The Villages, Florida

We used to take trips to The Villages to see my grandparents almost once a year while I was growing up. I love being down there. Their house is on a small lake and you can drive the golf cart all over town. There are even miniature parking spaces at the grocery store, specifically for golf carts!

I really like these first two photos below as a set:

A festive Rudolph flamingo!

Our favorite spot for freshly squeezed orange juice! Expensive but woooorth it.

Sean was able to rig up the lighted Christmas tree at the end of the dock, just like our grandpa used to do it! The tree looked great at night. We could even see it from the other side of the lake when we would drive over to the square each evening.

My dad and I were reading one morning and this happened: 

Gorgeous!! It was really nice to be in Florida with family. The weather was great. We even got up to the pool a couple times. ...Soon enough, I hope to be back again!

Family in Florida

It was so nice to be home in the States with family for the winter holidays. Especially after recently deciding to leave Italy at the end of the school year and head back to the States, in a big part -- to be near family. It was great to have all of those feeling re-affirm.

Lenny and Lexey are taking part in the "golf cart community."

There are multiple squares in The Villages and they each have live music every night for four hours! We were able to see a couple of their favorite groups play throughout the week. (Truthfully, I would sit and work on Sudoku puzzles some of the time. Hehe.)
Mom and Dad dancing at the square. 

We went to my Great Aunt Fran's new house! She was all set with plenty of homemade Italian holiday cookies.  : )  Mmmhmmmmm! The Pizzelles (bottom left) are my favorite!!

My mom got my brother, Sean, and I outside to play tennis a bit one day. It was fun to get outside and hit the ball back and forth a bit.

Mom and Sean

Can you see where the ball is in the air below? (HA!)

Mom and Dad  <3

We took a golf cart ride to a pond to watch the sunset one evening.

Sean, Mom, Lenny, Dad, Lexey, me!