Holiday Fun

December 19, 2009

Momo





Holiday Fun



There has been so much going on this year for the holidays that it has been difficult to keep up with everything and it seems as if some of the events that we have been attending seem to have slipped by without recognition. A few traditional Key West holiday traditions and a couple of new ones are the focus of this blog entry.

Howard

Last weekend in all the holiday hubbub, our friends over at Reef Relief brought back one of the best Key West traditions there has ever been, the party of the year as it was known, Cayo Carnival. Kathy & I decided to check it out on Saturday afternoon and evening. The new team at Reef Relief made a lot of changes to the format and time of Cayo, holding it in December and changing the location from East Martello and adding a second day. For whatever reason, or perhaps because of them, it was a tremendous disappointment. Having helped organize the original 15 Cayo Carnivals, it gave me a mixture of pride of what we had achieved and sadness about how much was lost in trying to recapture lightning in a bottle.

Lisa & Kelsey

Randy, Howard & Elissa

There was a very sparse crowd both times we were there, nothing like the thousands of locals who used to pack the event. Saturday night, we watched the wonderful Howard Livingston and the MM24 band play to a couple of hundred people at most. Howard was great, but the folks at Reef Relief are going to need to rethink the event if they want to do it again. Perhaps it would be best not to compete with the very popular lighted boat parade.







Two more traditional holiday events were this week as well. The Holiday Pet Expo at the Key West Dog Park was held over the weekend. I love this little event, which raises funds for the SPCA and features exhibits, contests and even Santa Claus to pose with the pets. A huge crowd was on hand along with their dogs. Sadly India was still recovering from the wounds she suffered in her recent dog attack. She is doing well, but is not ready to face so many dogs at once.





The other annual event for us was the holiday light viewing aboard the conch tour train with all the children and parents at the Key West Preschool co-op. I think this was our seventh annual trip and it was as fun as ever. It is a real joy to see all the kids enjoying the train ride and the holiday lights





Perhaps the coolest thing to happen to us this week has been the creation of a wonderful mural on our living room wall by NYC based artist Momo who is in Key West doing a project called “Public Art in Private Spaces”. Sponsored by The Studios of Key West, Momo is doing murals in 10 private homes over the next month, we were the first selected and it got us on the front page of The Key West Citizen. Check out the story using the link below and also take a minute to check out Momo’s website to see the amazing street art that he has created all over the world.

Momo

Key West Citizen Article

Momo's Show Palace website