River also wanted me to make sure we wish Santa Clause a Happy Valentines too.   She has been very concerned about Santa the last couple days … she is afraid he is going to get left out this holiday and not get a Valentine card from anyone. She wanted to send him one … but I assured her that Mrs. Clause would probably get Santa a card. We might still have to make one and send a belated Valentine card to Santa just to ease her precious little mind.
If there was a way to measure “sweet” … she’d tip the scales!

Another River Funny:     When River has asked Paul several times in a row “why” about one thing or another and he doesn’t want to have to answer anymore; Paul will often respond jokingly with a ‘smirk’ “WHY do elephants have long noses?”  Well, today we were having some discipline issues with River (it could have had something to do with all the Valentine chocolates!) but I sat her down on her bed to discuss the troublesome day and asked her “WHY have you been so disobedient all day today?”  … she looks at me with ‘the smirk’ and in the same tone of voice Paul uses says “WHY do elephants have long noses?”  Well, needless to say, I bust out laughing and it took me about 10 minutes to compose myself enough to get back to the disciplining at hand!

She’s only FOUR – Heaven help me!!  Sometimes people will ask “What are you going to do when she’s a teenager?” … Heck, all I can think about right now is “What am I going to do when she’s FIVE!”

Paul and I often call her “The Negotiator” because she so cleverly negotiates situations like an adult.  Today I had given her a box of four chocolates for Valentines Day.  She shared one chocolate with her daddy this morning.  So, tonight when I was having a little chocolate treat – she wanted one – and I explained that she already had her Valentine candy treat for today… it was her box of four chocolates.  She goes on to explain she only had three because she shared one with daddy … so can she have one more chocolate to replace that one?  UGH … she got me again!

This is what we did today … JANUARY 28TH ….

There are a lot of retired folk in most of the RV parks in Florida this time of year, and this one is no exception. But most of the retired people here are simply delightful and River likes to talk to them. One couple stopped by to say hello on their way “out for a drink” the other night. Now when River wants to go out for a hot chocolate she says … “Dad, let’s go out for a drink!”

Paul and I are busy, as usual, checking the local economy and real estate prices and looking for possible business opportunities. So, lest you thought this was ALL just fun and games … we have been doing some “work” while on our travels. Of all the places we’ve been so far … I think we both like Florida the best. We liked North Carolina some, South Carolina more, Georgia even better and Florida seems to “feel” the best to us. St. Simons Island Georgia was my second favorite place. We like the idea of no state income tax in Florida … however, when you look at property taxes you realize they get you one way or another!

We’re trying to disregard current weather when evaluating an area … realizing that warm and sunny in January generally means horribly hot and humid in six months. Although, I’m not sure it’s entirely possible to do that completely … as everything seems nicer when it’s warm and sunny versus cold and wet. But, to our credit, we did notice that there were places that even when warm and sunny we didN’T like and places that when cold and wet we still DID like … so I guess we’re able to be fairly subjective about current weather. But, because weather is important, to aid in our search for a new home … we’ve done a lot of research comparing monthly averages of weather conditions over the course of the full year. Finding only southern California to be the closest thing to paradise (weatherly speaking) in the U.S. but the idea of living amongst GOBS of other people in southern California isn’t extremely appealing. There’s always Uruguay … but we’re not sure we want to tackle an international move like that right now.

So … bottom line …. we still really have no idea where we might want to live OR even what we might want to do when we settle there!! But we’re narrowing it down and that’s a good feeling.

We are celebrating Christmas a little differently than we are used to … with 80 degrees on Christmas Eve day here in Kissimmee, Florida and NO SNOW! … I have to admit that there is an eensy weensy little part of me that is missing the snow this Christmas … but mostly I am thoroughly enjoying the warm weather. We’re hoping it’s warm enough to go to the outdoor pool here tomorrow.

We also decided to celebrate Christmas by taking River to Disney World which we did yesterday. We all had a wonderful time and it was so much fun to watch River so excited … allllll day loooong! We arrived at the park at 9:30 am and left at 10:30 pm. She LOVED IT!

We don’t have room for a Christmas tree this year … so River and I made one instead. Here’s our Christmas tree: