To Sail Or Not To Sail...That Is The Question!

My brother-in-law called last night and wanted to know what I have planned for Chris' 50th birthday in 11 months.  Umm...absolutely nothing at this point!  It's just too far away right now for me to even think about it.  Well, he proceeded to tell me that he and my mother-in-law had been talking about taking the whole family on a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean to celebrate his milestone birthday.  The catcher is that we'd set sail on Dec. 22nd from Miami, FL.  That means we'd be on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic ocean on Christmas Day.

Now, I'm always up for a fun vacation to just about anywhere, don't get me wrong.  However, I'm very traditional when it comes to holidays, especially Christmas.  I love being HOME and being able to wear my jammies without a stitch of makeup on.  I love the hustle and bustle of the season...even though it can be stressful.  I love going to the Christmas Eve service together at our church.  I love gathering in our sunroom on Christmas morning and getting caught up in the frenzy and excitement of opening gifts.  I think it would be so weird to not be home for Christmas and miss out on doing all of the things we've grown so used to over the years. I'm afraid I'll regret it.

I can't breathe a word of this to Chris because my in-laws wanted to find out how the girls and I felt first, then they're going to tell him. I'm just so torn.  A cruise sounds like such fun, but it's the timing of it that concerns me.  Have any of you ever taken a major trip (cruise or otherwise) away from home during the Christmas holidays, besides the typical visit to see family?  If you were me, how would you feel about all of this?  Would love any insight you can give me!  Decisions, decisions!

Ready To Hit The High Seas!

Bright and early tomorrow morning, we're driving 10 LONG hours to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. to board our week-long cruise on Sunday.  We are all so excited and looking forward to lots of R & R!  As you all know, it's been a very stressful month for us with Chris losing his job and everything that comes along with it.  We just need to get away from it all for awhile and unwind.  Hopefully, when we return, we'll have a renewed perspective and everything will come together as we've been expecting.  God is definitely as work!

Once again, I apologize for not being able to visit all of you regularly like I did before, but, hopefully, when things begin to settle down, again, I'll be right back at it!  Just know that I think of y'all often!

Well, since I haven't started packing yet, I guess I'd best get busy! Lots to do in so little time!  BON VOYAGE...see ya when I return! 

His Secret Is Out!

My hubby is sneaky, but I didn't know he was THAT sneaky! You see, a few nights ago, around 11 PM, he skedaddled upstairs to the office and shut the door behind him. I thought it was so odd. Then, I could hear him chatting away with someone on the phone. Hmm...what's going on in there, mister? A few minutes later, he opened the door, ran downstairs, grabbed his wallet, and hustled right back up to the office...and shut the door, again! I admit, I was beginning to wonder...A LOT!

He must have been in the office for a good 30 mins. When he came out, he went right to our bathroom, brushed his teeth, and crawled in bed like nothing had ever happened. I took one look at his face and knew that something was up, but I waited patiently like a snake in the grass. I sat up in bed watching TV for several mins. then he said, "You know, you really need to make sure that you pack shorts and a swimsuit when we go away this summer." I was trying to act completely uninterested...drives him nuts! He, then, asked, "If you had the choice, would you pick Freedom, Oasis, or Allure?" OK, I'm no dummy...I knew they were all names of cruise ships. Chris had a mischievous grin on his face...I told him to spill the beans! He hem-hawed around, then told me that he'd booked a week-long cruise for our family to go on Royal Caribbeans newest ship Allure of the Seas this summer! WHAT??? I was shocked, to say the least! That stinker had been planning it for a couple of months!

Now, thankfully, we have our very own personal travel agent, Miss Abby herself! As soon as we broke the news to the girls, she began her research. Everything you'd ever want to know about the ship...and then some...she's found out! It's the largest cruise ship in the world and can carry 6,300 passengers and 2,000 crew members. It's almost like a floating city. It has 7 distinctly different "neighborhoods", 26 dining options, 4 swimming pools, 10 hot tubs, an ice skating rink, zip lining, and an outdoor aqua theater. Abby has even downloaded a "Countdown to Cruise" application on her iPod and updates me daily. I think she's the most excited one of us all! We'll be visiting Cozumel, Haiti, and Jamaica. Here's a few pictures of the ship that I found on Google...




So, I guess I owe my hubby BIG TIME! He has a way of always knowing exactly what my heart needs...time together as a family. Our girls are growing up FAST...and so are we! I plan to make the most of the entire experience...even if it means singing my little lungs out on Karaoke Night! Wait...did I REALLY say that?

Happy Friday, y'all!



P.S. Please say a prayer for the family of one of my high school friends. Her aunt and uncle passed away yesterday when their small plane crashed in Arkansas. Life sure is fragile...never take a moment for granted!

I ♥ Faces...Come Sail Away!

This time around over at I ♥ Faces, they're taking a week off from their usual contests and asking interested participants to share pictures of one of their family vacations and tell all about it. Well, count me in...sounds like FUN to me!

Today, I'm sharing pictures from our family cruise that we went on last summer aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. To say that we had an unforgettable week is an understatement!

Here's the Freedom of the Seas in all her glory! She holds a total of 3, 634 passengers and is currently the largest passenger ship ever built. One of our first ports of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was raining lightly when we disembarked, but we still wanted to get out and see some of the sights. Here's some of the brightly colored building we saw as we were walking around town.
We made our way to El Morro, which is a 16th century fortress that was designed to protect San Juan from seaborne invaders/enemies. In the early 1980's, the United Nations declared it a World Heritage Site and it gets over 2 million visitors per year. Right before we took this picture, there was a huge downpour and we had to seek shelter in one of the passageways. It was a very interesting tour. The walls were unbelievably massive!This is a cemetary on the other side of El Morro, looking out into the ocean.
Here's the girls posing in front of the ship prior to boarding after our day of sightseeing.These next pictures were made on our first formal night at dinner. The food would put Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, and Rachel Ray to shame! Take my word for it, it was to die for!

Here's Brittany...
And Abby...
Just us girls...
Chris and Abby giving us their "introspective" model poses...
Another day, we went to St. Maarten, Virgin Islands. The island was much busier and more crowded than what we had anticipated. Still beautiful, nonetheless.
The girls walking along Maho Beach...it's the famous beach where you can what 747's come in for a landing just yards about your head. The only airplane we saw while we were there was a little prop plane.This is an actual picture I found on the Internet, just to give you an idea of how close they get to you. I bet that's a pretty scary thing to experience. Can you imagine how loud it must get?Our final port of call was St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It was absolutely gorgeous and so clean! As we were docking, we began getting "attacked" by a bunch of hungry seagulls. Chris and the girls would hold out food for them from our balconey and they'd dive in and snatch it right out of their hands! I wasn't quite brave enough to try it myself...they were very aggressive! Doesn't this look like a scene straight out of the movie "The Birds"?Here's some of the pastel colored buildings that lined the mountainside. We went on a catamaran snorkeling tour in St. Thomas and the water was so clear! We saw all sorts of tropical fish. Here we are heading back to the ship after a fun day on the water.
Every night, we'd come back to our room to find another "towel creature" left behind by our room steward. It was something different every time. It was the highlight of the day for the girls! So, as you can see, we had a wonderful time on our cruise! We were a bit depressed when we got home and there were no 5-course meals, our rooms didn't get made up by someone else, and we didn't find our beds turned down each night with a chocolate left behind on our pillows. We were spoiled rotten...and we loved every second of it!

“The great difference between voyages rests not with ships, but with the people you meet on them."~Amelia E. Barr