December 26, 2022 - January 1, 2023 - Ringing in the New Year

Wayne and Judy told us about a mobile home park in Sebring that is totally decorated for Christmas. it takes quite a while to drive through and directions are given as to what route to take to see it all. Here are some pictures. It was really well done.

Some of the neighbors went back home for Christmas. The last couple of days they have returned, and I introduced myself to them and hung out with them for a while the last two days. 

Upon arrival we purchased tickets for the New Year's Eve Party here at the park. I learned from the last dance we attended that I needed to go up to the clubhouse early and stake out our seats. I picked a couple of seats close to the front and on the end for ease of getting to the dance floor. The band was "Side Project Duo" - a guy on an acoustic guitar and another guy singing and shaking the tambourine. 

They did have a small synthesizer of some sort that gave a little drum beat but that was it. They were HORRIBLE! They might have been okay for a backyard BBQ for background music but that is about it. Their music was more like folk music than dance music and their singing was awful. They played for over a half hour and no one got up to dance. They switched to something a little more appropriate for the occasion and some people started to dance. I told Kelly it was going to be a long night! I thought it was hilarious that the dance floor filled up when they took a break and put some canned music on with tunes people knew and could dance to. 

We sat across from Jack and RuthAnn, from North Carolina, and next to Linda and David, from Taylorville, Illinois. They are all nice people and we had a lot of fun laughing at the crappy music and discussing how we probably didn't bring enough booze to get through four hours of this. Around 9:30 p.m. they drew tickets for attendance prizes, which were bottles of Champaigne, and/or gift cards to restaurants in the area. We didn't win. What was funny was that we were behind Jack and Ruthann walking in. She had to root around for their tickets so they told us to go ahead of them in line. Thus they got our attendance prize tickets and each of them won an attendance prize! After all the attendance prizes were given out people started to leave. Jack and Ruthann left by 10:00 p.m. Only about 1/3 of the partiers stayed until midnight. A good DJ would have been much better. Here we are at midnight making noise and singing "Auld Lang Syne".

I thought it was weird that the decorating committee set out plastic Champaigne flutes for everyone but didn't provide any Champaigne. What were they thinking?

New Year's Day we took down what little Christmas decorations we had. It took about five minutes. They are packed up until next year. Unlike Christmas, New Year's Day it is hot - 80+. We get a lot of sun which really warms up Marge. I would turn on the AC but Kelly is comfortable with the warmth. So I sit outside a lot where there is a breeze.

On January the fourth there will be a pool party. One was scheduled earlier but was cancelled due to the cold weather. The party lasts two hours and live music is provided. (I hope not the "Side Project Duo"!) Our neighbors have said the pool parties are fun. You bring your chair to the pool area and sit and visit. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate this time. I'll keep you posted.