One of the highlights of every year is my family trip to Florida to visit my inlaws for Christmas. We started the tradition a few years back, and after 3 years basking in the Florida sunshine while the rest of Maryland is stuck under snow and ice, I’m ready to never have a white Christmas again.
A Florida "Snowman"
Florida wasn’t always so enjoyable for me. There was a time, many years ago, when all of my kids were little and going (and BEING) on a trip was a whole lot of work. When we drive down to Florida for Christmas, we’ve got our van packed tight with luggage for 7 and plus all of our holiday presents.
Except for that one year that I forgot one box…Big oops.
But our luggage these days is NOTHING compared to all of the stuff we had to bring when we had babies. One year, we drove 17 hours with an exersaucer tied to the hood of our van.
After a rather difficult Summer trip with little ones one year, I decided that we needed to make some pretty drastic changes for our next trip. Our drastic change just happened to be named Andrea….my little sister.
This is me holding my baby sister, Andrea, in 1983.
Aunt Andrea was a miraculous “extra” to bring along on our Florida trip. She was more than helpful, and the kids loved having her around. We were 100% thrilled with our decision to bring her….until we returned home and discovered her little “trick” for getting the girls to bed at night.
We lovingly referred to her “trick” as A Story About a Boy and a Girl.
Really, the trick was on US. For years – yes, years – my girls asked us to tell them a story about a boy and a girl every night before bed. The story resembled Hansel and Gretel but had to be told fresh and new every time. Books are easy and require little thinking to read aloud. The Story required brain power that wasn’t often in abundance by the end of the day. But the Story was what the girls wanted before bed, and so we told it over and over again.
Now that the kids are older, we don’t need the extra hand when we travel to Florida to visit Nana and Grandpap, and it has been a long time since the girls asked me to tell a Story About a Boy and a Girl. Aunt Andrea is now a mother, too, with two girls of her own. Who, incidentally, we’re visiting for the next few days.
Andrea with her oldest daughter a few years ago
I think I may just need to resurrect that Story for a new generation of sisters….
One of my favorite things about Florida, besides visiting family, is it’s Orange Juice. Yes, I’m a huge OJ fan and have a glass almost every morning with breakfast or at night in my smoothies for dessert.
Facts that you might not know about Tropicana Pure Florida Orange Juice:
- Oranges have been grown in Florida since the 1560s, approximately 147 years before any other U.S. state.
- Tropicana Pure Premium is 100% Pure Florida Orange Juice.
- Tropicana purchases approximately 11.6 billion oranges from Florida each year, making them the largest buyer of Florida fruit.
- Groves in 22 different Florida counties provide oranges for Tropicana.
- The different microclimates and soil types mean that fruit reaches peak maturity at different times, allowing Tropicana to harvest ripe fruit throughout the entire growing season.
- Valencias and Hamlins are the 2 main varieties of oranges used in Tropicana’s juice. Valencias typically have more intense color and flavor, while Hamlins can be sweeter – both are key to Tropicana’s flavor.
- Many Florida growers sample oranges by cutting them into a cup shape, allowing for drinking juice directly from the fruit.
- Tropicana has been working with Florida growers for a long time…some of its current grower relationships date to the 1960s.
Enter the Tropicana Sweepstakes
Enter the Tropicana sweepstakes for a chance to win 100 Florida prizes, including one-year-supplies of Tropicana and a trip to Florida to visit an orange grove. Ninety-nine winners will get a one-year supply of orange juice in the form of twelve coupons for (12) 59 oz Tropicana Pure Premium® containers. One winner will get a trip to a Florida orange grove and be able to invite three guests for: Round-trip airfare for four (4) to Florida, three (3) night stay at a Florida hotel. The winner will have an exclusive experience at experience at a Florida orange grove. For official rules and regulations, visit the “sweeps” tab on Tropicana’s Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Tropicana and be sure to click like!
Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Tropicana blogging program, to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic, click here.
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