sun that cast everything in a soft and warm red glow before sunset. 

Benjamin was still hooked on throwing sticks in the water following our stay at the lake in Georgia.  He had to settle for throwing shells instead.  I use the term "throwing" loosely; I would hold him over the edge of the water and he would drop them in. 

New Year's Eve!   Gimma and Kimpa babysat for us, and gave us movie passes to the Silver Spot Theater that has big plush n' comfy first-class seats.  We got a glass of wine and watched True Grit.  Then we went and had outdoor bar food and exotic booze drinks and watched a bowl game for a while.  Finally, we went out to the beach behind the Ritz Carlton and walked along the dark beach until midnight.  Folks had bonfires on the beach and were setting off fireworks and having a good time.

Claire wore the dress I got her in Ireland.  90 Euros, but worth every penny.

On the first day of the new year, we drove up to Ft. Myers Beach, about a half an hour north of Naples.  We found an open-air beach bar to watch the Gators beat Penn State in the Outback Bowl.  We strolled the beach and threw more shells in the water.  No less than 6 different people commented on Benjamin's hat.  I guess it's a little bit big for his toddler noggin.

Later we drove to Lover's Key and walked out to the point to watch another tropical sunset.

"Bye bye sun."

Next we visited the Naples Zoo (formerly Jungle Larry's).  Benjamin spotted lots of animals from his books.  Like turtles and fish...

A lot of the animals seemed to be sleeping.  With their backs turned to us.  In the far corners of their cages.  We saw lots of brownish hairy lumps, and entertained oursleves by trying to identify their species.  Here is the backside of a leopard that was kind enough to sleep with his back to us in a spot that was close to the fence.

 

One of the highlights was the male lion, who had something very important to say and started growling when we were walking near his cage.  It was a very impressive and hair-raising sound.

We found a playground and slid.  Check out that grin.  And check out the athletic skills; sliding while holding a sippy cup.  That aint easy.

We took a boat ride around the primate exhibits. Claire spent much of the cruise keeping Benjamin from leaping into the lake.

The zoo has some nice exotic plants too, many of them from Madagascar.  Lots of gangly spiky things that looked like they were from another planet.

Reluctantly, we drove back to North Carolina; back to the chilly air and our jobs and daycare and responsibility and shit like that.

Ice Cream Happy Dance

New Year's Day at Ft. Myers Beach. Warm, tropical breezes. Sunshine and palm trees. And ice cream. All culminating in one of Benjamin's trademark Happy Dances.

Notice that he turns from eating my ice cream and quickly dances over to Mommy to gobble up some of hers as well.  He soon returned to eat more of mine.  He ate half of my cone, at least.

Happy dance became running amok, frozen momentarily in a surfer dude hang ten pose.  Happy New Year!