Visit with Rhoda

Our friend Rhoda arrived in time to eat dinner with us last night.  Mark made a pot of vegetarian black bean chili and some latkes.  We also heated up Evey's leftover squash and quinoa dish.  Everything was delicious.  We lit candles and opened presents, played a game of dreidle (Mark won!), and watched Castle on TV.  What a lovely evening with a dear friend.

Today we are going to have an easy-going morning and then head to the Disney area for a day of Disney without ever buying a theme park ticket.  There really are a lot of things to do there that do not require a huge amount of money.  We will start off with a stroll through Downtown Disney, then we'll catch the boat up the Sassagoula River to Port Orleans French Quarter for lunch in their food court, Sassagoula Floatworks. Then back to Downtown Disney to shop at World of Disney.  We have a few gifts yet to pick up.  We are driving over to the Boardwalk area to visit the decorations in those hotels and then off to Seven Seas Lagoon to visit the lobbies in the hotels on the monorail system.  While there, we will visit all the hotel lobbies.  Grand Floridian does an especially excellent job.  We will also have dinner over there somewhere and then watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the ferry dock area at the TTC (Ticket and Transportation Center).  Except for eating and shopping, there is no cost involved in any of that.  A fun, cheap Disney day!

OKAY, small change to the plans.  Tonight is one of the special ticketed Christmas parties at Magic Kingdom, so they are not piping out the fireworks like they usually do.  We could still see them, but there would be no music.  Meh, without music there is no incentive to hang around until 9:30 to watch them.  

The weather is sunny and upper 70s!  Perfect for a day with a lot of walking outdoors.

I have not been logging in my food and exercise, although I did pretty well yesterday.  I am down a pound or so in the last few days.  I hope the walking today will take care of the calories eaten for lunch and dinner in restaurants.  Tomorrow I will report my progress.

Rhoda and Mark after lighting candles for night six.