Christmas Eve Eve

We started out this morning attending a non-denominational church service right here at the campground's clubhouse. There were probably around 20 people there and the regular pianist was absent so the pastor played the keyboard to lead the three hymns, two of which I'd never heard before. The music part of the worship time was a little uncomfortable and the service was a lot more ordered than we are used to, but the message was heartfelt; the pastor had prepared a nice sermon with good perspective on the character of Jesus' earthly parents. The service finished with communion which was neat.

After that, Brock took the kids to the playground while I made lunch in the peace and quiet of the trailer. Nice. Then we all ate together and everyone settled onto their separate electronics for a little while and we tried to decide what to do with our day. The pastor and her husband had told us that there was a little beach within about 10 miles of the campground with a pier and a little trail.They also told us that you could rent kayaks or canoes and explore around very locally and you can really get close to manatees. Or rather that they like to get close to you. That sounded really cool, but for today we just decided to go check out the beach.

It is still a little chilly today (I think the high was 59 degrees) so the beach was not the same experience that we've had most recently and this felt more like a little sandy crescent than a beach. It was still kind of pretty and it was interesting that the area has a big power plant with a coal plant and two nuclear power stacks as well. This beach didn't allow dogs either so Brock took Heidi for a walk up the road and the kids and I walked on the beach for a short while. They mostly just scared up the seagulls. Then we walked out on the pier and looked around. The trail from the beach to the pier was really cool. It was a boardwalk through what felt like a jungle.

After that short walk, we searched on google to find a local ice cream shop preferably on the water. There was one with really good reviews, but it was 20 miles away and we decided that was too far so we went to another one that was more on our way back to the campground. It was ok, but we wished that we'd just gone to Dairy Queen afterwards since most of the ice creams had big ice crystals in them and the brand that they carried was one that I see in just about every grocery store freezer around here.

Back at the trailer, the kids went back to the playground. I worked on sending a few more Christmas letters (super slow, inconsistent wifi) while Brock puttered around on his tablet. Close to dark, I took Heidi for a long walk. While we were out, I smelled all kinds of dinners BBQing and it made me realize that I was actually a little hungry. When we got back to the trailer, the kids had returned from the campground and they and Brock were watching the end of The Polar Express in anticipation of The Grinch coming on after.

We ate dinner and watched The Grinch together and after dinner, Brock moved into the kitchen and made some sugar cookies. Not our yummy traditional ones, but they were from a box and they still tasted pretty good. I especially liked that I didn't have to make them.

Tomorrow we get up fairly early and see what we can do at the Food Pantry. We're all looking forward to that.