Packing and Decorating

The days are drawing near when we will pack up the old Explorer and head South. Come December 1st, our new address will be The Villages, Florida. Lest you think that Paul has actually agreed to selling the homestead and moving on, I will add that this is just a temporary relocation. We will be renting a lovely home for December and January. Don't you just love those palm trees and note the golf cart garage door on the right.

In the past year, we’ve known that our time in the Pocono’s was limited. Jon and MaryBeth have made plans to return to Connecticut where she will join an OB/GYN practice and Jon can still fly out of Newark. We haven’t developed enough roots in this area to want to stay here after they leave. So the world became a potential home for us. With few limitations, we began auditioning locations. We looked in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and California. I spent hours reading publications on the “BEST” places to retire and doing more research online. Each place had its appeal, some way more than others. Having friends in some of these places really helped. Years ago, I had been very opinionated (who me?) about never wanting to live in Florida. Suffice to say, it involved too many old people , too much humidity, bugs and no mountains. But times and situations change and all of a sudden, old people don’t look so old, humidity is better than desert air on the skin, I’m about ready to put away the skiis and ……well, bugs are bugs and still something to be considered.

So we have decided to give The Villages a try. It is VERY large and located between Ocala and Orlando, in the hill country of Florida. It is in horse country and looks very much like Lexington. We have friends there( Hi Ernie and Barbara) and when we went to check it out in July, we met many friendly , happy couples. The climate is much more temperate than farther south. We will need jackets and sweaters . We will use this blog to share the good, the bad and hopefully, there is no ugly. ( unless you consider our golf game)

So we are trying to get the house in order up here. We went ahead and put up a few paltry decorations on the outside so as not to look like the black hole in this overly decorated neighborhood. Most years we do it up proud but I do not miss freezing my fingers trying to hang lights in 30 degrees. And I hadn’t even considered doing anything down there until Deb, who owns the rental, wanted to know if we were bringing decorations with us or did we want to borrow some from her. And here I thought I was going to get away easy this year.
Well, its not the greatest shot but we have candles in the windows and a wreath on the door and on the upper bedroom window. I'm done with the decorating for this year.!!