Christmas in February!

We got to Nan & Big's about 2:00 a.m. Eastern time last night/this morning and went straight to bed! Julia let us sleep until about 8:00 before we were up and getting ready for the day. We started the day off with Christmas in February! Since we didn't get to come down during Christmas we celebrated Christmas with Nan & Big and Grandma this morning. Julia even wore her Christmas dress for the occassion.

 Standing by Nan & Big's Florida Christmas tree

 Helping Nan open her gift

 "See Nan. I put my handprints on it like this."

 Opening her piggy bank

 And her favorite part, filling it up with coins!

After Christmas we went to Michael's favorite restarurant, Conchy Joe's, for lunch. We had a nice view of the water and got to a lot of our old stomping grounds on the way there.

At lunch we were talking about how when we lived in Florida I never saw a manatee. We went looking for them several times, but never saw them. Of course, Michael saw them a couple times in the warm water at the power plant. On our way home we noticed several people standing on a bridge looking at the water so we stopped to see what they were looking at and it was manatees! There were four, two adults and two babies.

Watching the manatees

A mommy and baby manatee

Tonight Nan and Big had a "Meet Julia" party for their Maryland friends. Julia took to her role as star of the party like a pro. After dinner she quickly realized that everyone was watching her and stood up on the hearth and counted, did the Hot Dog Dance, sang, and loved every second of being the center of attention and having everyone laugh and clap for her. When she was done with a song she would hop of the hearth, throw her hands out and yell "Ta da!".

Julia's Fan Club

Ellen, Blake, Michael Heather, Julia, Dan, Tiny, Big, Nan and Pinky with Butch & Grandma in front