Well, according to this video, Santa is training to go “sans reindeer” for the Christmas Eve deliveries!

The Santas are “flying” on the new Manta Rollercoaster at Orlando’s Sea World…might have to check it out myself. I just hope Santa doesn’t do away with the elves, too!

A huge literary event happened today in Orlando: Dara Torres talked about her new book Age is Just a Number.

My husband SwimmerJoe.com swam with Dara at the University of Florida, and so she has long been a household name in our house. We’ve actively followed her five Olympics and have cheered for her many successes. (And had a few laughs as Joe remembers the years spent as her Gator teammate!)

Dara had a great turn out today at the Orlando Public Library where she spoke for nearly 30 minutes, retelling anecdotes from her many years as a swimmer. And at the end, she graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures with the many fans who showed up.  She did take a short break to greet Joe with a hug and “What are you doing here?!” reaction…good times!

Enjoy this video from Dara’s talk:

Thanks, Orlando Public Library, for a great event!

Well, I am finally coming off the high of having been honored for Best Neighborhood Blog with an Orbbie from the Orlando Sentinel. I am particularly grateful because the “Top 5″ blog is only 6 months old and really was the result of a few friends tossing a few ideas around…so I am thrilled with its fantastic reception! This award was a great way to celebrate the the Central Florida Top 5’s half birthday! To continue the celebration, we’ve decided to revamp our blog’s look. Let us know how you like it!

The “award ceremony” for the Orbbies was held at Eden Bar in Maitland and I attended with a few of the “Top 5″ judges. There were also several other category winners present, and I enjoyed meeting and talking with them. I was actually humbled by their depth of knowledge about blogging and realized, yes, I am still a newbbie!

Dave Knechel writes Marinade Dave and was very gracious with sage advice. (And I totally loved his laid back attitude!) I also enjoyed meeting Mark Baratelli, whose blog The Daily City and tweets I love reading. I also met Kiran and her lovely husband Tarun of Chatterbox and Shutterbox. I was greatly delighted when she not only was familiar with the “Top 5″ but told me that as fairly new arrivals to Central Florida, they used our site as a resource…love it! Here’s a link to the final list of Orbbie winners.

Here’s a picture of the winners:

Marinade Dave, Chatterbox/Shutterbox, The Top 5, DISUnplugged, The Daily City, and Tasty Chomps

Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to the Central Florida Top 5 fans…you are the best!

And here’s to another great six months of ranking wonderful Orlando events, delivering great things for you to do, and growing as a provider of fantastic information!

Oh, and enjoy the snow! Who says it doesn’t snow in Central Florida?!

I was thrilled when I received an email from Michael Hajek, the photographer who is helping coordinate a very special event here in Central Florida: Help-Portrait Orlando.

Started by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart in Nashville, the Help-Portrait movement focuses on a very simple premise:  Find someone in need   –   Take their portrait   –   Print & Deliver their portrait.

The Help-Portrait Orlando will take place on December 12 and is bringing together over 70 photographers, as well as make up artists, hair stylists, and graphic artists to photograph the city’s needy. You might ask why would taking someone in need’s picture be beneficial? Well, let’s consider the dignity that is offered to a person when a little bit of attention is given to their presentation. By allowing a person to put their best face forward, you give them a tiny piece of themselves to proudly hold high. And, what’s more, many of these people have never had a picture taken of themselves.

“December 12^th is about helping people who never imagined having their portrait made,” celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart said. “Kids who don’t have their own families, those in need at children’s hospitals here and abroad, single moms, the elderly, the homeless or even your own neighbor. This is about giving pictures, not taking them. It’s about building relationships in your own community and giving hope.”

Here’s a video from Help-Portrait Orlando’s website to give you a better idea of the meaning behind the day.

If you feel so moved, or have services or time to offer to this worthy cause, please visit Help-Portrait Orlando’s main site to see how you can become involved. Remember, the date is this Saturday, December 12, from 10 am – 5 pm. The local group of participating photographers has grown to 70+ members strong and expects to add to those numbers prior to the actual event date. On that day they are partnering with the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida and expect to provide approx. 350 portraits to those men, women, children & families who needs are served by the Coalition.

The holidays are always a good reason for donating your time, but especially this particular year when so many of our fellow Floridians have found themselves in need. Thanks for checking out the website.

The Thanksgiving holiday evokes different memories for people, but in my house, Thanksgiving always meant two things: sweet potatoes and football!

1. Sweet Potatoes & Florida Oranges

Anyone who knows me knows I am not big on kitchen skills. I strongly believe a love of cooking is something passed down through memories of time spent with a parent lovingly doting over a blender and stove top. Well, those memories are nonexistent in my household, as my mother despised cooking as much as I do; so, my memories are of quickie meals done out of a few pots or of frequently eating out.  (I don’t blame my mother at all, as she spent her childhood in the legendary Morrison’s Cafeteria where all the wait staff knew her family by name! For generations now, the women in my family just aren’t that domesticated, I guess.)

Some of the few times my mother would put in an effort at cooking was the occasional holiday meal. No, not all of it was wonderful, as cooking takes practice, but there were some dishes that my mother made simply divine. I would put her sweet potatoes toe-to-toe with anyone else’s in the country. She takes the skinned, mashed sweet potatoes and mixes in freshly squeezed oranges, right off the tree. Something about the pulpy citrus juice creates this wonderful texture that almost caramelizes with the potatoes when cooked. Add the traditional toasted marshmallows on top, and it is one recipe that I proudly brag about.

What dishes remind you of this time of year? Any kitchen secrets you want to share?

2. Florida vs. Florida State

Yes, this is the other holiday tradition that simply cannot be missed in my household. Both my husband and I went to the University of Florida–he a swimmer and me a cheerleader–and so we take this weekend very seriously.  Although this football game amounts to little more than bragging rights as of late, it used to be a vital battleground for national rankings.   For almost as far back as I can remember, Thanksgiving weekend means Florida-Florida State.

"Top 5" editor Bess and another Cent. FL native Buffy Thompson before a UF-FSU game.

And, just for kicks, here’s a vintage cheer picture from the late eighties. OMG! I miss that big hair!

So, no matter who you are cheering for this weekend, remember to enjoy who you are cheering with…Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

With the Space Shuttle program coming quickly to an end, and with NASA’s funding in jeopardy, every bit of exospheric research counts. This is why the unusual experiment by the University of Colorado makes me smile. Butterflys are being grown aboard the International Space Station…thus the term “butterflynauts!”

Here what the National Space Biomedical Research Institute has to say: “Painted Lady butterflies will fly aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS). The butterflies will spend several months in space as part of an exciting experiment to observe their life cycles and behaviors in microgravity. We invite your class to participate! The butterflies will live in a special habitat, which provides a safe environment, food and water. Photos and video will be transmitted back to Earth and made available here.”

And, what makes this fun (and educational) is the fact that we can get frequent updates via Youtube. Here’s the latest video of the caterpillarnauts.

And stay updated on Twitter!

Somehow “Butterflies in Space” doesn’t quite have the ring that the old Muppets skit “Pigs in Space” does, but still, the fact that research about life cycles in zero gravity might lead to humans finally colonizing elsewhere is exciting!

Today I visited the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art. I am continually impressed with the OMA (except for the whole $5 parking thing) because of the “big city museum” feel it brings to Orlando. For the Festival of Trees, the lobby is appropriately decorated with palms and lights to give a Florida feel to the holiday mood.

As I wondered throughout the exhibit, at first many of the displays were unimpressive, seeing much better at Michaels or JoAnn Etc., but I judged too quickly, as many others were great plays on different themes. There were themes featuring French poodles, Disney, and the Orlando Magic. My personal favorite (besides the orange and blue Gator theme) involved the space program. Decorated with planets, space shuttles, and shooting stars, the tree was topped with an astronaut proudly standing on the Moon with an orbiting lunar module.

I noticed that birds were a reoccurring item: peacocks, parrots, owls, and even penguins!  I also enjoyed the gingerbread houses, menorah display, and checking in with Santa to see if my winning Powerball ticket was on the way! (He asked just how good I had been this year. Hmmm…)

Enjoy the following videos:

My husband produced one of the very first auto shows in Winter Park back in 2000, and so my family has always had a fondness for the venue. This is why the Concours d’ Elegance, a premiere auto show, excites us so. After a few down years, where the cars or management were a bit underwhelming, the Concours d’ Elegance returned with a vengeance this year and hit a homerun!

First, the cars were exciting, with many out-of-state entries showcasing true elegance, luxury, or prime vintage examples. Next, the City of Winter Park allowed many of the beautiful autos to be displayed on the green park itself, greatly expanding the flow of the show to a more traditional “art show” feel. By allowing the show to venture past the bricks of Park Avenue, show goers could leisurely make their way, spending even more time gawking at the mobile feast-for-the-eyes of cars and boats. Also, the sponsors and vendors were better quality along with the refurbished Park Avenue storefronts being debuted. The DuPont Registry was also a classy, big-time touch!

Congratulations to Tim Weber and the rest of the Concours d’ Elegance for a top quality, well-attended show!

Growing up in Central Florida, one of my earliest aspirations was to be an astronaut. I believe moonwatching, supporting NASA, and reaching for the stars is ingrained in any native Floridian. My mother was pregnant with me when Neil Armstrong first set foot upon the Moon. Just twelve years later, I vividly remember being home sick from school and lying in bed watching both the opening of Epcot as well as the launch of the first space shuttle mission. Later, images of Columbia exploding 72 seconds into flight still reign in my mind, and I remember my high school teachers trying to explain to students what had happened.  In fact, it wasn’t until I was a sophomore sitting in Astronomy class at the University of Florida–and I realized how much math was involved with being an astronaut–that I was forced to give up that dream. 

Now, as NASA struggles with undetermined funding and uncertainty, everyone seems to have a strong opinion either for space exploration or against it. This is why the upcoming Space Elevator Games fascinate me so. The idea of reaching space in a new way (that doesn’t involve me having to conquer ridiculous amounts of math) seems intriguing. Here’s a short trailer for the games.

Yes, this idea seems a bit “out there” and farfetched, but so did rocketry fifty years ago. Ever see the movie October Sky? Well, one of those rocket boys lives right here in Central Florida: Dr. Robert Likens. He is living proof that dreams, however lofty, can come true. So, regardless of whether this idea will actually come to fruition, I loudly applaud the inventive thinking and never-ending dream of reaching for the stars…somehow it seems to epitomize not only the American spirit, but the Central Floridan one as well.

Growing up in Winter Park during the height of the “preppy” style (think late 70’s and early 80’s), Park Avenue has always been representative of all things fashionable for me. On a street where a Ralph Lauren store couldn’t seem last, other unique designers, ritzy boutiques, and high end stores seem to set the trends instead, creating a very specific Central Florida look.  So, I was very excited to see this year’s Winter Park fashions during Park Avenue Fashion Week.

A friend and I attended the afternoon show, which while it wasn’t a jam-packed full house, it still bubbled with excitement due to the great atmosphere inside the tent. Having attended some tent shows in NY, I was impressed with Winter Park’s effort to recreate an authentic experience for its attendees.  I was also pleased the designers used local models, of all ages, and featuring many shapes and sizes.

Here is the video I took of the show…enjoy!