Caribbean Vacation Part I

We just got back from vacation. It's the first one I've ever done in December that I remember. We took a train ride to Tampa, FL. We spent the night down town and enjoyed the sites in the city. I highly recommend the Hyatt Regency downtown. Super nice hotel with great service, and in December, by using Priceline, we got an unbelievable rate. Below are pictures of how we toured the city. We walked a lot, but the electric streetcars were fun too!

The next day, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed for Tampa's port to board our cruise ship. We sailed out on Thursday aboard the Grandeur of the Seas (Royal Caribbean).

I don't know what I expected, but I was in awe of its size!

The pool LOOKED great, but the weather wasn't so great, so we didn't use it at all. Too cloudy and windy most days.

Our room was tiny, but we only used it to sleep, shower, and change. But next time, we're gonna go a little bigger.

One of the cutest things they did on the ship was fold our towels into different animals. Matthew was fascinated and even wanted to learn how (yes...they did a little class on towel folding.)

My favorite part of the ship experience was getting dressed up to go to dinner. Our waiters, Amel and Roger were fantastic...super nice. The food was indescribably good! And we enjoyed dining with our new friends, Alex and Maria, from Kissimmee, FL.

I also loved how the ship was all decked out for Christmas. So beautiful!

This was an actual EDIBLE gingerbread village made by the chefs. So pretty!

Below is an elf carved out of a watermelon! Now someone is talented! Isn't he cute?

On Saturday, we sailed into Cozumel, Mexico. That is where we had the most fun!


Next time, I'll share more pictures and adventures from our cruise.

Christmas 08

I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday. We did. I felt like it was too short, but we enjoyed the time we had. We had planned to be at my parents' house from Christmas day until Saturday so that we could visit with other relatives. But Friday morning, Matthew woke real early whining, "Mom...I don't feel good." I said, "Do you feel like you are going to throw up?" He said, "Yeah." So off to the bathroom we went, and this went on for several hours. We finally decided to go home, in case he needed a trip to the doctor. We had started him on a stronger dose of his ADD meds on Christmas Eve, and the first day, although quieter, he was fine, except that I noticed he had an extremely difficult time going to sleep. And it wasn't just because Santa was coming. The next day at my parents' house, my dad commented about how his eyes were so fixed. He would look at you and barely blink, almost zombie-like. Well, that evening, he again had a terrible time going to sleep. Then the vomiting started early morning. I wasn't positive it was the meds. I mean, this time of year, it could be stomach flu or virus. So we left to come home. About a half hour into our three hour drive back, we stopped and got him a ginger-ale, which was his first by the way. He LOVED it. (I've never seen a kid get so excited about a drink!) He never vomited again, and he even ate a 3-inch sub for lunch. By 1 PM, we couldn't even tell he had been sick. So we deduced it was the meds. I didn't give him any meds yesterday or today, so that his little body can begin to feel normal again. Tomorrow I'll start him back on his old dose. I hate having to give him any drugs. Poor thing! But this medicine has helped him focus so much better at school this year!

Okay...back to Christmas. Ed took the trash to the recycling/dump this morning, and he said we had 17 bags of garbage! Geez! Matthew and Jonathan were happy with everything Santa brought, and my hubby got me a new lens for my camera, a 55-250 mm telephoto lens. It takes great photos. See below for some I took on Christmas Day. The best part of Christmas was celebrating Christ's birthday and sharing the great food and laughs with family. And I plan to enjoy these last few days of the kids' break from school. Hope you enjoy your break as well.

Kim's Grandparents

Andy, Kim's parents' schnauzer

Thank you hugs for Grandpa and Grandma

Sounds of the Season

It's getting busy around here, so if I don't post as often, I'm sure you'll understand why...as you are probably in the same boat!
Last night we attended Jonathan's first band concert. We were so proud! He plays trombone in first year "Beginner" band. They played only 3 songs, but I thought I would share one with you here to help get you into the holiday spirit (that is, if you aren't already)! I didn't take a better camcorder with me, so this was shot with my Olympus point and shoot digital camera. I apologize in advance for the picture quality and the lack of skill of the videographer! I hope you enjoy anyway. If you are wondering where Jonathan is in the video, the band director is standing directly in front of him, blocking my line of sight. Oh well...next time, I'll know where to sit! This, by the way, is my first time posting my own video on my blog! I love it! OH....and be sure to pause my playlist so you can hear!

Counting Down to Christmas

Sorry about the lag in posting. We had a wonderful time visiting with family during Thanksgiving. Above are some of my favorite photos from the holiday weekend. I took many more, but there's not enough room here! Jonathan enjoyed playing his trombone with his cousin, Sam, who plays the saxaphone. They sounded great together! On Thursday night, my husband did his yearly thing of camping out in front of a store so as to not miss the bargains. This year, we got a great deal on a steam carpet cleaner and some other items that we almost didn't fit in the car for the trip home! LOL! The day after Thanksgiving was my traditional shopping day with my mom. We shopped at Gardenridge, Walmart, Family Christian Stores and Kohls. We had a great time together. But I have to say, I am FAR from being done with my Christmas shopping. When we got home, we actually got unpacked and managed to get the Christmas tree up on Sunday night.

Also, here are some photos of trimming the tree. Always a lot of fun, and Matthew just gets so excited about helping with the ornaments! We have no "theme tree," as ours is a hodge podge of ornaments with stories behind almost every one.

Oh, and remember several weeks back when I told you about my yard sale find for .50, and I promised I'd show you what I did with it? Well here it is....ready to hang in my dining room!

Thinking about Christmas

I, like many others, have begun thinking about Christmas. Even though I dislike the fact that Thanksgiving is often overlooked, and Christmas gets cranked up earlier and earlier, I have to admit that I have even bought a couple of Christmas presents already. One of my goals this year is to get the kids to think about what Christmas is really about and not get so caught up in the "I wants." I am allowing them to ask for 3 things....and anything else they get will be surprises. Also, I am reading a children's Bible with Matthew that I highly recommend. It's called The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. In it, Christ is the center of each and every story, even the Old Testament stories. It is recommended for toddlers and early school aged children, but even my 12 year old likes to listen. I think it should be at the top of EVERYONE's reading list.
I have also stumbled upon a great little Christmas planner from Family Fun magazine. Click here to get it and print out your own. It's a cool place to keep gift lists, card lists, and those cute decorating ideas and recipes that you often tear out of magazines.
One of the gifts that my husband and I ordered already was a personalized calendar from Snapfish, complete with photos of our family and birthdays, anniversaries, etc.... We got three copies (one for us and two others for family members) for less than $11 (nearly a $60 value). How did we do it? We used Coke rewards. If you haven't begun using this system, you're missing out. My husband drinks a lot of soda anyway. On each package or bottle of Coke product there's a code. You simply go the reward site and type it in. Then you can redeem your points for free stuff. We've gotten the three calendars, magazine subscriptions, free tickets to local baseball games, free bowling admission, etc.... If you tell your friends and family to save the codes for you (and we've even been known to grab a cap out of the parking lot), it doesn't take long to accumulate points for some good stuff. For even more savings, we take all of our aluminum cans for recycling and use that money for a movie night now and then.
Finally, we're trying to get the kids to think of others. We're doing two Operation Christmas Child boxes, one for a boy, and one for a girl. We're also going to purchase a Christmas dinner from Angel Food Ministries and give to someone in need.
If you have other great ideas for making the Christmas season brighter (and less expensive and commercial), leave me a comment and let me know.