Ringing in the New Year on Miami Beach

Who'd a thunk a few days ago that we'd end up spending New Year’s Eve on South Beach in Miami! It was super last-minute and I kinda immediately regretted booking the hotel, worrying it was going to be too crazy for us. But we had a great time!! Going in semi-terrified with very low expectations is apparently the way to go. I was tired of battling teens who wanted to drive themselves places on NYE to be with friends, and when Anna Kate came with me to take Lisa to Moffitt last week, she made the comment that she can’t believe we’ve never really been to Miami. We’ve driven to the Miami airport and the Miami cruise terminal a few times, but in the 21 years we’ve lived in Florida, we’ve never checked out actual Miami. The girls thought I’d lost my mind when I told them exactly one day before that we were going to spend NYE on South Beach, but guess what - there was no more fussing about wanting to drive places on new years! Follow me for more lazy parenting tips.

We checked into our very art deco Miami hotel at 1131 Collins Avenue, and then walked to Little Havana at 1051 Collins Ave. for lunch. Wesley opted to stay in Lakeland to ring in 2025 with Skyler.

Then we strolled South Beach for the first time ever. Ocean Drive was blocked off as pedestrian only, so it was a great way to stroll past all the iconic hotels. We stayed in The Kent, which is right behind the Versace Mansion. It was all much tamer than we were anticipating. 

We went back to the hotel to rest a bit and then we got into our beach clothes (well, Tate and I did) and headed to the beach.

It was really dark, but my phone would light up everything if we stayed still for like 10 seconds.

I can't believe how empty the beach was! We were expecting massive crowds. More people did emerge by midnight, but at this point I guess everyone was still inside a bar or a club.

The Versace Mansion, famous for the murder of Gianni Versace in 1997. The mansion was built in 1930, and the hotel where we stayed was built in 1939 - located just behind it. -BELOW- The kids standing by the garden of the Versace Mansion. In 1993, Versace bought the adjoining Revere Hotel for $3.7 million, and tore it down to make a pool and garden area for his house. The pool is known as the renowned Thousand Mosaic Pool, adorned with thousands of 24-karat gold tiles imported from Italy.

Mediterranean dinner at a cozy indoor spot (Safron Grill at 1049 Washington Ave) away from all the noise for our last supper of 2024... and Diet Coke for AK. Then on to Tri Gelato at 1059 Collins Ave.

It felt like a long wait until midnight! Had to go back to the hotel to kill some more time.

Ready for the real thing! We initially picked out a spot on the wall along Ocean Drive because the googles said it would be a good spot for fireworks. I had brought some sparklers, but Michael kept telling me there's no way they'd let us light them. I decided to walk down to the beach to check it out, and there were sparklers and fireworks all over the place. So I came and got the kids. My law-abiding hubby reluctantly followed.

Right at the stroke of midnight, I was taking a video and suddenly my phone blew up with multiple FaceTime calls. When we were eating lunch at Little Havana earlier in the day, Tate asked me to text my friends in Australia to see what 2025 was like. Realizing they had another chance to ring in the new year, Jen, E-beth, Sam, Jane, and Lace all FaceTimed me right at midnight. It was such a cool memory!

Tate kissing Anna Kate at midnight... and attempting to kiss Carigan. She eventually laid on her back and kicked at him until he gave up.

Tate ran around the beach with sparklers and torches for more than an hour. It was a great memory!! All that was missing was Wes. But Skyler outranks us. I had to get off FaceTime with all my Aussie friends to FaceTime Wes back in Lakeland.

Happy 2025!!! Thankful we got to start it off with a bang.

The Last Supper

We went to Metro Diner for lunch today, and they were packed. The only way they could have seated us anytime in the near future was to put us down a long table on the patio. I said that was fine, it would be appropriate for The Last Supper of 2024. Our waiter thought that was hilarious and asked if he could take hour photo on his personal phone.

Tate had KJ and Patrick over for a playdate this afternoon. They played Pokémon and video games.

Tonight was our last chance to catch Light Up BSP at Bonnet Springs. It wraps up tomorrow on New Year's Eve, but we'll be in Miami! We went early and rushed it a bit so we could get to the Grooms for dinner. But it was enough to appease my FOMO. 

Dustin grilled us big steaks for dinner, and I brought my brussels sprouts that Skyler can eat. Wes was determined to create a dairy-free gluten-free dessert for Skyler… he made mint dough with plant-based dairy free cream cheese, and spent hours molding each little confectionary delight. What a good boyfriend.

Thanks to our fellow Christmas card senders who are hanging in there with us! You get a Rogers Family Yuletide Gold Star. The incoming trickle of real actual postage Christmas cards dwindles every year… cards used to cover every inch of these doors and would overflow onto the door frame. Carigan is taking the decline hard. Usually digital Christmas cards don't count in my book, but I'm always excited to get any update from Megan. Love this picture of Adam & Megan with their girls Uma & Coco, and with her parents Mike & Carla and her baby brother Job (all grown up!) and his wife:

Our waiter this morning did ask our permission to post our photo on a local restaurant review page. Gotta love getting those little laugh pings from complete strangers. 

Bucs 'n Ducks

First Buccaneers Game!!! First NFL game, for that matter. SO exciting!!

I could only get 4 tickets to the Lightning Game before Christmas, and 4 tickets to the Bucs game, so I chose the Lightning game and Michael chose the Bucs game. 

It was fun for me and Tate stalking their location as we watched the game from home. They discovered that the cannon shots inside the stadium are LOUD, and they happen quite often. 

Little did we know that their first NFL game would be such a historic event - I think Bucs 'n Ducks will go down in history. A duck waddled onto the field during game play and it took a lot of effort to get him off! This was their view of the fiasco from inside Raymond James.

 

And this was my view watching it unfold during the broadcast:

Definitely a memorable game! 

Michael texted me this picture of Wesley eating pizza trying to rile me up to think he'd paid a lot of money on the ridiculously expensive stadium food. But reality was even worse - the people behind them left a half eaten pizza in the stands, and Wesley turned around and claimed it. And this is why you go to the Bucs game with Dad, not Mom.