Santa & Mrs. Claus with their Lighted Boat Parade elves
Enjoying the Holiday with Family and Friends
Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and bundling up in this pre-winter weather we have been having. Winter doesn’t officially begin until the 21st, but you sure could have fooled me last week when the wind chill temps on the island were in the mid 30’s. Yikes! And a wind driven drizzling rain made it even more miserable. Corky and Jetty and I just bundled up and stayed pretty much inside for those few days. Island cabin fever sets in very quickly during those times.
The week before Thanksgiving we finally got my dad, Henry, moved back to Seadrift from Brazoria, where he had been living for many years. He and my mom live within seed spitting distance of each other, and it’s so nice having both parents so close again. My siblings and I are very blessed to still have both of them with us, and God’s willing, they will be for many years to come.
` Thanksgiving was great last month for Corky and I. We spent the night prior at Mom’s, so that morning I was able to visit and have coffee with Mom and Dad. Early that afternoon I headed back to POC and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and fellowship at Britton and Susan’s house with great friends. The food was excellent and that night we all sat around the fire pit, a perfect ending to a most wonderful day.
Well the chickens finally started laying a few weeks ago, yay! The 15 hens haven’t fully all kicked into laying mode yet, but I’m getting 4-6 eggs a day right now. It’s a great treat being able to have and provide fresh eggs for myself and to give to friends and family.
The island house and yard are decorated for Christmas! Thank you so much, Susan and Britton, for helping get all the lights and decorations set up and extension cords and splitters connected. The house and yard really do look beautiful, I’m very happy with the outcome. The time and effort involved became worth it when I was told the lights and decorations brought someone the holiday spirit, when it otherwise would have been absent. Each year the island display will become bigger and better! Christmas strong!!
In all my years on the island, I had never been involved or even attended the POC Toy Run and Lighted Boat Parade, well that has now changed. On Saturday afternoon, my best friend, Susan, and I donned our Santa hats and went to the Freeport-To-Port O’Connor Toy Run drop-off site, which was at Clark’s Hotel on the Intracoastal waterway. This was the final destination where nearly 40 boats made the trek from Freeport to POC to drop off toys for area children.
This truly was a wonderful affair to see and be involved in. While Susan took dozens of pictures to capture the event for the POC Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, we both helped unload the boats of many bags of toys and bicycles, all of which were loaded into trailers for later delivery to the kids. This marked the 15th annual Freeport-To-Port O’Connor Toy Run event, and I was honored to be a part of it, and will continue to do so.
And then later that same night, I was part of the 26th annual POC Lighted Boat Parade, sponsored by the POC Chamber of Commerce. This event was a LOT of fun! The evening before, I went into town and helped friends Susan, Britton, Don and Lori decorate Earl Long’s pontoon boat. We loaded that boat down with lights and decorations, and the following night we used it in the lighted boat parade. Earl was a spot-on Santa Claus, looking the part perfectly, and his better half, Carla, was Mrs. Claus, while the rest of us were their elves, decked out in matching elf attire. The nighttime weather was perfect and we had a blast! We are all looking forward to doing it again next year.
That’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a very Merry Christmas!
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