Merry Christmas

Well it is Christmas morning and I am awake, alone with the Christmas tree here in Michigan. 

I am the only creature stirring!

We arrived Wednesday night around midnight with no travel problems. Our huge suitcase was already at Kara’s, complete with new black smears to enhance all the airline added dirt from the past!  But the service had worked fine and that is most important. Kristin’s evening flight kept getting delayed so arriving within the hour of us kept getting extended.  She eventually rescheduled for Thursday. Pat picked her up when she arrived the next day.

Kara has been extremely busy with work and some medical visits for Bill so we just tried to stay out of the way and helped out when asked. I stayed busy wrapping all the gifts I had sent there, doing my best to remember who got what. I had taken time before we left home to write out all the cards and checks so that was out of the way!  We were invited to Kelly’s for dinner so we were all together. 

Our focus on Friday was to continue preparations to keep 13 people fed and where they needed to be. With 6 cars available transportation was no problem but having the cars with a car seat for CeCe kept us in a game of musical cars at times.  

We had a 5:30 appointment for a visit with Santa.  The whole entourage was there.  CeCe seemed so overwhelmed we couldn’t get her to smile  She told Santa she wanted a dinosaur (!), read a book and sang Jingle Bells, but no smile.

Afterwards we all returned to Kara’s for dinner #2. 

That night I was sick. Carol and Tracy, Bills SIL and a cousin, came for brunch on Saturday and to see me.  I was too whipped to get up. Finally all my “innards” had calmed down so half way into their visit I went downstairs to visit with them. It was one of those “get up, dress up, show up” moments I make myself do. I was so glad I did and after some tea and toast I was ready to carry on. 

  

We all attended Mass at Kelly’s church where Pat was one of the lectors. He looked so fine in his suit and tie.  Afterwards we headed out to dinner at Picano’s, our favorite Italian restaurant since 1985.  CeCe matter of factly asked the waitress if they had “skegetti” as if she ordered for herself all the time!  She cracks me up. 

I have to post two photos because Ally is hidden in #1 while CeCe looks up and Ally is visible in #2 while CeCe looks down!   

Sunday was Christmas Eve and another flurry of food prep.  My contribution was cutting up enough vegetables to fill a gallon bag plus one quart of peppers and onions for Ted!  No carrots or zucchini for Ted.

Kara and Bill attended church in his old neighborhood before attending his family’s Christmas party. Ted and I joined the others plus Pat’s brother for dinner at a bistro before going to church for Christmas. Ally and Bidkar were feeling poorly so we collected CeCe to have dinner. She fell asleep on the pew half way through Mass.  Their plans for gift giving for their family fell apart, Ted wasn’t up to snuff so we took Kristin and Cassie home while Pat and Kelly delivered CeCe back home and Dan to his condo.  We came home alone and watched Survivor we had missed on Wednesday.

Later on Sam and Morgan arrived back from their father’s where they had all attended Susan’s church, had dinner at their home and exchanged presents.  Bill and Kara had a great time at their party and they decided to open their presents to each other and the kids in the interest of saving time.  We elected to not give or receive gifts until Christmas when everyone was there. 

True to form our company came between 1 and 3!  A request of 1-2 at the latest meant little to them.  We refer to it as Duda time!  Kara had everything ready.

It took a long time to open all the presents and dinner was not until 6:30.  

We helped clean up and sent them on their way by 9 pm.  We were all exhausted.

Every household had someone under the weather or were exhausted so Tuesday was a Christmas movie marathon for us at Kara’s. We saw very little of Sam or Morgan that day.  Ted scratched all the lottery tickets the young kids had given him, coming up with two winners, $20 and $2.  When he went to turn them in, he used the machine to check them all and he had missed a $500 and $100 winners!  Those little pictures in bonus boxes were hard to see.  So he collected $622!  The kids were excited for him.

Wednesday night was to be Bidkar’s birthday pizza party but we opted to get to the airport hotel before rush hour traffic and order dinner in. Kara’s family bailed on the gathering because all were getting sick so the party attendance was cut in half!  Pat drove us to our airport hotel and after checking in, we walked next door to Bob Evans which sounded better than Door Dash, on our return Ted watched football and I fell asleep.

Our plane was on time, we boarded and I realized my black cross body was missing.  I had it when I got on because Ted had gone to the restroom leaving me with three items, a small carry on, my Canopy satchel and that small black crossbody,  so I couldn’t board until he returned.  

I had removed my charcoal coat and the crossbody and then it wasn’t there!  We looked high and low with the lady in the middle seat using her phone light like I was doing.  I assumed it fell and got kicked as people boarded.  Ted sat behind me, also in an aisle seat, and he checked the overheads around us.  Luckily there was an AirTag attached to my small wallet inside the bag.  It indicated it was on the plane.  When we pushed back and moved, the bag moved with us, it kept indicating it was within 6 feet of me but because the plane was moving it couldn’t zero in on exactly where it was.  I locked both my credit cards just to be safe.  They made an announcement that a bag was missing and to check around under your seats.

As soon as we landed I turned on my hotspot and hit the locator.  It indicated the same 6 feet. When I could stand up I walked forward and it indicated it was behind me so I turned around and walked past my seat and hit the sound button.  Ted said he heard it, the lady in the window seat in the next row said she heard it in front of her.  Everyone is looking in the direction and the woman in the window seat of my row popped up with “oh here it is.”  Ted said she pulled it from between her seat and the fuselage!  I think she knew it was there and was going to go through it or take it with her.  She could even have lifted it from my seat, sitting on top of my coat when she first arrived, while we put our things up above.  Happy ending!

The big suitcase had been picked up Wednesday morning and last I looked yesterday, it was in Perrysburg, OH based on an Air Tag and I don’t expect it until after the weekend. 

I have lots of things to catch up on but my calendar is not too full so I will take my time and in due time it will get done.

On to Happy New Year!  

 

I Am So Far Behind I Feel Like I Am in First Place

 I was so-so in the feeling good department, but with Ted’s encouragement I went to Old Town Spring to attend Junior Forum’s Christmas party.  Having made the effort, I am glad I went.  I felt ok and saw many friends.  

Barb really got into the Christmas spirit!  Gina was offering an answer to Christmas trivia.  They were hard questions!  

We attended Mass in the evening for the holy day.

Saturday was our Couples Shanghai at the home of the Meyers.  Connie put out quite a spread and gave each of us a 6 piece box of See’s chocolates.  Great candy!  I didn’t win … again!  

Sunday we had offered again to take our elderly neighbors to The Woodlands Baptist church Christmas concert.  I invited our new neighbors to join us.  We had dinner where the waitress dropped Jeanette’s whole plate of food in her lap (with no offer of anything other than a new plate of dinner ) from the restaurant!

Dick played the trumpet as a young man and loves the orchestra.  He is 91 and literally dances in his seat and sings along!  We were 3 generations attending together!  The performance is spectacular and always a joy to attend.

The Sustainers Christmas outing was wonderful.  We toured a $6 million dollar builder’s home complete with mimosas, cupcakes, Santa and the Grinch.  It is nice to see how the other 5% live!

Afterwards we had lunch at the Augusta Pines country club!  Such a wonderful outing.  

Tuesday was my mammogram and appt. with my oncologist.  Everything looked good so I have June and December appts. in the new year.

Wednesday my new cleaning lady came.  She was moving things, getting under things, really going at it!  I walked in the kitchen and there were 3 piles of dirt.  It was all the “hiding dirt” the other cleaners failed to find because they never moved anything!  She looks like a keeper!

Thursday was my neighborhood birthday club Christmas luncheon with dessert and cookie exchange back here afterwards.  We only had 6 because one’s husband can’t be left alone, another had a conflict, one was called out of town and one had just been hospitalized with heart problems and subsequent stroke.  

We ate at Pallotto’s, filled Debbie’s SUV with groceries for Montgomery County food bank, had our cookie exchange (next year NO chocolate chip) everyone but me and Nancy made them,  and had coffee and dessert here.  Anna, who was to have it but got called out of town, bought a sacher torte from Le Madeline.  It took me back to Vienna where I first ate this amazing sweet.  I made a Million Dollar Pie and two people asked for the recipe.  Gail, Merry and I all had little gifts for every one so all in all, despite our worry about our sick friend, we had a really good time. 

I chose to pack our biggest, dirtiest suitcase to ship to Detroit with ShipSticks.  Besides golf clubs, they do luggage.  It was very little more than we would have paid to check two bags coming and going on the airlines.  They couldn’t hurt the bag, the airlines did that long ago! 

Because I had an Apple AirTag in it, I was able to follow its travels to Troy where the driver carried it into the garage and set it at the door to the house.  It was picked up Friday and delivered on Monday.  The plastic holder I use for cruises was perfect to use with their info print out.  And our MTR strap from Royal Caribbean from years gone by was a great description identifier for the handlers,  

I was not feeling well Sunday having come down with Ted’s cough!  I started on amoxicillin and by Monday was feeling much better and coughing very little so we kept our date with my old boss from Celanese days and met in Brenham for lunch.  They were delayed a half hour being caught in traffic in Austin so we waited for them at the steakhouse with no problem keeping the table.  Afterwards, we decided to hit Blue Bell ice cream parlor for $1 ice cream scoops as dessert.  

It was a nice 90 minute ride through the countryside on a sunny day and a great and fun afternoon with good friends.

We leave tomorrow for Michigan where the kids are anxiously awaiting our arrival, especially CeCe.  She knows she can’t open presents until Lolly and Pops arrive.  We FaceTimed and we reiterated we were coming and then will have presents.  Afterwards Kara’s doorbell rang and CeCe took off saying “It’s Lolly.”   When she opened the door her mother stood there and CeCe said “oh man!”  She will have from Thursday to Sunday and Monday to wait to open presents so I have a Christmas outfit I will give her so she can wear it over the weekend.

Merry Christmas y’all from the great state of Texas!  

Oh Man Am I Behind

Well this has to be a short synopsis of our 3 weeks before our cruise.  

It was our turn to host Shanghai and that went well.  I played Canasta the next week and didn’t win there either.  Went to lunch with Stella, Jay, Tommy and Susan before we all got too busy with the holidays.  I worked at the Hand Me Up shop for the first time in awhile and attended this year’s last Doc Talk.  The subject was about Hot Flashes and HRT.  They don’t say what the subject will be beforehand so I listened even though I never took HRT and haven’t had hot flashes for 20 years.  

We left for our cruise on Sunday morning after having Lina arrive from Fort Worth.  She had contacted us through Princess looking for a ride from the north Houston area to Galveston.  She was single and traveling alone and had never been on a cruise.  I gave her our info, she offered to pay half the parking and it all worked out.  She left her car in our drive and it was still there when we got home!  She said it removed so much stress she was anticipating with getting through Houston down and back (not a picnic), boarding and then disembarkation and through Customs.  We all made it on and off with no problems except a long wait to get on.  

We had two days at sea.  I ordered coffee, OJ and danish at 8 am each morning from room service.  We prepared for our day at leisure and then eventually had breakfast, brunch or lunch depending on how fast we moved!  There were various things going on around the ship and we did whatever grabbed our attention.  We played bingo and I won $44!  We had 6 pm dinner and though we agreed to sit at a table of 6 to meet people, there were so many groups and families, the large tables were all reserved so we had a table for two no matter if we were early, late or on time.  We did talk and meet with some other couples at tables next to us.

We had Princess Plus that gave us perks on the ship!  We could attend two of the Casual restaurants that have surcharges normally, but not the Speciality with really big price tags.  We had all drinks available, only regular coffee, tea or lemonade are “free.”  Our tips and Wi-Fi were included and two exercise classes which we did not do!  There were two specialty desserts that were 5 layer cakes and sundaes in a  10 inch glass and we could have two a day!?!.  We had one ice cream each one afternoon.  We were fine with the Main Dining Rooms.  Uncharacteristic for us I had a glass of white wine and Ted had TWO vodka tonics through dinner.  I had a cappuccino once but don’t tell anyone, the cappuccino at Flying J truck stop is WAY better.  I started having decaf coffee with a shot of Bailey’s with my dessert.  We got free water exiting the ship that would have been $2.50.  We had Cokes at the pool and a margarita somewhere. All in all, we got great value buying the Plus. 

In Roatan we hired a private driver who drove us over the entire island - the good, the bad, the ugly.  There were beautiful vistas and shorelines but a lot of abject poverty.  What our driver called Spanish town seemed the nicest. We did not see any mansions.  We stopped at the Sanctuary to visit with monkeys, sloths and parrots.  A must do apparently!

Belize was a port we have visited in the past.  This time we took an open air tram around the area.  I was impressed with their commitment to education.  Every child, in their school uniforms, must be in school … or the police will come after their parents.  Education is the answer to poverty,  

We think this was our 4th trip to Cozumel so we have seen their attractions and we weren’t into snorkeling or even being bussed to a beach.  When some came back with sand fleas we were glad we didn’t do that.  We took a rickshaw bicycle from the ship to the new duty free stores, walked around a bit, got in the rickshaw and went back to the ship.  I found it interesting that there were no warnings that even though cigarettes and liquor are federal tax free in certain amounts, all will be taxed by Texas when they arrive back in Galveston. I think I heard $1.50 a pack or $15 on a carton!  We knew this from our trips back and forth to Mexico while staying in Mission,  

We loved the adult only pool on the Regal Princess.  No kids, no public areas around it with people walking by.  A Retreat bar with roving waiters and a Sanctuary for massages, private meals.  It was heaven!  

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The last day we spent casino time in two slot pools with two different groups.  Outcome was the same, bet it all away!  The Bravo stage show highlighting the great choreographers had amazing song and dance routines, Broadway worthy.

Sunday morning was easy off, we were home by 11.  We changed clothes and went to Mass at noon meeting Nancy at St.Luke hospital chapel.  We had much to do at home so it was nice to be able to get that in.  

Monday Ted got sick.  I tested him for Covid but it was negative.  He coughed constantly and had no energy.  He literally slept until Thursday before he had enough energy to get up.  I tried to get him to go to the doctor.but that was a no go.  

While he was down I got all my Christmas shopping done on line and sent to Kara’s.  I decorated the house a little because the neighbor ladies are coming here next week after lunch for coffee and dessert.  I baked my cookies for the cookie exchange, hired a new cleaning lady and then got sick myself.  But it wasn’t what Ted had.  This involved gastrointestinal issues so I took to the couch!  I am feeling better but have cancelled our country club Shanghai tomorrow just to be on the safe side.  

Woo, a lot to cover this month!