The weather warmed up and we had to make use of it! There is a Florida seashore park nearby called Big Lagoon, and it's lovely and also good for kayakers. So, we loaded the kayaks onto the car and set forth for a little early-December kayaking...

It was uncrowded. There were some more-experienced kayakers already there, but they were bagging it due to low water. Fortunately, the tide was coming in, so we decided to try it anyway, and it went better for us than it had for them. Grant helped set up at the entry point:

And he and Derek started out with Mom trailing in her kayak taking pictures. First, they explored ahead,

then they realized the water was still really shallow in spots and we would have to choose our path more carefully than one might think from the width of the channel! Derek's blade is about as deep as it will go without digging sand, here:

Eventually we made it into Big Lagoon itself, but even then there was one required portage (more of a "draggage," actually; once you get out of the kayak it floats fine in 2" of water). Here's Grant managing one of those pesky grassy bars that look deep but aren't:

The sky went interestingly mackerel for a while there, but once we turned back, the sun started to come out again. We saw crabs and snails and egrets and came across a curiously unafraid night heron while we paddled against the current on the way back.


Back at home, I decided to shift the Thanksgiving door wreath into the Christmas spirit. I use a $3 grapevine round and one or two stalks of appropriate ($2 or $3) bunches of cloth flowers, which I cut apart with wire cutters to get separate blooms and berries, etc. What was Thanksgiving goes into a bag labeled for next year and is replaced by Christmas. BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Hey, each "new" wreath costs about $5 (the $3 grapevine wreath form is purchased only once). That's a lot better than the $20 or more most places want for a ready-made seasonal wreath. Guess we might use 'em for table centerpieces on the boat next year. Wishing everyone joys of the season!