Warm Adventures: Christmas in Florida

The Swiss Warm's on Christmas Day

I know it was three months ago but wanted to write a brief post on our fun Florida holiday before another year has passed.

We headed back home to Florida last year (2014) for Christmas. It was our first time home for Christmas since we moved here. I use the word "home" loosely as I still consider Florida home, but I realize this term confuses the kids as they consider Switzerland their home now. And since Alison will start kindergarten this summer, we won't be able to come "home" for quite so long again.

We flew in mid December and stayed with Erik's family in Oviedo for the first few weeks. There is just something about being "home" surrounded by friends and family that I so miss. We had wonderful warm weather, and for the most part everyone stayed healthy. It was so great to have Erik's sister from Arizona there with her 3 kids, while Erik's youngest sister and her 3 kids live close by. It was wonderful madness at the Warm household for a few weeks, complete with an RV in the driveway. It was so great to see all the cousins playing so well together and spending quality time with the grandparents and great grandparents.

I will just quickly hit some of the highlights from our Christmas time there:

Many crazy meals with family, fast food outings, kids decorating their own tree, dinners out with my husband and friends, a day long bike ride with my husband (no kids), bagel breakfast with good friends and adorable new baby, day trip to Ft. Christmas, hanging out with my brother, sister and sister-in-laws and their little ones, along with Nanny and Meemaw (Great grandmother), lots of story sharing, movie nights (for the kids), and many, many trips to Target and Costco.

Christmas Eve at Nanny Carla and Lee's

Christmas itself was really fun also. It started Christmas Eve at Nanny and Lee's in Daytona where my sister and Nanny cooked the most amazing meal. Oh the food was so delicious. Followed with a super nice gift exchange with Nanny Carla, Papa Lee, Aaron, Cheryl, Aiden, Garrety, Brian and Brunello. And to top it off we got to see some real Florida bears as we were leaving. Pretty cool.

Waiting patiently to open presents

Back at the Warm house, the elves were busy wrapping presents and hanging stockings until the wee hours. Now I know why in pictures of my Dad at Christmas, he looked so tired and gripped a large mug of coffee. It was no different this Christmas. The kids were excited to wake up early with their cousins on Christmas morning and get the madness started. Paper flew right and left as did the excitement. After present opening we headed to visit more family in Clermont for more presents and yummy food.

Miles 1st time in a canoe

Other quick highlights of our time included dentist appointments, hair cuts, several trips to Nemours walk in clinic the day after Christmas. Camping trip with entire Warm/Sherman/Carraway clan and day trip to Legoland. Miles first canoe trip. Lots of good food.

And really that was only the first few weeks. I will write another post about our last couple of weeks in Florida - spending new years down in Jupiter, time spent with my family and then back in Orlando to round out our trip.

Special thanks to everyone who made our Christmas in Florida so much fun.