Shuffling and Strolling

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 79 Lo 59 -- If it gets any better I'll burst. How can life be so grand? It feels so good to get up and not be freezing in December. We were doing our normal morning routine when we had a visit from Jon. We talked with him for awhile, and made plans to attend a Christmas Stroll at his church this evening. More about that later. After he left we both took a walk around the park.

 After our walk, I went over to the clubhouse to check out the game of Mahjong. I've seen it played on the computer but never in real life. By the time I got to the clubhouse they had already started a game and I just watched. It looked really complicated to me.  I saw a couple people outside with shuffleboard sticks, so I joined them and called Jim and he walked over to join us. We ended up with six of us playing. It felt great getting back to playing shuffleboard. They have the regular group that plays at 8:30 each morning, but that's too early for either of us. I'm going to start a sign up list in the clubhouse to see if we can get a regular group for afternoon games.

After three games with great people, we went back home to get ready to leave for Grace Bible Church in Sebring to attend their Christmas Stroll. Jon and Kathleen, who are participants in the Stroll, invited us to come see it. On the way we stopped for dinner at The Clock Family Restaurant in Avon Park. It was good, wholesome, family food. We'll definitely put them in our rotation of eating places.

We got to Grace Bible Church at 6pm, just in time to join the first tour group. A Christmas Stroll is a guided walking tour through an outdoor drama depicting the events surrounding the birth of Christ. There were seven separate scenes, starting with the first appearance of the Archangel Gabriel, and through the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. Here are some photos Jim took during the Stroll. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

That's a real donkey!

We liked the little "cows" and "sheep" out in the field...

Here they are up close. So cute!

Baby Jesus in the manger.

The three wise men.

This is our neighbor Jon, who was one of the greeters.

It was a very enjoyable evening, made even better by the 70-degree weather. Thanks Jon and Kathleen for inviting us.