Did Santa bring you snow for Christmas? Well not us, we musta been bad because all we got was a huge load of weeds on the beach. The wind was out of the southeast on Christmas afternoon and in rolled the sargasso weed. It's filled with little blue man-a-wars and lots of sea lice and so the seagulls are having a Christmas Day feast. NO one is even thinking about getting in the water or even close to it, although it's plenty warm enough for a dip today. I have no idea what the beach raker will do with all this stuff when he shows up tomorrow morning. Dump truck? Bulldozer? We shall see.

The KCB Boat Parade on Sunday was the best we have ever seen. There was quite a variety of boats, from huge right down to kayak size. One very large yacht had a marching band and vocal group that sang the Star Spangled Banner. A small dinghy was cleverly made up to look like a sleigh pulled by Rudolph, and now it's parked in front of Sparky's for the rest of the season. Of course Tucker DeGraw was there in "Tuck's Toy", as always, having a great time. There were 3 kayaks this year, the waitress from Stouts was in one. They had themselves wrapped in battery powered lights, and were so much fun to watch. My night time photography skills are really lacking, so I couldn't capture the real beauty of it. There were no tandem kayaks, and I couldn't talk Bill into making a fool of himself, but when either of my sisters come down for Christmas again, we WILL be the Kayaking Sisters Act in the Christmas Boat Parade. I promise!

Today my retired teacher friends and I went to lunch at the Marathon Yacht Club with Mrs. Gradick. It's a Christmas event I look forward to every year. Mrs. G, in her 90s now, moved down here in the '50s, and was principal of Marathon High School for 20 years, and can she tell the stories. I love to hear her talk about school life down here back then, it was a different ball game, and she had a way with the kids, and they knew who was in charge.
I love to get her going on her athletic career. She was phys. ed. teacher first when she came down from Philly. She made the girls' gymnastic team for the 1948 Olympics in London, but had to drop out right before the competition when she caught and seriously injured her knee while vaulting the horse. Heck, I was only one year at that time! She has a basement full of medals, trophies, and ribbons, and can tell you every single competition she was in. She competed in the Senior Olympics until she has 87. That year she was in the discus throw, shot put, and hammer throw, and broke a hip. She still lives by herself with her dog, Heidi, and is quite active in the community. "The girls" sure have a good time when we get together. Our bodies may be less active than in the past, but our mouths can still run at full speed.