Connected...

Yes, as a family, we are connected. And it's great to have the kids here.

But, wait - there's more!

The plan: family photos in the early morning light. The reality: the wind was blowing out of the north at about a million miles per hour... besides the obvious problem with blowing hair, there is that "sand blasting" situation with photos on the sand dunes at the beach. Yeah, we may try that another day.

So, since we were all up, we started our day off with breakfast at Steph's favorite breakfast tortilla place here... Manuel's, which also happens to be our favorite breakfast tortilla place, as well. Then, a tour of SPI - it's been a couple years since the kids have been here, and the last time was not long after Hurricane Dolly made a mess of things. Yeah, it looks much better these days.

After the "island circle tour," Joan and Steph headed to the store to stock up on stuff to cook... or bake... or whatever it is they do to that stuff. When they came back, there was that moment of family sharing, where we were all on our devices: MacBook Pros for Dan and me, iPads for the ladies. What is that old saying: "The family that's online together, does fine together." Or, something like that.


Connected.

And then, the really good part: the house is full of wonderful smells, the ladies are immersed in a flurry of pots, pans, recipes and stuff going in and out of the oven.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!