A Very Angelic Christmas

[ANGEL]

Day 7

Its Saturday so it must be SHOPPING DAY!!!!

22nd December 2001

Well, it’s Saturday, so it MUST be shopping day in anyone’s books!;)

Start the day by calling my brother in UK as its his birthday today (mine tomorrow, how exciting).  Don’t manage to catch him but leave him a birthday message anyway.  It’s the very first time I’ve not spoken to or seen him on his birthday so it seems very strange.  I sing Happy Birthday to him anyway, which if nothing else manages to wake Becky up……no mention of a cat’s chorus please Shaun!

We leave the hotel just after 10 which I suppose isn’t too bad considering DD’s late night and her usual bathroom routine!  We’d intended to go to Golden Corral for breakfast as it was recommended by Fatman, but we reach The Ponderosa first so just can’t wait I’m afraid (I think GC was only a few blocks up IDrive actually).

Mostly Brits (complete with sunburn) in here, as usual, always makes me laugh.  I’m sure we are all so impressed by the value for money thing here!  Might have met some of you there around the pancakes and maple syrup, you never know!  There were some Americans too though as this weekend was the start of their Christmas holidays, so I was told.

There were all the usual goodies on show; eggs, bacon, sausage, cereals, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, fruit etc etc and not so usual ones like bright blue jello….yuk!  On our last trip, my niece had eaten several bowls of blue jello for breakfast one morning – much to our disgust!!  We ate our fill (and more!!).  I just love the pancakes, syrup and fresh fruit here.  Then I noticed the e-mail facility…oh GOOD!!  For a couple of dollars I am able to check my Hotmail account (while others finish their food, such piggies!) and collect all my birthday messages from friends as well as my brother and niece.  That was really nice.  I’d miss them over the holidays. Cost me $2 for 10 minutes which I thought was pretty good. Checked the Dis quickly..well, you have to don’t you?;)

Off to the Premium Outlet Mall at last……

What a great mall this is. We’d discovered it last trip, thanks to Simon’s book and I could n’t wait to get back there.  Found the shop recommended by Shirley (Paul & Shirley) and managed to buy some Christmas crackers, shredded tissue paper for packing, some dear little gingerbread men (tiny ones for stockings;)) and some nice looking Lindt chocolates, also for stocking fillers.  Very pleased with myself!  Even more so when I bought lots of lovely undies for both myself and DD at very reasonable prices…good, no washing to do now then!!!  Looked at trainers and CDs.  DH bit disappointed as he normally buys his Adidas trainers here but could n’t see any he liked this time…still lots more shops yet!!  Cds were not much cheaper here, but we’d try another couple of places before we went home. Browsed in the cheap Universal and Disney shops and bought a few bits and pieces before we decided to go back home.  It was still quite warm and sunny, even thought the forecast had not been so good for today, so I went to sit by the pool with my book.  Vince & Becky had ‘suddenly remembered’ some important shopping they had to do at Walmart for tomorrow…….hmmmm it had better be for something very lovely for my Birthday I thought;)  They were on a mission!

While I sat by the pool there were only 2 kids in there and if it had been a tad warmer I’d have gone in, but it was 4.30 by then and the sun  was going down, so I sat and chatted to their Gran instead, a very nice old lady from Miami who complained about the bitter cold!!!!!!!  Oh well, its all relative I suppose!

2 hours later,…….. they must be buying me LOADS of presents I guess……the sun had gone and I was distinctly chilly so I went in to change to go out for dinner.  We were going back to our favourite Red Lobster at the Crossroads (even tho there was one right opposite us on Idrive), and I was really looking forward to it.  DH & DD returned armed with a large bar of Cadburys and I got all excited until I realised it may say Cadburys on the wrapper, but its produced by Hersheys and tastes nothing like our good old Cadburys…still, 8 out of 10 for effort!!  Another big bag of M&Ms (well I have to keep my strength up) and a couple of disposable cameras cheer me up. At least I can take some photos now. The cameras were only $5 in Walmart and the pictures are actually really good!

All ready?  Off to Crossroads at LBV for our treat at Red Lobster. Sat in our first real traffic jam on the I4 which I guess was due to Xmas shoppers, and also Americans arriving in town for the holidays.  We crawled up the interstate and it took ages, but it was worth it!  I’d recommend this place to anyone.  They don’t just do fishy food here, steaks and chicken and all sorts are on the menu.  We didn’t have to wait for a table which was good, as we usually do.  Though that’s no bother, sitting by the bar drinking and looking round the restaurant is always fun too!

The Cheddar Bay biscuits that they bring out are superb! Always fresh and still warm, they just melt in your mouth, and I could just eat them all night….but of course I didn’t!  I followed it with a Caesar salad, and a combo meal of steak and shrimp, with a wonderful salted baked potato.  All accompanied by a VERY strong frozen margerita…of course!.  Becky had the ‘popcorn’ shrimp, and Vince had his ‘usual’ combo meal of shrimp pasta, clams, crab etc  I think with drinks it came to $50 odd. Not bad for 3 healthy appetites;)  Can’t fault anything here, the service is great, food amazing, excellent value…just one small gripe….wish they’d turn the a/c down a bit!

Had thought of walking round Downtown Disney for a while but we’re all too tired (and full) now so just crawl back to the hotel , catch some tacky TV, drink another Ice and fall into bed……tomorrow is my Birthday and I need my Beauty sleep!

Will we get up in time for Bomas tomorrow (ps for 8.30)….we’d better!!


Night allJ
Sweet dreams!

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">several bowls of blue jello for breakfast </td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
LOL this was all Zak ate