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Day 142 – December 12

Today we had our minds set at a fun drive. First, after dropping Camy off at school, we visited a town called Christmas.

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After visiting Christmas we headed towards Cape Canaveral but even though we saw the visitor center we did not enter, we have been here before so we kept driving to Cocoa Beach.

It was very quiet, very cold and a cold breeze at Cocoa Beach. To tell you the truth it was no fun being on the beach, either to lay down or even walk for a little.

There were however lots of shells and of course I had to look around to try to find some good looking ones.

For lunch we stopped at WaWa and put our sandwich together by using the computer. This is a gasstation where you are able to buy awesome sandwiches and more.

On the way back we ran into this large alligator, the largest gator in the world. This is the entrance of a Zoo but unfortunately there was no time to visit, we had to keep driving back to school to pick Camy up again.

After school we stayed because we were going to attend a live Christmas story told by teachers and volunteers. It was called “From everywhere to Bethlehem”and was set up through the entire school campus.

It was set up very well and real nice and you could tell time was spend to do it the right way so everybody had a good time. In different groups you walked by the different scenes and part of the story was told at every stop.

After the showing we went to church, some of Camy’s friends are in choir and schoolband and had to perform because of the event.

Here is Camy having fun with a couple of her friends.

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Day 140 – December 10

It is Wednesday again, time for another Advent. This is the same performance as Camy had last week except it will be performed by two different grades this time.

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After the Advent we went to Einstein Bagel. It was well crowded, lots of people are having breakfast. This is done all throughout the USA but not really done in Holland, at least not us. I do however enjoy it. Work some, chat a little and have a cup of tea along with a bagel, excellent!

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Right after school we went to a storage war, only one box that was available for auction. Someone bought a lot of junk for $200.00, I did not see anything of any use…..

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When we got home again we found another X-mas card, thanks!

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Day 139 – December 9

This is a school bus that made a stop in front of us so students were able to embark. The bus uses its breaks and the stop signs in front and the rear will show. Cars are not allowed to pass the bus at this time, on a one-way street, until all students have embarked and disembarked. It is too bad that we live this far from school and Camy can not take the bus, it would be fun to see her get on it every morning.

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And this picture is from across the street of our Villa. It has been decorated for like a month now. It looks good and when we return home and its dark it is fun to see all the lights. By all the decoration you can tell that the Villa is bought by locals otherwise it would not have been decorated like it is, renters just do not do this.

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Day 138 – December 8

Yesterday we found a site with all crazy and funny things you can visit in The USA. So no top ten attractions but just crazy stuff.

The site: http://www.roadsideamerica.com


crazy stuff

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We brought a visit to a house that was painted into the colors of the American Flag.

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We visited a replica of Graceland, the property of Elvis Presley.

day138-06And last but not least we visited a Mc Donalds, European style.

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There were all kinds of painting on the wall and mirrors as well. And some antique drawers.

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The front and the entire building was different to that of a regular Mc Donalds we are used to.

However, all coffee and tea were exactly the same as any other Mc Donalds, hihi

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Day 137 – December 7

Today we worked on Camy’s science project for school while wearing our pajamas. There was a lot that needed to be cut and clued. Camy’s project was about the pH of different juices.

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And see the final results, a nice white board. All students in 6th grade had to work on an individual project.

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Later that afternoon we went out and tried finding a geocache. It was quite chilly today but when we got out of the house the sun showed her self for some nice temperatures.

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And happy as we are, we found a cache!

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This one was hidden in a tree.

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The second cache we were looking for was unable to be found, we did however find this monument. This monument is located on one of the older pieces of land in Florida, it used to be a highway. This road is right behind our Villa but yet had not seen it before. See where geocaching takes you on a day like this.

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Day 136 – December 6

Today we visited the h*liday gift fair at Camy’s school. They seat up this gift fair with all different booths on the parking lot selling self made things. In the gym you were also able to buy different items.

gift fair

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For lunch we stopped at McDonalds, Camy had her very first Big Mac. She does eat burgers but she had never ever tried a Big Mac before.

In the evening we went to a similar event in Oviedo as we did last night in Winter Park. In this town they switched on all the lights of the Christmas tree as well. You can compare all this with December 5th back home. You see all the anxiety of the kids, parents are most worried about having the best seat in the house (front row).

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The tree was a little smaller than the one yesterday but still high enough to see from here.

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And then after waiting for quite some time, here he is, Santa Claus arriving on top of the fire departments truck, all decorated as the sleigh but without the reindeer.

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Across the street we visited a Christmas town that was set up by the church and attracted quite some people.

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So we walked around in ‘The Village Square’.

There were all different kinds of games you could play, especially for the younger ones, but Camy did not mind and loved playing the games.

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This is the wild water ride with ice bears.

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Shooting marshmallows.

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Pinguïn bowling, strike!

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In between we watched and listened to a Christmas story, a play played by the smaller kids.

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After that we played some more games, this is Operation.

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Donut eating.

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Throwing rings.

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On the way home we made a stop, there was this house with all kinds of lights, music and decoration in the front yard.

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Day 135 – December 5

Yesterday was the original launch planned at Cape Canaveral but because of a technical deficiency it was postponed to today. At 6.45AM we turned on the tv and watched the news. At 7.00AM the shuttle was launched and we were able to see it just before we left for school.

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After it was launched we ran outside and onto the street and after about 30 seconds we see the rocket. Too bad it was cloudy but we were still able to see the rocket in air!

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After we took Camy to school we went geocaching today, it was on our to do list from the beginning but as of yet we were unable to cross it off our list.

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This is our first cache.

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Bram goes into the bushes trying to find it, I remain on a safe distance, I’m so scared of spiders…

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The second cache we were looking for was a little harder to find.

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We also saw someone from Holland, how’about this license plate.

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The third and final cache of today was a real brainer. We finally found it near the electricbox of which you needed a code. We had to test our brain but we figured it out! This was one of the better caches, different from all the others.

day135-10 After school we stayed in the neighborhood because in Winter Park the Christmastree was going to be lit. This is a real happening with lots of people coming over to see all the lights turned on.

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Also the entire park was decorated.

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You were even able to ice-skate, which we did not do, I think we can do so next month when we are returning home.

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Later that evening we got our seats and watched a movie in the park, the had set up a big screen so everybody was able to join the movie in the outside. In the end it got a little cold but we had our covers.

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Day 134 – December 4

Since we wanted to go to the beach one more time we decided to do so today, and it was not Daytona Beach we wanted to go to. We drove towards Smyrna Beach this time and saw some great things on the way there.

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Like this Western-like entrance.

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While at Smyrna Beach we enjoyed the nice temperatures, a little breeze and the sun.

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First we walked down the coastline

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After that we took the car out on the beach and tried to find a spot. We were allowed to drive on the beach, which was a fun experience.

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Day 133 – December 3

Today Camy had a performance with all 6th, 7th and 8th graders in chapel. They had to sing all kinds of songs because of advent. Advent is the season that lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. At that time, the new Christian year begins with the twelve-day celebration of Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve until Epiphany on January 6. (Advent begins on the Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year).

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The church was already decorated for Christmas and there were three trees.

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All decoration was made of foam and beads.

The performance was outstanding, she did very well and all was learned by heart. After chapel was over and all students returned to their class we drove towards the Altamonte Mall and had lunch at Tijuana Flats which was new to us. Tijuana is a Mexican Food restaurant which is better than Taco Bell and that we already love.

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And it was set up real nice from the inside.

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This is the ceiling.

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All kinds of sauces mild to very very hot!

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And when we were all done they asked us wether or not we wanted to take the chips with us. Well that happened to be a refill since we got a new back of potato chips to take home. Just superb service!

At 4.00PM we picked Camy up from school and had some fun in Winterpark, we did not go home since Camy had to be back at school for another performance. So we got back to school at 5.00PM for dinner and at 6.30PM the next show started. So she had two performances today. Tonight she had to perform for parents and grandparents and other relatives that were unable to attend earlier today.

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Dinner was set up at the gym for all parents and pretty convenient for us since it takes us an hour to get home and then another hour to get back to school again. And guess what, we had sauerkraut for dinner, that’s been a long time…delicious!

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The advent was done by 8.00PM and we headed home right away. My mother happen to see the show live because it was streamed live. We informed her ahead of time so she was able to sign in from the other side of the world and see Camy perform. She loved it, that is todays technology!