Home Again

Inspirational song: Lovely to See You (The Moody Blues)

Who here is surprised that I spent all day doing absolutely nothing? Show of hands. Hm. I can't actually see any hands, but not just because this is print media, as it were. No one in their right mind would have expected me to be functional after arriving home at 01:30, which translates to 03:30 in the time zone where I had spent my last week. I mean, I was pretty darned proud of myself for answering a single work email (letting my employing broker know which charity I want my annual Colorado Gives portion to go to) and putting a repair treatment in my hair for an hour before showering (at like 5 o'clock). I had a fantastic vacation at Senior Disneyland, as I will forever call it, but the traveling to and from is a whole lot.

When last I wrote, Valerie was screeching in exhaustion, right before we boarded the plane. Moments later, a Christmas miracle occurred. For the second time that day, we had a row all to ourselves, and that little munchkin fell asleep within about ten minutes after takeoff. We let her sprawl between us, wrapped in her soft blankie, and she was peaceful until the flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder to wake me so I could hold her for landing (which she mostly slept through also). She slept in the car on the way back home, and she barely mumbled when her daddy carried her inside to her own bed. 

All the small faces here were following me around as soon as I stumbled inside in the wee hours, and they have been glued to me ever since. While I was getting ready to collapse into bed, Saoirse came into my bedroom quietly, and she startled when I called out to her from just out of her field of vision. I got one of those greetings like a soldier just home from deployment. She put her paws on my shoulders and hugged and kissed me. Normally I don't allow her to jump on me like that, but she was so excited to see me, I let her have this one. Athena was equally cuddly, and I was smushed between them the rest of the night. I haven't had a whole hour today without some cat in my lap, needing reassurance that I'm really home. Tomorrow I have to rejoin the world, but today was for resting and reconnecting with my quadrupeds.

Meltdown

Inspirational song: Going Mobile (The Who)

I have fifteen more minutes to sit in the Detroit Airport, before they call boarding for families traveling with small children. And yes, we are, and yes, we need extra time to get this baby on board. She is wiped out, and the only thing that is giving us hope right now is that the display board says there are still over 60 seats still unclaimed in the main cabin. We have a chance of not having a stranger in our row when that baby finally has her final meltdown. She is so tired and so far past the bedtime she was keeping in Florida. She needs sleep, and we don't know how to get it for her. Pray for us all, every set of ears on this plane.

I'm pretty sold on this concept of taking airporter vans to and from when possible. The one at the Villages picks up and drops off at the home of each rider. I loved having zero stress for driving or parking myself, and I don't like inconveniencing family to make the long drive.

Well, I spoke too soon. We are in full meltdown, and we don't board for five more minutes. We are officially the most hated people on this flight. RIP us.

Exchange

Inspirational song: We Need a Little Christmas (Johnny Mathis)

As today was our last full day together, we went ahead and had our Christmas exchange this afternoon. We weren't able to bring too much in our suitcases, just a few things (I chose things specific to my hometown). The girls snuck out to Walmart yesterday and printed off tons of photos, and created framed collages, one from Valerie's first year and a half, the other shots taken from this trip. We had the most fun watching Val trying to understand this concept of ripping paper and finding cool things inside.

My step-aunt and uncle came over for dinner. Of my stepmother's large family, this is the sister I know the best. They were the ones who came to the Villages almost 20 years ago, who provided a lure to get my parents here. Dinner was relaxed and casual, my favorite sort of gathering.

Val performed as expected. She was on point, charming new people as she is wont to do. Dinner was spaghetti, and that baby loves her some pasta. As long as she was eating the rice pasta, it was great. When her mama refilled her portion with regular spaghetti, I had to be careful to keep her from touching me. It's so hard to resist the urge to reach out and adjust her plate or napkin or whatever. I can't even help wipe all that red sauce off her face. Best I can do is take lots of pictures, which I did.

The Story

Inspirational song: O Come, All Ye Faithful (v. Pentatonix)

Technology makes just about everything more entertaining. This evening, we went to a nearby church in The Villages, where we all lined up in our cars (golf carts in the front rows), and watched a Jumbotron presentation of the Christmas story as a multi-media event. I don't know whether drive-in church was a thing pre-pandemic, but it sure is now. Honestly it made things a lot easier. We unhooked Val from her car seat, and she was able to bounce around between us at will, and no one needed to shush us when she made sudden, loud vocalizations. The presentation was simulcast on the radio, and we all sang carols and had a grand time playing with the pen lights they gave us to wave during Silent Night.

In our attempts to find appropriate Christmas movies to play with a toddler, we logged in to all our streaming apps on the TV here, so tonight when Val went to bed right after we played the recorded SEC championship game (we left right before the half to go to the church), I decided I'd pull up a little Apple TV. I took a risk and started over with Ted Lasso, with people who had never seen any of it. Myself, I had only watched two episodes. We started with the pilot, and just kept going. My stepmother was tired and went to bed, but my dad and my daughter kept saying, "yeah, let's watch another one." It's just so darned charming we couldn't stop. I bet we sneak in one or two more before we watch more American football tomorrow.

This trip has really been fun. I am so glad my daughter suggested it. Plus, having a whole week has been a great luxury, not trying to cram everything we wanted to do into just a weekend. We still haven't gotten around to some things, but I guess that means we will have to come back, right?

The Primary Mission

Inspirational song: The Mob Song (Beauty and the Beast)

The intention was good. Our planning ought to have been sufficient. We left the house at 3 this afternoon, heading for a tree lighting ceremony that was supposed to happen around 8 this evening. We took a short detour to see the first place my parents bought down here, a small vacation spot that was Villages-adjacent. (They sold it not long after.) We parked and scouted out a spot to hang out, intending to watch the dancing and live music and whatnot until the main event. It was so crowded at 4 pm that we ended up just setting down our folding chairs behind the stage enclosure, and going out on walks in smaller groups, leaving someone behind to watch the stuff. More and more and more people streamed in after us. It became almost unbearably crowded. After a while, my dad had just gotten over it, and we packed up and left before the tree was lit. (To be clear, once he voiced a desire to go, not a single one of us argued.) It was cool and all, but we can go back and get pictures of us next to that tree tomorrow after dark, and in ten years when we look back at photos, we will not remember that it was on two different nights.

We tried to come home and watch Christmas movies. We couldn't find the ones we wanted for free on any of the streaming services, so while we were at Walmart, my daughter bought DVD copies to watch. Once here, we learned that they had a DVD player, yeah, but it wasn't actually hooked up to anything, and they didn't feel like trying to remove an 80+ inch TV off the wall to hook up an hdmi cable. No matter how many times I said to just buy Rudolph on my Apple TV, I was fine with it, no one wanted to pay for it yet again, so we watched Beauty and the Beast instead. Val ended up going to bed halfway through it, but we stayed up to finish it.

Even though a few of the scheduled events have gone a little sideways, we are accomplishing what we came here to do, and that was to spend quality time together. We are getting caught up, and Val is learning just how big and fun and varied her family is. So really, mission accomplished.

New and Old Traditions

Inspirational song: Give Me a Squeeze, Please (Buckwheat Zydeco)

Everyone else seems to still be going at normal speed, but I sure needed a day in neutral. This time I stayed home while everyone else did stuff. The kids got a tour of which houses my parents had lived in previously in the Villages, and I took a nap. I made sure to wear my compression sleeves today and to apply a generous squeeze of diclofenac ointment to my sore leg. By evening I was restored enough to hang with the family again.

We watched a couple classic Christmas movies this evening. Just like last year, we got a couple photos of the baby when Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge shows up in Muppet Christmas Carol. I might see whether I can make that a series. I have a friend who has taken selfies of her and her son in front of the TV each year when Santa arrives in the Macy's parade, and I think that is a pretty cute tradition. This is our family's favorite holiday movie, so it makes sense that it could be our thing.

We had to search through all the different streaming apps to find a version of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation that wasn't only for an additional cost. Only HBOMax had it included. That surprised me that they didn't all have it for free, but everybody's got a make a buck, I guess. By the time we found it, the baby was taking a bath and trying to fall asleep in their little lanai sleeping den (photos are from the day we arrived). She didn't watch the movie with us. Most of those jokes go over her head anyway.

Ground Rules

Inspirational song: Proud Mary (v. Tina Turner)

Y'all. I've had one day to tour this place in the daylight, and I'm really starting to get it. The Villages are a whole unique world, and they are frankly awesome. Is it for everybody? No. But for those who are interested, it is really darned cool. For one thing, I am fascinated by the complex network of golf cart lanes, paths, and rules. Beyond that, they have so much to keep people entertained and active and social. This place is enormous. I'd have to plot it out on the map to be sure, but I think it covers an area equivalent to the eastern half of Boulder County, from the Weld County line in the east to the Flatirons on the west edge of the city of Boulder. It's one thing hearing "largest senior living community in the world." It's another thing entirely driving around in it (especially facing backwards on a golf cart--which was a whole other experience for me.)

My dad took me and my older daughter for a golf cart tour, teaching us where we could go and how to maneuver between the lanes and paths in traffic. My daughter took a turn driving it. I had the chance, but I was worn out from being out in the sun, and I needed a rest before I tried any of that. On our tour, we stopped at a place that sells street rod style golf carts, which is a whole world I never knew I needed to learn about. There are endless ways to express your personality through golf carts, and now that I think about it, it must make it a lot easier to figure out which one is yours when there are thirty of them in the Publix parking lot.

We took a drive with all of us later in the day, looking at several of the neighborhoods (the actual "villages" of The Villages). We walked a short nature trail through a wetland area where alligators do exist. We were stopped, watching fish jumping and eating bugs on the surface of the water, when there was a much bigger splash towards the waters edge. We saw the water disturbance, but didn't actually see the gator himself. We just assumed it was him. We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant right there by the nature trail, and zero gators were involved after that initial appearance. 

I learned a lot about the origins of this place, how it began from one guy owning a trailer park back in the 80s, expanding and being inherited by his family, until it grew into this unparalleled colossus. The real estate nerd in me was glued to this part of the story most of all from today's tour. That family still has control over the overarching community that is the Villages, even as each homeowner has their own piece of ground. I think I need to do some research into what that structure looks like before I describe it further, so I'm not just playing telephone trying to regurgitate what my parents told me as we drove.