Seasons greetings friends! Wow it’s been a whirlwind since we ran our half/marathon almost a month ago! Things have been getting into the holiday spirit here in Sanford.
Sanford is always full of surprises and non-stop events to attend – and the holiday season things get into full gear.
First, a quick video overview (including a video tour of the Tiny Houseboat mentioned below):
All month long, most our weekends have been abundant with friends, family and festivals. Hey, the three Fs. Works for us! We’re also continuing our running routine.
We’ve had a Wine Walk, benefiting our local favorite theater – Theater West End. Our friend Sabine joined us for that, walking around town sampling 26 different wines at stations at local merchants. Super fun.
And then there was Krampusnacht at Hollerbach’s – our local famous German restaurant. It was fun to celebrate the naughty side of the holidays!
And then we were invited by Hollerbach’s and the local bike shop Bicikleta to be part of their ‘float’ in the town’s light up holiday parade.
We adorned our bikes in lights, put on silly holiday wear and rode in circles down 1st street. Amazing, especially considering four years ago we watched the parade during our first visit.
But the big finale was this this past weekend. At our family Thanksgiving gathering, it was decided that we’d host the holidays Sanfording style. And aboard our boat!
That meant Chris’ parents and my mom would be coming for a weekend in Sanford. We’re super blessed that we have amazing parents, and they’re dear friends who spend time together even when we’re not around – it makes the holidays easy for us!
With Y-Not only having two staterooms, we reached out to our dockmate Will – who owns the Famous Tiny Houseboat, that he rents out on AirBnB. With no hotels in downtown proper, it’s one of the few ways to stay in the area and experience all the wonders of Sanford in walking distance.
It’s an adorable floating tiny house that my mom has been dreaming of staying in. Will just got the houseboat back opened after the two recent storms (Nicole and Ian), and as luck would have it – it was open for the big Jingle Jam weekend. Score!
He cut us a friends/dockmate deal (plus, we kinda saved the boat during Hurricane Ian when it almost broke free).
My mom loved staying aboard.
We gave our master stateroom to Chris’ folks so they wouldn’t have to deal with the composting toilet we have installed in the guest head.
And we got to try out our new mattress in the guest berth that we had just replaced (by purchasing a queen 7″ memory foam mattress on Amazon and cutting it down with an electric knife.)
Our weekend was jam packed, starting with.. Jingle Jam! This is the town’s big holiday party, overtaking most of the historic downtown. With vendors, food trucks and four musical stages with acts all day and evening long – it’s a crazy time! We all enjoyed it.
We capped the evening off with a live musical performance at the local Irish Pub by our dear friend Dave Rowe from Stinkpot.
Unfortunately, due to the storms and damage at the marina (there’s now a multi-year waitlist for a slip) – Dave & Stacey were not able to get back to Sanford this season. But they’re staying about an hour away in Astor so he can commute in for his gigs. We miss having our friends here with us, but it’s great we still get to see them.
The next day was scheduled for even more fun – the highlight being the Asian Lantern Festival at the Central Florida Zoo just down the road from us. It’s an amazing walk through the zoo at night that we all thoroughly enjoyed, and is going through mid-January.
It was a fun filled weekend for sure, and the parents all left out on Monday morning leaving us exhausted! We’ve been zonked ever since recovering from both so much activity and having so many people aboard our humble little floating abode.
We’re settled in for a super rare cold holiday this weekend with temps getting down into upper 20s (there’s even SNOW in the current prediction for next week), with not much planned but spiked hot cocoa. Which is just the way we like it.
From us to you – wishing you the warmth of the holiday season!
Glad you were able to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Happy Holidays to you and your families. The photo of the three of you (Chris, Cherie and Kiki) on the boat is the perfect Holiday Card. Love, love, love it. Glad you are having such fun. Always enjoy hearing from you. I am off to Sioux Falls, SD to spend time with family. Driving by car with my brother and his wife. There is a big family gathering and we will be staying in a 5 bedroom house that is an AirBNB. Lots of fun things planned. Happy Holidays.
We are so pleased we got to see you all at the Sullivan for Dave’s performance. What a fun time! Truly, an awesome family you two have surrounding you with love. I understand why you were so zonked though. What a whirlwind!
So glad you are able to be there in Sanford to support all of your family, touching really! Travel is to some some day, and the loop is awaiting you.
Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. I read about the Tiny house boat in a recent article about unusual B & B’s.
Not sure why, but in almost every WordPress blog, the LIKE button is inoperative. But I LIKED your blog anyway! ;->
Thanks.. I’m pretty sure the button is linked in with WordPress.org, and you have to be logged in to use it.