It is December…again. Just like it was just Monday… and it is now Saturday, again. Time is passing by so quickly I can barely catch my breath!

As of Thanksgiving day–Christmas officially arrived; never mind it was already here since before Halloween. I love the holiday season, even when they begin to sneak in Christmas carols on the radio when I am not paying attention. I happened to notice this when I began to hum along, suddenly it hit me–I am humming “It is a wonderful time of the year… la, la, la….

Dont’ get me wrong, I love the holiday season; the songs, the trees, the Menorah and the candles,  the Kwanzaa celebrations, lights everywhere, Macy’s windows, Rockefeller Center, etc… (hey, I lived in NYC for over 20 years, the “melting pot” as it is known, and we all celebrated together) but Christmas is my favorite.

Christmas is what I grew up with in Panama; my first recollection of a Christmas present was getting a pair of Winchester Roller Skates, and these were nothing like the rubber skates of today. I mean, these were steel and I felt like a powerhouse when I clamped them on my shoes. I was about five years old when I got the first pair of training Winchesters, fell many times and promptly learned how to skate. By the time I was a teenager I was a pro on those babies; my siblings and friends will have skate parties on the streets, (no rinks, for us daredevils) and we ran competitions to see who could make the most pirouettes without breaking a bone, and then we held on to each other in groups of ten or fifteen kids to form a train or “cola” (long line), and proceeded to jump over the many sets of steps found in “Paseo Las Bovedas”; that memory will be forever etched in my mind. So much fun and… there was always a broken bone and a trip to the emergency room, lol!

Kids today don’t get such physical workouts, like we did. Everything happened outdoors, we played with hacky sacks, which we made ourselves (from old socks filled with lentils), and rode bicycles, roller skated on the streets, went swimming, played every kind of ball there was: baseball, basketball, soccer… you name it. We were fit, brassy and healthy! Today it is all about Nintendo, Xbox and the like, kids and adults can even pretend they are being active by playing games (indoor) on their Wii. What’s up with that?

Enough of that, I am afraid I am dating myself; but yes, I am a child of the age of Aquarius, and the Beatles, and The Temptations, and Aretha Franklin; but make no excuses for that–they were the best of times to grow up in. There’s no mountain high enough to keep me from getting to you…

Here are some pictures I took last week when we were in Orlando and ventured 45 minutes out-of-the-way of the usual sites, to visit Bok Tower Gardens. We enjoyed their Christmas decorations, quiet surroundings and gardens; it was a beautiful experience, and I highly recommend it!

I will post some more pictures during the month as I am now officially–in the Christmas and holiday spirit!