ChrisParker
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2011
Oh dear. I've just read the first two pages of this trip report. Where did I get that enthusiasm from? I shall have to dig deep.
Can I just say, Bloody...heck to avoid an outright UK swear. It is COLD here. I'm sure many of you have had the same storm we've had but dear me. Cold Cold Cold. Why do I not live in Orlando again? Or St. Maartin?
I speak Dutch! I speak French! Surely that is the place for me. (mental note - look up International Schools on St. Maartin but put a sweater on first.)
So the last two days the schools have been straight up CLOSED (why am I using so many capital letters?) which is very strange even for the True North STrong and Freezing. Often they cancel the school busses which is a nice happy medium as it goes because if, as a high school teacher, you don't feel that it is safe to drive in, you don't go in and it costs you a sick day which is fair enough I suppose. But if you DO go in, there are no kids there, and you get a lot of work done/go out for lunch with your friends who you usually just have time to say a rushed hello to. But Monday and Tuesday it was bad enough to close the schools. Today the busses are cancelled and I would have happily gone in but I have got a wicked sore throat
and am cycling through three kinds of lozenges and doing that thing where you shoot water up your nose. ICK. I SO HATE THAT THING. 
So hopefully it will get better because I was already behind in Grade 10 History and chances of them getting to the turn of the 21st century just went the way of about Ronald Regan if you catch my drift. Ah well.
And so, the cruise. Here is what I have been up to -
The Christmas Morning reveal went very well. For anyone thinking of doing this (if I may say so) very clever idea, here is what we did and what results we had.
We have four children, "mine" and "yours". (No ours, but every time there is a baby sitting in front of me at church I think maybe...
or maybe not.) At any rate. There are good things and bad things about a blended family, just like any other family. (I will never forget when we had joined a new church and one of the ministers came up to me and said, 'Oh. You have a blended family.' Not - Oh, it's a broken home, or Oh you're RE-married, or Oh, you're Divorced. Meant a lot to me.) I continue to digress. Holidays are always a juggling match. This year we had all four children (we have been blessed to be able to coordinate it almost always so that we have four children all together - they are besties) for the second half of the break. But the way the documents are worded, whoever does not have the kids during the Christmas day part of the break gets the 24 hour period between Christmas Eve at noon until Christmas Day at noon. This year we were those guys. So we got the kids at noon, came home, watched a film together, then went to my parents for dinner, then church, then home to bed and then we were at DPR's parents by 8:00am on Christmas morning to open presents there. I have a rambling problem.
To be slightly more succinct -
I had arranged to have Mickey call at 9, and at 9:30 and at 10, to have all my basis covered.
I had given Dear Grandad (DGD) who is a tech wizard a USB key with several different videos from YouTube about the cruise. There is a super easy way to download videos from youtube if you have an app for it (at least on a mac) and if you want I'll fill you in but I'm aiming for less digression. They were short ones, about the ship, and the top five things for kids to do, etc.
The kids had been given cruise-related presents. When they woke up they got a $50 Disney Gift card which they had also been given when we went to WDW, so they were a little suspicious. They also got such things as flip flops, bathing suits, etc. The original idea was to get them no other real presents but that went out the window.
This also made them suspicious.
Then, Mickey called at 9. DPR recorded the moments. They were pretty happy. I will say they weren't BOWLED OVER because we do like to go on trips. But they were happy. Then we showed them a few clips, and then we put on (in the background) a longer show about the DCL with no volume that they could watch.
Since then, we've been watching videos and looking at excursions and DD10 is super excited about the idea of making FE gifts.
Here are the fab 4 on the way back from Grandma's. Did we spoil them? I suppose.
Next up - (hopefully) pictures of the outfits my mother made for them, from the fabric pictured in the early instalments... I'll tell you something for nothing. The first summer I am not doing a course and/or going on a Disney cruise (double whammy this year), I'm learning to sew. Yes. Definitely.
Can I just say, Bloody...heck to avoid an outright UK swear. It is COLD here. I'm sure many of you have had the same storm we've had but dear me. Cold Cold Cold. Why do I not live in Orlando again? Or St. Maartin?
I speak Dutch! I speak French! Surely that is the place for me. (mental note - look up International Schools on St. Maartin but put a sweater on first.)So the last two days the schools have been straight up CLOSED (why am I using so many capital letters?) which is very strange even for the True North STrong and Freezing. Often they cancel the school busses which is a nice happy medium as it goes because if, as a high school teacher, you don't feel that it is safe to drive in, you don't go in and it costs you a sick day which is fair enough I suppose. But if you DO go in, there are no kids there, and you get a lot of work done/go out for lunch with your friends who you usually just have time to say a rushed hello to. But Monday and Tuesday it was bad enough to close the schools. Today the busses are cancelled and I would have happily gone in but I have got a wicked sore throat
and am cycling through three kinds of lozenges and doing that thing where you shoot water up your nose. ICK. I SO HATE THAT THING. So hopefully it will get better because I was already behind in Grade 10 History and chances of them getting to the turn of the 21st century just went the way of about Ronald Regan if you catch my drift. Ah well.And so, the cruise. Here is what I have been up to -
The Christmas Morning reveal went very well. For anyone thinking of doing this (if I may say so) very clever idea, here is what we did and what results we had.
We have four children, "mine" and "yours". (No ours, but every time there is a baby sitting in front of me at church I think maybe...
or maybe not.) At any rate. There are good things and bad things about a blended family, just like any other family. (I will never forget when we had joined a new church and one of the ministers came up to me and said, 'Oh. You have a blended family.' Not - Oh, it's a broken home, or Oh you're RE-married, or Oh, you're Divorced. Meant a lot to me.) I continue to digress. Holidays are always a juggling match. This year we had all four children (we have been blessed to be able to coordinate it almost always so that we have four children all together - they are besties) for the second half of the break. But the way the documents are worded, whoever does not have the kids during the Christmas day part of the break gets the 24 hour period between Christmas Eve at noon until Christmas Day at noon. This year we were those guys. So we got the kids at noon, came home, watched a film together, then went to my parents for dinner, then church, then home to bed and then we were at DPR's parents by 8:00am on Christmas morning to open presents there. I have a rambling problem.To be slightly more succinct -
I had arranged to have Mickey call at 9, and at 9:30 and at 10, to have all my basis covered.
I had given Dear Grandad (DGD) who is a tech wizard a USB key with several different videos from YouTube about the cruise. There is a super easy way to download videos from youtube if you have an app for it (at least on a mac) and if you want I'll fill you in but I'm aiming for less digression. They were short ones, about the ship, and the top five things for kids to do, etc.
The kids had been given cruise-related presents. When they woke up they got a $50 Disney Gift card which they had also been given when we went to WDW, so they were a little suspicious. They also got such things as flip flops, bathing suits, etc. The original idea was to get them no other real presents but that went out the window.
This also made them suspicious.Then, Mickey called at 9. DPR recorded the moments. They were pretty happy. I will say they weren't BOWLED OVER because we do like to go on trips. But they were happy. Then we showed them a few clips, and then we put on (in the background) a longer show about the DCL with no volume that they could watch.
Since then, we've been watching videos and looking at excursions and DD10 is super excited about the idea of making FE gifts.
Here are the fab 4 on the way back from Grandma's. Did we spoil them? I suppose.
Next up - (hopefully) pictures of the outfits my mother made for them, from the fabric pictured in the early instalments... I'll tell you something for nothing. The first summer I am not doing a course and/or going on a Disney cruise (double whammy this year), I'm learning to sew. Yes. Definitely.
I would have spilled the beans within a few days after I booked it!
