End of year notes....

Christmas has come and gone, my 5 day weekend is over and its time to start thinking about the new year. We had a good holiday this year I believe. With the nature of my work, its rare to have a 5 day weekend over the biggest holiday of the year, but somehow it worked out. We took Olivia to see the Rockettes and their Christmas show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It was a nice treat and a tradition I hope to continue. After the show, we had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Lee Roy Selmons!

Santa did a pretty darn good job around the Nicewinter household this year, I think we were happy with what he brought. I'm very excited to start a new season of gardening with my brand new seed starting system, a much improved upgrade!!

(The new seed tray with broccoli and cauliflower seedlings)

Gifts for Julie have always been a challenge for me, thank goodness for her wish list!! It will be my lifelong goal to someday overwhelm her with surprises....(she chuckles as she reads this).

Olivia has been attached at the hip to her new doll! Who knew you could dress like your doll, get a pet or two for your doll, get her a nice little bed to sleep in and so on and on and on!! And, thanks to my ever clever wife, this new doll has her very own mini-closet in one of Olivia's toy cubbies in her bedroom!!

As with any holiday, lots of people flying these days and lots of complaints to go with that!! It will be a busy next few months for me as I bring together our triennial full scale mass casualty exercise. Its a collaborative effort with the county and involves not only the airport, but the hospitals and the school district. We do this exercise every three years as required by the FAA. We'll actually simulate a real airliner crash at the airport. My job is to create the scenario and make sure it happens. I've been pushing for real fire at our fire training pit to start the exercise and I believe we are on track to make that happen. It happens in April and I'll have plenty of pictures to share!

Finally, another shot of cold air coming for next week! It seems like our cool weather is fleeting this year, just little teasers of cold and then....kapow...80 some degrees again! Most folks would be happy to have some warm air in the winter, but when you get 10 months of heat, a little cool is nice every now and then!!