Kimbo- Your 11 year old DD will fall right between my 12 year old DS and 10 year old DS. My DH was career Air Force and retired August of 2011. He is now a contractor over at Pete. Ya never know, our spouses may already know each other. We also used airline miles to get my DH and 2 of my DS's to Houston. They may be on the same flight as you as they are also going on Thursday.
My mom and DS who is 5 are driving in a few days before to visit friends along the way. Glad you are in for the FEE. It is a lot of fun. You are almost to the required number of posts to send PMs, but you can email me at
beth@sitesandsounds.com
Dismom73 - Got all your FEE information and am already working on your gifts.
Betsy2010 - If you PM'ed me, I did not get your FEE information. I am FloridaFun and you can also email me at
beth@sitesandsounds.com. Glad to have you in the FEE and I can't wait to make your gifts too!
SnipsNSnails We too are die hard U of M fans. I get back to 2 or 3 football games each year. Went to the season opener against my home town team, Air Force. Then, loved the smashing of IL last weekend, and will be back for Northwestern on the 10th of November. Congrats to your cousin on becoming a UM grad.
It seems that you and I have a lot in common. My Mom (who will also be on the cruise) purchased the house behind mine a little over 2 years ago, so she is my backyard neighbor. Having family close is the best thing ever! You have the idea of the FEE correct. You give gifts to those who are participating. Most people deliver sometime in the first few days, but others drop things off throughout the cruise. It is really up to you how you give. Some people give a family gift to each cabin, some do a little something for each person, some do both. It does not have to be expensive and some of the coolest things are homemade. If you have not looked at my Pinterest Board, you can see ideas here of some gift ideas. Many people also give something unique to where they live or a little recipe book of their family favorite dishes. I also pinned a few Fish Extenders is you want to see what those can look like. They are all on the same board.
http://pinterest.com/off2wdw/fe-disney-gifts/ Again, no rules on them either. They can be anything that has pockets and hold your gifts. I have seen super fancy ones and others that are canvas bags decorated with a Disney theme.
I heart Mickey If the FEE group gets bigger than 25 cabins, I will split it into 2 groups as I also think anything more than that is too many. There is no expectation that you give more than once. People that drop off gifts more than that do so because they want to. Also, not everyone drops off at the same time, so gifts do come in throughout the cruise. The FEE is really about the fun of it and that is why there are no set rules for what to give. My recommendation is the no one should spend (time wise or money wise) more than they are comfortable with. Hope that helps answer your question.