It's Christmas morning in Florida. When I arrived, on the evening of the 23rd, I was just in time for the parade of boats through the canals. They were all strung with Christmas lights and it was beautiful. I had a front row seat, right from my cousin's porch!

Since then we have been enjoying the unusual Christmas sights of herons and egrets frolicking in the pond, and chameleons performing mating rituals on the stoop. Everyone is complaining about the overcast skies and rain, but it's so WARM! How weird to go outside barefoot in December!

Yesterday we shopped for our Christmas meal -- which is mostly a turkey dinner from Publix. I also bought a nice bamboo cutting board for my son, who had commented that he needed one, some makeup brushes for me, some magazines for my sister, some pet grooming tools so I can TRY to catch some of this free-floating dog hair before it settles all over my cousin's house. As my cousin paid for the food, my Publix trip was $62.

I met my sister at a Best Western in Atlanta on the way down -- the cost for staying there that night, along with the fee for having a dog along, was $103. I paid about $45 for gas from Indiana to Atlanta, and about $12 for meals on the way down. I also bought a little lamp at a Cracker Barrel for my cousin for $15.

My sister paid for gas and meals from Atlanta to Florida.

Hope everyone has a very merry, wonderful Christmas wherever they are!