Making memories in the Florida cold!

Gaylord Palms Resort's ICE! Christmas Around the World

It’s not too often Florida kids get to play in freezing cold temperatures and throw snow balls. Even though we’ve had some bitterly cold temperatures lately, it’s nothing like the nine-degree temperatures in Orlando at Gaylord Palms Resort’s ICE! This year the theme is Christmas Around the World.  

The Tubbs Family at ICE! 

Recently my family was invited to experience ICE! It is in its fifteenth season and is self-guided walk through experience of a winter wonderland, where two million pounds of colorful ice has been carved into larger-than-life ice sculptures by some of the finest artisans from Harbin, China. This year the sculptures represent holiday scenes from various nations including a two-story ice sculpture with slides visitors can go down.  There’s also ice sculptures of the traditional Santa’s North Pole and a beautiful nativity scene created with crystal clear ice. The nativity is my favorite part because it brings in the true meaning of Christmas.

Graci and Randi inside ICE!

Kadi, Graci and Randi at the nativity.

My two daughters Randi (13) and Graci (11) are Florida girls, so feeling the freezing cold temperatures and seeing ice sculptures isn’t something they experience too often.  Even though their teeth were chattering at times, they loved it!

They could only stand the freezing temperatures for about a half an hour, still it was plenty of time to see everything and go down the slides, which probably was their favorite part.  It truly is fascinating looking at the details in the sculptures.  

The slides made of ice inside ICE!

Thankful for family this holiday season

The holiday season has officially started and it kicked off with Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  It began with what I call the BIG event. My husband and I and our two girls hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner for our whole family. There were 19 of us who gathered around the table eating everything from smoked turkey to homemade frosted peanut butter brownies.

The feast was fabulous. Everyone brought a dish to share which covered several tables. Our family made the main dishes including a smoked a turkey, oven baked turkey and a ham. Since my husband loves to use his charcoal smoker,  not only did he slave over the smoked turkey for 12 hours, but he also made a delicious smoked fish spread, which happens to be my sister Kori's favorite appetizer. 

We had a great time preparing for the celebration from decorating the tables to making the food. My daughters, Randi, 12 years-old and Graci, 10 years-old,  helped prepare some of the dishes including one of my favorite desserts,  Grandma Hodge's frosted peanut butter brownies.  They are to die for and the girls made it perfectly!

This year only my side of the family was able to attend our first Thanksgiving feast. My husband's side of the family celebrated in Fort Myers. It was still a big gathering since my brother and sisters are married with children of their own. As our families have grown, we decided to give my parents a break from having Thanksgiving at their house. Now each one of us kids hosts Thanksgiving every other year. The opposite years we go to our in-laws for Thanksgiving.

The tradition of  taking turns with our families for the holidays is something  we started when my sister had her first child, the first grandchild on my side of the family.  When my husband and I got married we followed right along with the tradition and  divide the two big holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas between my family and my husband's family. It works our pretty well and helps so we aren't running from house to house during the holidays. We are able to spend quality time with our families.

My girls love playing with their cousins. They all get along so well and have a lot of fun together. This year the kids prepared a show for all of us and sang songs. It was also my youngest sister's baby's first Thanksgiving. She is the youngest of the nine grandchildren at nine months old.

It's amazing to watch the kids grow up from the youngest now who is nine months old to the oldest who is 18 years old. How time flies.  Our family is so blessed and we have so much to be thankful for.  I know I am thankful our first Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch and we don't host another Thanksgiving  dinner for another eight years. When you have a big family and everyone takes turns you don't do it that often. I have to admit it was fun and I am truly grateful for my parents and my in-laws for all the Thanksgiving dinners they have prepared for us. I am also so glad we had the opportunity to host this family event and all be together.

Tis the Season to be Busy

We all know how busy the winter holidays can be, especially if you have kids. It seems like even before we had our turkey dinner for Thanksgiving this year, we were getting ready for Christmas. Did you happen to have both Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations up at the same time? We did! At least we didn't put up the tree before Thanksgiving, we waited. I did see a lot of trees up and even heard Christmas music the week of Thanksgiving.

It felt like the holidays collided this year. Maybe it's because Thanksgiving fell closer to December this year?  I am not sure.

Now the rush is on to buy presents, send out Christmas cards, make cookies, attend holiday parties and see our children in their school holiday concerts.

Have you felt the rush yet? I did on Black Friday. My two daughters and I went shopping to see if we could find any deals and buy a few presents. The first mall we went to was actually not too crowded. I even made a comment to the girls that this year Black Friday shopping wasn't so bad. We got a front row parking spot. The girls had their photo taken with Santa and we didn't have to wait in line. (Money Saving Tip: Bass Pro Shop takes free photos with Santa.)

We decided to leave the mall we were at and try the outlet mall. This is when we saw the madness up close. We couldn't even park it was so crowded. As we left, I decided I was not going to be a part this holiday craziness.

I want to enjoy the holidays. I don't want to be so exhausted and miss having fun and making memories with my family. I want to make life more simple. How about you?

Here are some ideas to make the holidays more enjoyable and stress free.

-Don't put up a ton of decorations this year, be selective. It will cut down on the time you spend taking down the decorations.

-Have fun with your kids making Christmas gifts. Homemade gifts are the best and Pinterest has tons of ideas. You will also save money.

-Pick and choose a few parties to go to, rather than saying yes to every party.

-If you and your kids love making cookies, give the cookies as gifts to family and friends. You can buy the ready-made dough to make it even easier.

-Take the kids for a drive or walk to look at lights. Several neighborhoods like Lakes Parks Estate in Seminole, Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo and local recreation centers have beautiful decorations and lights on display. The cost is usually a donation.

-Take time as a family to roast marshmallows, have hot chocolate and sing Christmas carols.

-Spend time helping others as a family, like feeding the homeless.