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!  

Closing in on the Holidays

We had a relatively quiet weekend but a busy week.  I received the rundown on my echocardiogram and it was excellent.  We discussed the two veins in my left leg that are superficial but they are unsightly and scare the heck out of me at times when they are “bulging.”  I always wonder if I have another blood clot.  So they ordered an ultrasound to see exactly what is what and said probably they will do the Venclose procedure on them which is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure that uses a small catheter that delivers heat, shrinking the vein.  Blood flow will naturally reroute to nearby healthy veins.  Or so they say.  But first, the ultrasound to determine if it is safe for me.  

We played Shanghai at the country club that evening and I came in second, losing out of winning by 1 point!  But I did get 1/3 of the money!  They have a new chef and the entire menu was available and the same food was much better than it had been.  

Thursday was a Forum work day!  I had to be at the Pavilion at 8 am.  Our main job is literally herding over 3,000 children to their seats for the Children’s Festival educational production.  Bus after bus brings them pouring in from all over the county.  We are given maps showing where each school is sitting.  The hardest thing is getting them to go to the end of the rows and sit in the next available seat.  They just keep going into the row so we had to go in the row behind and get all the seats filled so they could then start the next row.  

Then there are “where is the restroom, where is medical, where can I put our coolers wagons.”  I had to stand with two young boys outside the women’s restroom so the female teacher could go in by herself.  We just talked about their field trip for the few minutes.

Then there is the “switch.”  The groups in the Encore venue come to the tented pavilion and those that have just seen the program go there.  One group has had their lunch, the others were scheduled to eat in their seats upon arrival!  I don’t think we lost anybody.  The kids were very good about trash, we in our spot of section 101 had about a dozen huge bags collected and ready for custodians to pick up.  

In the past we would lead the schools to their buses.  Depending on where the buses were parked determined your spot.  But we were told the Pavilion volunteers were going to do this because in the past some teachers got “testy” about their need to leave right then!  The volunteers that deal with crowds all the time were better suited to handle this than we outside volunteers.  So we looked at each other, said “Let’s beat the buses” and headed to the garage for a quick trip home.

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands is the most popular outdoor entertainment venue in the world, according to concert industry trade magazine Pollstar. The accolade comes after a busy summer during which the Pavilion hosted 38 shows and more than 268,000 fans.

Last Week was Busy!

 I had a full calendar last week.  Monday was our Ghost Tour of Galveston with Forum Sustainers.  I picked Pam up, we met up with the group and had a delightful day.  It was a cool, damp day so a bus tour was great.  We traveled up and down all the streets hearing the history of the buildings and any ghost stories associated with them.  Ghosts don’t matter but I enjoyed the history and architecture.

We stopped at the historic Galvez Hotel that was just renovated. It is beautiful and sits right across from the Gulf.

The Founder’s Bar

We had lunch of pecan encrusted mahi mahi at Gaido’s on the Seawall. All in all, a most enjoyable day.

I had a routine yearly echocardiogram on Tuesday and will go back for results this week.  

Wednesday was a sad day … a wonderful friend who suffered terribly for 5 years with lymphoma passed away and I attended one of the most beautiful funerals ever.  I can only hope people would say 10% of the wonderful things about me that was said about her. Our singing group, the Melodies, of which Gail was a member, performed along with the church’s musicians.  Her husband, son, physical therapist and friend all spoke.  It was All Saints Day, so fitting!  There was a reception at the church afterwards and it was nice to see so many old friends. 

Continental Breakfast for Newcomers was Thursday morning at friend Mary’s house.  I wore purple and so did half a dozen other people.  It was like we all got the same memo!  Funny! In between there and my class at Lone Star college I stopped to vote.  From there I attended  my class on Probate.  I was glad to learn our Will accompanied with a Trust is the best Avenue!  One thing I found interesting is never leave someone $1 to make a point. Doing that makes them an heir and has legal status you probably didn’t intend.  Also, we have always kept one car in each of  our names because TX DMV will always license the other car to a surviving spouse.  Turns our cars were bought with community property, the cars are community property and the DMV is more concerned with names matching than anything else.  Living in a community property state is more involved than the majority of states that aren’t community property.  

So our weekend was quiet with church, dinner out, Ted shooting, and I started gathering my things for our cruise. I have bought nothing new to wear.  We so seldom dress up that there is plenty to choose from that hasn’t seen the light of day in some time.

Two weeks to go back to Galveston to board the Regal Princess to celebrate Thanksgiving in Belize.  I feel bad leaving Nancy all alone.  She has celebrated holidays with us the past two years but it is nice she is here to keep an eye things.  

The News is So Disturbing

I watch little TV and when I do I watch Prime at night but we had the news on a lot with the horrendous affairs unfolding in Israel. I am concerned for my neighbors who are at their home in Tel Aviv and for all the citizens of that area. I cannot believe the inhumanity to other human beings by these terrorists. And to see our college campuses praising them is sickening. It screams of Saul Alinsky’s manifesto to take over the world.  Also Paul Harvey’s “If I Were the Devil.”  Both things have come into being.  I pray for our nation and thank God I am 78. The rapid deterioration of humankind is more than I care to stay around to see. 

I have been home most of the past week. We played our Couples Shanghai which finally started up again after the lengthy hiatus caused by Covid. Ted won, I didn’t!  Nancy and I attended a talk by M D Anderson on nutrition. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know from Weight Watchers. I cooked pot roast, meatloaf and tortillini soup since we were home so much. 

Ted took our mantle clock to a new shop recommended by my friend Judy and the chime is now working again. The gentleman came out the next week and took one look at the grandmother clock and said “nothing is broken, it is out of beat, when the last guy replaced the suspension spring, he didn’t finish the job.”  He has heard the horror stories of our first repairman and said their over $800 estimate is BS.  Our mantel clock was bought in 1991 in Germany on one of our trips.  Our grandmother clock is 50 years old and has moved from OH, MI and FL to TX plus in town moves.  The clock was cleaned, oiled, put back in beat and is chiming away!  I missed my chimes for too long!

I had lunch with Jody before the weekend.  It has been way too long but Covid and other health issues have kept us from spending time together.  I enjoyed the visit so much!

Ted went to San Antonio on Sunday to shoot in the National Sporting Clay tournaments.  It gave me a chance to “get in gear.”  I met Nancy at her new neighborhood’s Happy Hour on Monday after checking carpet prices at Home Depot and working on my clothes for the cruise.  I had to turn up the hem on my two Lilly Pulitzer slacks I bought in Orlando.  But the big thing is I called the folks who put in our new wood floor last year to give me another estimate for new MBR carpeting.  

Before noon on Monday the salesman came with the samples, I picked out what I wanted, he gave me a price close, but a bit cheaper, than Home Depot and announced we were going to do this Tuesday!  I had to move the mirror, jewelry box, pants butler, lamp, etc. to get the room ready.  They were going to move the big pieces of furniture.  

Mid morning the two fellows arrived, asked me to identify the carpet as what I chose and proceeded to lay it and put the furniture back.  It was like 24 hours from start to finish!  They did another excellent job for us. By the time Ted returned late afternoon I had everything back in place!  He loves these serendipity moments when things are just done in his absence!  

Not much going on the rest of the week.  I am going to Sam’s to pick up my new glasses for the second time.  First time I was seeing double out of my right eye, one on top of the over.  Crossing my fingers that they get it right this time.  They moved the measurement by .2 after measuring my eye again.  Doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy!  

Falling Behind Again

 I haven’t written since my birthday.  And CeCe’s birthday too!

My friend Susan has a 10/3 birthday, so starting at Ted’s birthday on 9/27 to one week later mine on 10/4, we have 3 birthdays to celebrate.  So we decided to avail ourselves of lunch at Taste of Texas!  This is a superb steakhouse and quite famous in the Houston area.  The food is absolutely outstanding and we had an excellent afternoon.  

We let Tommy come along to keep the number even.  He is a 4th of July birthday so he gets to celebrate with our nation!

On Tuesday we rejoined our Shanghai group at the country club.  Neither of us won but I had decent cards most of the night.  Their special menu for us is down to about a half dozen choices.  I ordered a quesadilla and Ted had a burger.  They were both very good but I don’t know what caused the choices to be so slim.

I was to have a cardiologist appointment for a yearly echo cardiogram but they changed it to Halloween.  But I did have my eyes checked and needed a new prescription.  I told him I can’t understand those British folks on TV so I need new glasses to read the closed captions.

I went to Sam’s to order the new glasses, got my flu shot and upped our membership to Sam’s Plus.  It cost $65 to save $60 on my glasses.  Now I get all kinds of perks I felt were worth paying $5 for!  

I was tired on my actual birthday and begged off to the next day to have dinner at Saltgrass.  The filet was excellent and we both cleaned our plates. Fatigue continues to rear its ugly head periodically.  I was glad we waited. 

Friday our generator people were at the door at 8 am!  We were expecting them at 10 but this was the guy to mark gas, electric and sprinkler lines.  The rest of the Generac people followed and all in good time, it was installed.  At 1pm, on Friday, it came on, exercised itself for 5 minutes just like it is supposed to.

We went to church as usual on Saturday and drove to Conroe to Joe’s for some Italian food.  We hadn’t had any in awhile.  Sunday was Neighbor’s Night Out weekend and our block was meeting down the street.  We were to bring contributions for our military and wear red, white and blue, which we did.  We met a few new neighbors and talked with some old ones. 

Sunday was a laid back day spent mostly in front of the TV.  Our next door neighbors are Israelis and have a house in Tel Aviv.  They happen to be there now.  He told me they are ok but are trying to get home.  I am sure he doesn’t want to write too much info on how they plan to do that.  I certainly am concerned for their safety.  

I played Canasta on Monday and WON for the first time ever, not counting the times I came in last and got my $1 back!  

My CPR class at Lone Star College was cancelled Tuesday and I spent Wednesday running errands.  It was drizzling and not a great day to be running in and out of stores.  I got two tops to wear with my Lily Pulitzer slacks on our cruise, returned some Amazon things at Kohl’s and stopped at Dollar General for some gift bags.

I guess this didn’t get posted.  Old news now.  Sorry!

 

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Not Too Busy of a Week

I stayed home finishing up laundry, putting things away, mail, etc.  

I had to scan my newly arrived passport into our cruise account to finish our registration.  It came right after we left!  We now have been moved to Green Line for boarding and can sign up for excursions, dinner times, shows, etc. Our ID medallion and lanyards are now going to be mailed to us free of charge with our Plus package.  It gives us lots of perks which I intend to make good use of.  Tips, Wi-Fi, alcoholic and all specialty drinks and desserts, two specialty dinners and exercise classes.  All requests are available by delivery to us no matter where we are on the ship. I plan to have a French vanilla cappuccino, sweet n low, no sugar delivered to my room each morning.  I probably will get room service breakfast too to eat on our verandah.  And a glass or two of white wine at dinner.  Maybe a margarita at the lounge shows.  Ted will make use of those specialty desserts depending on what is offered at lunch and dinner.  

I also had to download the results of my doctor appt in Michigan when I saw my doctor here on Thursday. Surprisingly, I had gained no weight since we left mid July and ate our way across the Midwest!  I have 10# to get back to my WW goal weight I hit in August 2018 but I had to lose them when we left!  Since I was out I got my nails done before coming home.  Other than that, not much has happened.  

Our daughter had surgery to have a vein removed in her leg.  It could not be stripped because it was not straight, looked more like a meandering river.  It took 21 small incisions to remove it all.  She is doing ok.  Our son-in-law Bill had a heart cath and a stent inserted.  Another cath needs to be done down the road. Lots of things to pray about.

Kristin sent me a Lladro birthday girl carrying a piece of cake to represent CeCe in our Lladro family.  We share the same birthday and she is too young to know her special interests.  I was given one of my sister’s angels.  It looks like a Lladro but is not.  It matches really well though and Aunt Karen joins us as the angel she was. 

Ted’s birthday was Wednesday but we did nothing special.  Our birthday and Christmas presents were the Grand Floridian 5 day stay and our tickets to the Andre Rieu concert.  Kelly sent a Delta gift card too.  We were more than delighted with these gifts and they appreciate giving us things we will enjoy more than a thing and would probably not buy for ourselves.  But I can get used to this first class style of travel!  

The Reunion and then Home

About 60 of our class attended the 60th reunion.  I am peeking out straight behind from the gal in lime green.  It was great catching up with so many!  We had a class of just over 200.  With 35 deceased, we were at about half accounted for.  

I won a mug with our emblem and year on one side and 60th reunion written on the other for having come the farthest!  

This was our table, no rhyme or reason who sat where but my BFF since 1950 is the dark hair in blue next to me.

We were up early and left Dan’s in Cincinnati about 7:45 am.  We drove to Little Rock AR stopping about 7 pm.  We went to a pizza place next to Hilton’s Tru hotel where we stayed and turned in immediately after.  The next day we arrived home about 2 pm.  It was 100 degrees!  Yep, we were home.

We unloaded the car, cleaned up, went to church, came home, too tired to eat.  I went to bed about 8 and slept until 5 am.  I worked for 8 hours getting everything unpacked and put away.  Terry and Carol were in town to attend a friend’s birthday party so they took us to dinner and came back to our house to visit.

It was great waking up in my own bed.  I only had 73 days of mail to go through and all that would entail.  About 3, I took a nap until Ted woke me to eat dinner.  Now to return to our normal life for awhile.