Merry Christmas Florida Style

December 25th arrived with sunshine, a brisk, steady breeze and the beach calling. To enjoy life to the fullest, one must be prepared when opportunity presents. With the weatherman calling for a 50% chance of rain tonight with windy conditions and a dreaded cold front poised to move into our area, we opted for the beach, of course.

The quiver of kites lives in the back of the car always ready for the right air. We decided on the sugar-white beach of Siesta Key. The wind was perfect for the big box kite and the parafoil kite with the 50' tail and we were flying high in less than five minutes.

The beach was awesome with a pretty good crowd of holiday people, but not overstuffed. The breeze was cool at times but the sun felt good. Yes, there were some people in the water (55 degrees F) - must have been Canadians. We walked down and put our toes in the water, too.

You can see lots of interesting things on any given day, but because it was Christmas Day, we saw lots of people in Santa hats playing football and frisbee; heard lots of Christmas carols; and saw one family group setting up umbrellas and tables for a family dinner. And, yes, someone brought a tree to the beach - complete with decorations.

We met lots of people fascinated by the kites and let several try their hand at flying. Watching faces transfixed and transformed by the simple act of flying a kite was a wonderful Christmas present to ourselves.

Hope you and yours experienced an uplifting day as well.

Merry Christmas and peaceful dreams,

K&J