Well I must say after a rather mundane day the evening was anything but that as we went to our team leaders in Amway folk's place in Sarasota for the annual Christmas Party. It was like being entertained at a Hollywood film set on location for the movie Gone With The Wind. This home looks and feels almost unreal for its beauty and grandeur and the owners are super hosts and very unpretentious. Wow, what a magnificent place of beauty and this 3 story building looks just like the mansion in that movie with huge white columns and also somewhat like Monticello with the promenades down each wing leading out to other buildings. The veranda encloses the whole house and is accessible from each bedroom on the second story that has a bathroom for each bedroom as well. Never have I ever been in such a beautifully constructed home that is is use daily and decorated to the nines, WOW!!!
We started the day with the usual roll out around 6'ish and after my quiet time and a lite breakfast I pedaled out to the rec on my bike for a couple hours of pickle ball. I'm finally getting my stamina back up to par and hopefully that will help with slimming down to 180 pounds once again and just maybe flatten out this spare tire or at least deflate it a little. Last nights indulgence in the delicious cuisine prepared by their chef and friend and our son Bobby at the party didn't help with that objective but oh my what fine eatin'. There were two kinds of pastas with homemade sauces; one a marina(red) and the other a pesto(green) sauce made with fresh basil and spinach. These entrees were served with grilled sausages and chicken breasts. (Sorry, I digressed for a moment about last evenings momentous party atmosphere.)
After the workout and a stop off at the library for a couple new reads from a unique author, Ron Rash who writes about the Appalachia era; I headed home to piddle around outside in the garden until Amy and the kiddos came for lunch. GG flew out early in the morning to spend a couple weeks in Michigan with son Eric's family and she got there safely. We will miss her during this holiday period. I made a guacamole and then we ate some of the leftover pork roast dinner including the sauerkraut which is quickly becoming one of my favorite dishes. After the clean up Eliza and Sam and I retired to the toy room where we played for the next hour or so while Amy ran errands. Eliza stands alone and walks while holding on but hasn't quite got the courage of walking alone down yet. She is such a smiley baby except when put in her car seat or the high chair and then she stiffens up and protests this restraint of holding her; she is such a free spirit.
After they left for the day I read until it was time to get ready and head out with neighbors Dan and Carol who are also Amway IBO's as are we. We traveled the hour and half ride across the Skyway Bridge to south Sarasota. There were probably 25 to 30 other IBO's there and after mingling we learned most of these folks are Christ followers and many still are active pastors in the area. Amway is a secondary interest for them as it is for us. We love the products offered by the company. Our hosts is the daughter of the owners of this palatial home, who travel world wide promoting Christianity. They are motivational speakers as well promoting this very successful company which has done a radical change from earlier periods when the leadership was less than honorable and the company received the dubious distinction of selling memberships instead of promoting first rate products of which we use several.
It was close to 11 when we got back to Seminole and then it was time for some shut eye. We commented we could put our whole house in one of the upstairs bedroom in the Gone with the Wind mansion, LATER
