We saw the new year in in style this year in a terrific restaurant over a salmon dinner, dancing, and general hilarity near our hotel. As we walked back to our condo, people driving by were honking and yelling happy greetings. It was balmy and pleasant, and we got back just as Kim and Robert arrived from their own party. We poured champagne and went out onto the balcony to watch the beach fireworks and stretch the special night out for a while. How wonderful to spend this special time of year with great people.
New Year’s Day was spent relaxing, then we ate the traditional good luck lunch of Hog Jowls, Collard Greens and black eyed peas. Delicious! Jim took off for a long beach walk, Robert napped, hoping to make his cold feel better, and Kim and I went letterboxing. Kim has been at this hobby for a while with lots more enthusiasm than I have, and we went together to find her 300th letterbox, along the beachfront north of Myrtle Beach. It was fun to be with her to celebrate that special find.
When we got back, Jim watched, I took pictures, and Kim ceremoniously put the last piece in this year’s jigsaw puzzle. Each year we put a puzzle out and sit around it for hours, putting it together as we visit and catch up on each other's lives. This year’s puzzle was a beautiful one, a spread of all kinds of shore birds, salt and freshwater. The next morning we said a sad good bye for this year’s wonderful annual visit and headed south. What a cold day! It was only 36 degrees as we headed out of town and everyone on the streets looked stunned. We actually saw a few flakes of snow about 10 miles south of Myrtle Beach.
We planned to visit the Charleston Market, and walk around the town to see that gorgeous city, but it was too cold for the vendors to even be in the market, let alone us to stroll around viewing the stalls. We actually heard the buggy drivers joking about how miserable it was to ride around in buggies. We headed on south, looking for warmer weather. 
We crossed into Georgia and spent the night at the campground of Skidaway Island State Park. It was cold outside, but we were warm and cozy inside wrapped in our sleeping bags with the electric blanket on top. We took some time in the morning for a beautiful walk through the trails of this neat barrier island. The salt water areas are mingled with small fresh water ponds, and palms, Spanish moss and palmettos everywhere. Very cold though, and Karren wimped out and went back to the motorhome, while Jim walked on to the long trail to see the earthworks left over from the Revolutionary war, and the whiskey stills.
One of our favorite stops is at a local seafood market, where we buy a whole bunch of fresh, never frozen shrimp. So delicious! Jim buys a half dozen oysters, and ceremoniously shucks them out, then sits down to eat them raw, accompanied by a bottle of dark beer. This year he had a special bottle of dark beer from Vermont, a birthday present from our favorite Vermonters. It's a treat he alone loves, and the rest of us just watch. 
We left early Christmas Morning and drove the motorhome south. It was great to see the mountains again, even though they were cold and snowey. We spend Christmas night in a motel in Tennessee, where I used the microwave to warm a pre-packed dinner for my favorite birthday guy. A cornish hen roasted with rosemary and garlic butter, baked potatoes and a delicious salad made up our dinner, served with a nice bottle of chardonney. Cakes are out for me, and he's kind enough to go along with the wheat-free lifestyle too, so his birthday cake was a warmed dish of rice pudding, topped with coffee creamer and birthday candles. 
There was a change of hotels from our original plan, when they closed our original hotel for repairs, so Kim talked the management into finding us another, newer, nicer hotel, where we had a set of rooms so new they still smelled of fresh paint. We're on the 19th floor and the view is just beautiful. We keep seeing flocks of pelicans flying along the beach, BELOW our balcony. What a view!
Just a couple hours after we checked in, we saw two dolphins cruising by off the beach. They looked like they were just slowly rolling along, out for a stroll in the evening. Just gorgeous. We had a great seafood dinner last night at the restaurant next door.
So today, we drove up to the nearby State Park to walk the beach to see what had washed up onto the beach. It was fun to watch the shore birds running through the surf. We found lots of broken shells, one shark's tooth, and a sea anemone. 
Jim got stuck on a pier support when a big wave came in. Funny picture.
There's a stark quality to some already harvested fields these days, sort of a clearing away of the clutter to leave the bare fields ready for spring.
In contrast to that, there's the jubilant variety of colors in the woods that form a backdrop to it all.
This morning, our Anna is with us, and it's cold and sleeting outside. We always want to get her outside when we can, so decided this was the time to try out the fireplace in the teepee. She loved it, and we all had fun, sitting on the ground inside the teepee, watching the small fire and hearing the sleet patter on the walls of the teepee surrounding us. It was amazingly warm and cozy inside with that little fire going. Next Jim's going to set up a spit and cook a cornish hen. 
I've formed the habit lately of taking a daily walk to gather sticks for the stove. It serves several purposes: gets me away from the computer for a breath of fresh air, exercise, cleans up the woods a little, and provides bunches of free firewood for those short time evening fires that really don't need big heavy chunks of wood to burn a long time.
Being out there daily lets me notice all the changes too, as our place turns toward winter. This path struck me yesterday as being particularly gorgeous. It's the space behind the blueberry bushes, and always looks like an entrance to a secret space to me. Today, with the yellow leaves on the ground, it looked like a scene after the party, with the party favors and confetti left laying about. Do you suppose the deer and raccoons were dancing late into the night here last night?
Today was one of those blessed days, when we were especially grateful to be retired. We needed a good brisk walk, so headed up to Warren Woods for a long walk under the giant beech trees there. We were amazed to see the giant trees that had fallen during the recent winds. Trees that measured up to 4' across the base had grown hollow in the center, as beeches do, until there wasn't enough strength to hold up their 70' height anymore. They came crashing down, taking other trees with them, and look like elephants laying there, but still dignified in their stillness. Beautiful trees, and they'll slowly melt back down into the soil to enrich another hundred years of trees to come.
Now this one's just silly, the result of two goofy people, with time to spare and a camera to play with!
