Sunday Stumble~Pretty Pictures

The photo above is from The Digital Photography School. Not only do they have gorgeous pictures but also all sorts of tips and tricks to make your digital photography better.

The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond is not only entertaining but a GREAT photographer. Check out her images, she also offers tips and tricks and free downloads. Check out her cooking site for some of the best recipes around, and she is pretty funny!

What would the beach be without Ocean Photos? Great site for all things water.

As always National Geographic's Photo Site has great free pictures you can use. They also offer photo tips, free wallpaper and lots of other good stuff.

Enjoy these sites and have a great Sunday!

Christmas Stuff For Kids

Here are a few fun things to occupy the happy children on Christmas Eve!

Track Santa Here

Is your Child Naughty or Nice?

Match the Dogs

Christmas Stuff For Little Kids

The Claus Chronicles - Great blog by Santa!

Merry Christmas!

White Christmas

We won't have one here, but many of our friends in the north are. This is one of my favorites!

Schools Out ~ Now What?

The first official day of break is today, and mine are already fighting. Anyone out there have any leads on some free or nearly free things for them to do while they are off for two weeks. Once it warms back up tomorrow we will hit the beach. That will get old quick...let me know what you are doing in an email or comment.

Search for Good

Here's a new easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Start using GoodSearch as your search engine and they'll donate a penny to your favorite cause every time you do a search!

Goodsearch has been featured in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

We added the GoodSearch Toolbar and give to the ASPCA, my daughter's favorite charity.

Have a great Sunday!

Running of the Santas

Santas Wanted for "Running of the Santas" on Flagler Avenue

The Flagler Avenue Hospitality Group presents the first Annual Running of the Santas on Saturday, December 13th at 7 pm.

The running of the Santas started in Philadelphia with a small group of Santas running two blocks and raising money for children. Now each year over 25 cities around the country join in for the running of the Santas on the same day. This year the Flagler Hospitality Group is joining in the run and doing a toy drive for Toys for Tots. Anyone can participate in the run by simply meeting at the Flagler Avenue Beach ramp around 7 pm.Come dressed as a Santa ( or related attire such as an elf, reindeer, Mrs. Claus, red shirt and a Santa hat, etc.) plus most importantly, bring an unwrapped toy. There will be a group photo at the start of the run then proceed down Flagler Avenue to the finish line at Cooper Street.

The first 250 Santas who cross the Finish Line will get a ticket to be redeemed for a Secret Santa Goodie Bag filled with free goodies and discount coupons from merchants along the Avenue and New Smyrna as a thank you.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a run not a race. Participants are welcome to run or walk the 1.5 blocks from the ramp to Cooper Street. FLAGLER AVENUE WILL BE CLOSED FROM THE BEACH RAMP TO PINE STREET FROM 6:45 PM TO 7:30 PM during the event for a rolling street closure. Cars do not have to be moved, but will not be allowed to drive on the street for a maximum of 45 minutes ( probably less). If you have any questions, please contact Robert Byers at Flagler Tavern, 414 Flagler ( 386.847.0548) or Elaine Stathakis at the Om Bar and Chill Lounge, 392 Flagler Ave.

Yes, I know my Santa is water skiing and not running, but I thought he was cute. Come on out and support a good cause.

More Christmas Stuff

This site is pretty cute, you can get some really neat personalized gifts from Santa for your younger children. You can also be like me and refuse to admit to your children that there is no Santa, No Elf on the Shelf, No Reindeer and No Elves. Either way, it is a fun site.

Christmas Parade

We went to the Christmas Parade today on Flagler. It was fun and there was so much to see. Here you go:



Then we had the red hat ladies:


Our favorite trash guys:


Probably the most important:


But where else but here would you see this:


We also hit the boat parade this evening, it was really too dark to get many good pictures, but here is some so you can get the idea.

Both events were very nice and managed to get me cheery enough to put up the tree when we got home!

Boat Parade

The 21st Annual Holiday Boat Parade is this Saturday. The parade of brilliantly decorated boats begins at approximately 6:00 p.m. Boats will line up at Marker 53 in Edgewater at 5:45 and travel north to the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach.

Crossroads Christian Church Puppet Fun

Start the Christmas season with some great Christian fun for the kids at Crossroads Christian Church - "His Hands" Puppet Team Christmas Show - featuring all the kids favorite Veggie-Tale Christmas Songs, Professor Puppet and much more Christmas fun. Hot Chocolate and cookies will be served. The best part is it is free!!!

Do You Elf?

Elf On The Shelf that is...a few years ago I received Elf On The Shelf for my children. The premise is this elf arrives at your house on Thanksgiving to watch everyone and report back to Santa about good and bad behavior. The elf moves from place to place around the house while everyone is sleeping. The set comes with a book that tells the story and they can name their elf. Our elf is named Buddy, here he is hiding in the flowers

My kids decided last year that Mom was the one that was moving Buddy around from place to place, however I will not admit this and Buddy continues to prance about our house while we sleep. You can purchase the set here. It is great for small children, we have had many years of fun and even though mine are 9 and 11 I still have a great time torturing them by believing in our "Buddy".

Greetings from Santa

Volusia County Parks & Recreation continues their Holiday tradition this year and will send personalized postcards from Santa to children 10 and under. You can add your child to the mailing list by calling 386-736-5952 from 9am-4pm Mon- Fri or send them a fax at 386-943-7012, you an also email them at elves@volusia.org

Please incude the child's name, address and zip code. Requests will be accepted from November 3rd thru December 5th, so you have a week or so to get it in!

Non-Stop Christmas

Last Christmas I was lucky enough to find KSBJ, this is 89.3 out of Houston, Texas. From Thanksgiving to Christmas they do nonstop Christmas music. You can get it here at KSBJ. You can play it on your PC at work or home. I am sure that we have something similar around here and I will try and find it and add to the site, but in the meantime, check out KSBJ. They are awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Take a minute and think about what you are thankful for. We only do this once a year (although we should do it every day). So make your list....here is mine..

1. My Children
2. My Mom & Dad
3. Rick & Rob - the brothers
4. My dear friends..Leslie, Terri, Amanda, Annie, Kaley, Patty, Betty, Tammy, Rainie, Scott, Karen.
5. Marco, Big Mama, Sadie, Jack and Tank
6. We live in a country that we are free....
7. New Smyrna is a great place to live....

Enjoy your holiday and be safe!

How Do You Like Our New Look?

Many thanks to for designing our new look!

She has some beautiful and creative Christmas & Holiday designs to pick from and gives great personalized service! Let me know what you think!

MomAgenda

Matt, over at Unscrambled Eggs asked for some more information and pictures on these great planners. Yes, they are a great Christmas Gift. I have the All-In-One in Ocean Blue. Here is is:



















Here is an example of one of the pre-printed pages for phone and contact information. The best part is if you want you can pull these off the momAgenda website in .pdf. Type in your information, print and put in the page protector. Of course if you can just write on the ones that come with it too. I keep not only school and sports schedules in these pages but take out menus, coupons, grocery lists, phone numbers, birthdays, insurance information. All sorts of "stuff" I use all the time. It has helped me tame the paper clutter so easily.





Here is the calendar, big squares with room for each adult and kids schedules. They also have some fun and useful Holiday Printables on their website. If you want to see more of their great products click momAgenda or on the banner at the top of the post.

Flagler Ave Coffee House

I visited the Flagler Avenue Coffee House twice in the last week. One day I just wandered in and got a cup of chocolate almond coffee, it was one of the days special flavors. It was excellent!

Then today I dropped in with a friend and we split a sandwich. The food was good and the coffee was great.

They are on winter hours right now from 6am-2pm and I understand if you are a minute past 2pm you are out of luck. Nice atmosphere and friendly staff make it worth a stop.

My New Favorite Thing

In my ongoing effort to get organized I thought I would share my new favorite tool. I received the All In One Folio from momAgenda. This thing is great, it has a calendar with big squares to right on, page protectors for school calendars, sports schedules, great preprinted phone lists, home information. It has it all. MomAgenda has all sorts of great planner products that combine great colors and style with real functionality. I have everything together in one place, no more searching for random post-it-notes and scraps of paper. Check out momAgenda for all your life-planning needs.

Take A Bike Ride

Since I moved from North Beach to South Beach I have been riding my bike around my new area checking it out. I was riding down Saxon yesterday and noticed all these little breaks in the foliage that looked like a bike trail. So...as big a chicken as I am, dont like bugs, scared of snakes...I went and took a ride thru the bushes, down a dirt trail, no motorized vehicles allowed...I crossed a little wooden bridge.



The view from the bridge. It was beautiful, trees, shrubs, spanish moss and the reflections off the water.


Right across the bridge is a great gateway to the Callalisa Creek. Gorgeous scenery, no people.


This was at 730am, I want to check it out again at sunset, on a day with no storms, I am sure it is even more beautiful. Take a bike ride, or a walk, you never know what you might find.

New Smyrna Beach Weekend

Plenty to do in New Smyrna and surrounding areas this weekend.


Port Orange Family Days are this weekend. A Carnival tonight, family and children's activities all weekend.

Oktoberfest is tonight from 5-9pm on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach.

Weather is about perfect for today and tomorrow, rain on Sunday. Enjoy the weekend!

Found this post this morning for some Friday Humor. Smile!