Christmas 2011

Hola and Happy New Year!Well it's Tuesday, the second Tuesday of 2012, to be exact!  It's been a whirlwind of activity the past couple of weeks.  We had fun times in fun places, and got to spend time with both sides of Grandparents, too.  You can't beat it!

I will try to avoid boring you with too many details.  Here was our Christmas week, with a "roll" of photos for you to peruse.  (Remember "rolls" of film?  24 photos!  Oh, and if you click on any of the photos, you can see them full-sized and JUST look at the photos.)

CRUISE.  We took a 7-day cruise on Carnival, to the Western Caribbean.  We left Christmas Eve.  The ship was huge -- I think it was 14 stories tall and the length of 3 football fields.  How something that size can stay afloat is beyond me.  It was like a small city.  4500 guests, and 1000 crew members.

AND I DIDN'T HAVE to COOK.  Did anyone ever say there was food on a cruise ship?  An embarrassing amount of food, I'll add.  An embarrassing amount of really GOOD food.  Enhanced, of course, by the simple fact that I was not in charge of planning the meals, shopping for it, bringing it home to unload, and preparing it.  My heart leaps for joy at the very thought. They could have served me grilled cheese for 7 days, and I would have taken it with a smile.

But we did NOT have to eat grilled cheese for 7 days!!!!!!!  (It was available, don't get me wrong.  I just did not eat any.)  Steak and lobster and chicken and fruit and pastries and juices and omelets and mongolian bar-b-que and soft breads and a whole slew of desserts.  24-hour ice-cream and pizza bar, too.  A ridiculous amount of really good food.  Our comical waiter also brought out stuff NOT ordered: "Here, kids, try the snails.  Here's a sample of alligator.  And don't forget frog legs."  Now the kids have tried them.

SWIMMING.  There were swimming pools, and fancy water slides for the kids to play on during the "at sea" days.  Here's a video of Frank going down the slide--sound and everything, if you turn it up!

COZUMEL.  First day to disembark, we spent on Cozumel.  (Now, the sidenote here is that Cozumel has some of the best scuba diving in the world...this, however, was not a scuba trip.  While that was a little disappointing, Frank consented to these other activities and still had a fun time.)

4-WHEEL BUGGIES.  We bounced around the jungle terrain on 4-wheel off-road buggies, you might call them, into holes and over hills and around curves and trees.  The more mud, the better, which Frank hit with as much speed as possible whenever possible.  He and Teresa were definitely the most covered when we finished.

BELIZE.  Second day to disembark: Belize!  This was our snorkel day, and Mom surprised me by saying that yes, she would indeed like to snorkel with us.  It was so cool!  We took a little plane to a little island.  A little boat took us out to where there were plenty of sharks and rays.  It was warm air, warm water...I can get used to 78 degrees, both air and water.  It was lovely.

We also took a little movie of the rays, while our guide fed them.  You can see David (black rash guard) and Teresa in the video.  And if you turn up the sound, you can even hear the bubbly sounds in the water.

ROATAN, HONDURAS.  Day three to disembark: Honduras.  They had iguana farms and a monkey farm that the kids wanted to explore.  Types of "petting zoos," if you will.  The U.S. has many rules and regulations that would probably make farms like this inaccessible to tourists.  But we went, and Frank counted 104 iguanas.  We fed them leaves and they looked like dinosaurs.

MONKEY FARM.  Drive the length of the little island, and next stop: mini animal farm!  They had a small variety, but the highlight was the monkeys.  One cage had 2 baby monkeys in it.  One climbed around and found Frank.  He held onto Frank's bent arm and looked up at his face.  Then he climbed into the crook of Frank's elbow and laid his head on Frank's forearm.  THEN...(wait for it)...this little monkey closed his eyes!  It was so cute you can't even imagine.  Here are monkey photos: Teresa, & Frank holding the monkeys.

RUINS.  The last day was back in Mexico, where we toured some ruins that none of us had been to.  Our guide was really great.  He explained the Mayan calendar, how they have 20 days in one unit, and 20 years in another unit, and 20 X 20 years in the largest unit of calendar measurement.  So, 2012 is the end of the largest unit, like 1999 was the last year of the melinneum for us.  But the calendar will keep going!  Just like there was life after the year 2000.

This is longer than I planned, and so I will finish this segment and do the Whitesell's house in Florida (New Year's Weekend) on another post.

We reminded the kids that this would BE Christmas...well you know what I mean...that they would NOT "also" have a bunch of gifts to open or anything.  We talked about it months ago, and the kids still wanted to go.  Then, after it was over, we asked them again...if we could rewind the clock 6 months, knowing what we know now, would you still like to have that trip "be" our Christmas, again?  All 3 said definitely, yes.  Success! :)

CHRISTMAS DAY.  It was really cool because Frank planned a "Sacrament Meeting" for us.  We had asked our Bishop previously, about having the sacrament on board.  He said usually you ask the local church leader for permission, but since we'd be "at sea" he could give that permission.

So we reserved a room to gather in, and left it open for any others to join us, in case there were any other members of the church on board.  It turned out that a really nice Catholic family came and since we were the only service on board, they asked if they could join us.  There was the Mom and Dad, and 3 college-aged daughters.

Frank and David prepared the sacrament with some condiment cups from the restaurant.  We read the Christmas Story from the scriptures, and sang Christmas carols.  Frank had his laptop and we listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It was a really neat meeting.  We won't have that kind of Sacrament Meeting again, will we!  It was a very nice way to remember the birth of our Savior.

Have a wonderful week!  Kari