I'm not so big on many of the things that usually go along with Christmas - noise, fuss, commotion, consumerism, parties, crowds, gluttony, secular carols, awful popular theology, seasonal merchandise. I'm a total Grinch.

So this kid was very, very happy to spend the day on a mini-non-Christmas-themed-adventure with her mommy. We slept late, checked out a swank, historic Florida hotel, hit up a weirdo coral castle, a seaside National Park, had cheeseburgers for supper, drank disturbingly cheap beer and went for a late night swim in her outdoor pool. It was great!

In all of this, maybe my favourite thing was seeing palm tree nurseries for the first time. It had never occurred to me that Florida requires cultivated palms to meet their various and sundry landscaping needs. It is so strange . . . are there even any palm trees in Canada?