12/09/06 Cruise Continued ~ Pirating Bananas DIS Geekorama Part 2

[MrsMork]

Karen, you figured out our maddness!

 

[lbgraves]

Karen, I have always finished my main shopping by February. I actually have a lot of stuff put away for next year. DS got the HP lego set Dumbledore's office this year & he finished it on his own this afternoon. I was surprised due to the size & challenge. Up in the attic are Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets, & The Hogwarts Express all picked up over the past few years at Target's 75% toy sale. Now that they have GBAs, I will pick up games thru the year as I see them on sale. Up in our closet are the disney store princess dolls waiting for DD to be willing to put them on a shelf in her room. LOL! Right now she says that dolls are toys. These come with stands to display them. I think that I have 7 princesses now. Our neice will be 1 1/2 next year & I will send her another Little People Christmas set that I bought 2 years ago when they rang up at 90% even though they were on the regular toy shelf. I just ordered 6 of the 22 oz Yankee Candles for 5.39 each...a deal on the budget board...to use for our neighbor gifts & 2 teacher gifts next year. I picked up a few wrapped votives to put in the baskets that I picked up this morning at the Dollar Tree at .50 each along with other goodies that I pick up thru the year for the assistants.

Before the cruise...well, the Christmas cards go out Thanksgiving weekend, presents are wrapped & boxed to be dropped off at FedEx (and there will be fewer boxes next year after what has happened this year ), all of the kid's gifts were wrapped & put in big trashbags out in the cedar closet, & the tree goes up Thanksgiving weekend. DH puts up the outdoor things while I work inside. With all the PTO stuff happening I felt rushed to get the packing done this year...plus, I promised John's wife that I wouldn't start packing too early.

This year...I will be addressing the Christmas cards in the next couple weeks to put away in the drawer ready to have our Christmas letter added to it. The spreadsheet is already filling up with gifts that are being bought. It was actually nice coming back from the cruise because I knew that we were ready for Christmas.

 

[GoofyFD]

lisa,
Wow, you have it down. My wife read your last post and was very impressed! All the craziness is what she is worried about for next year.
Mark

 

[lbgraves]

Well, even with the planning it was still crazy here the night before we left. On the other cruise thread I posted about DD getting sick Wednesday night around 5 pm. I was up with her all night worrying about DS getting sick & us not being able to board. Well, DD had a fever Thursday but was fine by Friday. In the meantime, I felt ill Thursday & Friday & until 4 am Saturday morning was doubting being able to board at all. You can't plan for everything. Luckily after a nap in our stateroom Saturday afternoon before the drill & a good night's sleep I felt great Sunday morning & was able to enjoy our cruise.

 

[MrsMork]

Lisa puts me to shame! We do not even think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. We did not get our tree up until Dec 22 this year. Cards and letter were done by DH just before we left for WDW and the cruise while I was packing. I did much of our shopping on line and had the gifts wrapped and delivered for me. Disney on line will wrap and mail it for about $5 and Coldwater Creek wraps and mails for free at Christmas. We are King and Queen of procrastination, but it all gets done.

 

[BuzzBoyMom]

Wow. I thought I was organized. My friends tell me how lucky I am that I am so organized but I tell them it is like having a curse. But Lisa certainly puts me to shame too. Christmas cards written out 6 months prior to Christmas. WOW! I wish I could do some shopping. I certainly buy as I see things, but my kids are always so difficult. I can't figure out what they want since they aren't into any one thing. I know I will have to do things even earlier than normal and with the cruise excitement I'm sure that will help get me motivated. Often I'm just exhausted by November and have no energy to do stuff.

It is Day 2 of Christmas week and I'm hoping that the roller skating rink might be open to get the kids out of the house for a little bit.

Take care all. Enjoy this wonderful day.

 

[pyramid2000]

I got my Disney Shopping issue somewhat resolved. They are giving me a $20 certificate for it not arriving before Christmas. It still hasn't even been sent. They say the problem was personalized t-shirts I had ordered. Nothing said the other stuff would not arrive. Also, 2 of the t-shirts I ordered, these were to be personalized with the date of the cruise etc., are on backorder until March!! I was not notified of this and the site still says they are available?! Since these were this coming January, I don't need them anymore, but cancelling them would nullify the discount I got. The nice CM called me back after he spoke with a manager and can still apply the discount eventhough I fall below the dollar limit for the discount.

I think the $20 certificate is a bit low for the circumstances, but the money I save with the discount ($100 on a now $270 order) satisfies me enough. The problem is, I REALLY wanted these t-shirts!!

 

[pyramid2000]

Lisa-

Can you live at my house for awhile and get train me to be so organized?!?! I am a hopeless procrastinator! But I do thrive this way!!

 

[LiserAnn]

Hi everyone! Sounds like everyone had a nice Christmas! We spent a couple of days with our family and we're back home now.

Okay, all this talk about being organized is making me want to hide! I'm usually done with my Christmas shopping early...not February like Lisa, more like September. Now that our son's cousins are older, all they want are gift certificates, which makes the process much easier since there's eight of them!

Karen-I hear ya about the kids being out of school. Our school is on a modified traditional calendar which means they get 8 weeks in the summer, 1 week at Thanksgiving, 3 WEEKS at Christmas (ugh) and 2 weeks in March/spring time. We made it through the first week with getting ready for Christmas...this week is another story. We did go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park yesterday. Today Ryan's going to an activity day camp for four hours. Now for the rest of the week I'll have to get creative. Next week we're staying at Disneyland Hotel for four days, so that will help. I love not having a schedule when they're off of school but a the same time, they're used to a schedule, so it's a catch-22! Such is life!!!

Oh how I wish I were on a Disney cruise RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Lisa W

 

[WendyO]

JORDAN!! We are so happy to hear your Uncle and Aunt will be back with you too. We enjoyed talking with them (well, Dennis and your Uncle did most of the talking ) so much. We are booked on the 6th deck this trip.

Hi Angie!

Actually, it was my inlaws that rebooked, not my parents (the ones you were talking to - well, Dennis was talking to...)... they haven't committed yet but we'll see. We'll have to maybe talk them into it. They haven't planned for their 2006 vacation plans just yet.

We also found out that another one of our friends and his wife have booked this cruise too, so we might just be committed to go on this sailing... sigh. I don't think I can keep up with these boards for nearly a whole year... ha ha. I might have to jump back on say, around, November.... ha ha.

 

[WendyO]

LOL! Well, I kept my promise this past cruise but was too rushed at the end. I'm just putting the addresses on the envelopes NOT sending them out! (

Yowza, I cannot believe you've already addressed your envelopes. The most I do is continually updated my spreadsheet as I get updated data and then print labels when I'm ready to mail. Yeeks, you are way ahead of me.

However, I HAVE started packing for the 12/9 trip.

JUST KIDDING...

 

[lbgraves]

Hmmm...I packed up the over the door shoe holder, in closet shoe holder, 2 gal zip lock bags & a couple other things we just use on the cruise in a small suitcase. Does that count? It's great to hear that you are more than likely going on this cruise along with Jordan, Wendy! Have you heard from him since his appearance at Church Christmas Eve?

 

[MrsMork]

Wendy, we certainly enjoyed your whole family. We are very glad to hear you will likely sail with us again.
I have one bag already packed for Dec 2006 also. It has our over the door hanger, our snorkle gear, water shoes, the holders for our KTTW cards to hang around our neck while snorkeling, laundry bag and magnetic door signs. I think I will make DrHug create some new signs for this cruise though.

 

[jordanyosh]

this John's DW...

Jordan I can't believe that you might not come with us on the cruise. I will miss seeing you in every hallway!!

Amy

It looks like we're going on this cruise. I talked to WendyO today. So be looking for me......EVERYWHERE.

 

[jordanyosh]

Well, Xmas is over. Didn't get lucky enough to get a laptop, but did get my Disneyland Premium AP. So nice to have living less than 10 minutes away.

 

[jordanyosh]

Jordan, how did the Christmas Eve service go? Dennis said they probably asked you to speak because they needed the "confessions of a sinner" for the service also. I told him that was not the case though!

Funny Dennis should say that. That is pretty much what I talked about. I hadn't gone to church in over 20 years. So I talked about my colorful life and where I'm at now...very cathartic.

 

[jordanyosh]

Lisa, I thought my cousin WendyO was organized. Yikes....I do like the whole getting shopping done early though. I may have to try that out

 

[WendyO]

Hmmm...I packed up the over the door shoe holder, in closet shoe holder, 2 gal zip lock bags & a couple other things we just use on the cruise in a small suitcase. Does that count? It's great to hear that you are more than likely going on this cruise along with Jordan, Wendy! Have you heard from him since his appearance at Church Christmas Eve?

Wendy, we certainly enjoyed your whole family. We are very glad to hear you will likely sail with us again.
I have one bag already packed for Dec 2006 also. It has our over the door hanger, our snorkle gear, water shoes, the holders for our KTTW cards to hang around our neck while snorkeling, laundry bag and magnetic door signs. I think I will make DrHug create some new signs for this cruise though.

Ok, you are ALL way too scary for me. Hee hee hee.

Yes, I've talked to Jordan multiple times since then (considering we talk pretty much every day, often several times)... speaking engagement went well...

This is a frighteningly Disney bunch of people here. Hee hee hee hee hee. You all put me to shame.

 

[bubbasmom99]

OMG 46 pages... I have to get reacquainted here... now that our trip to WDW is over and I can start obsessing over next year's cruise! I tell ya, it was difficult to be in Orlando and so sad to know that we weren't going to be heading to the port during our trip

Anyway, I am sooo looking forward to next year. Got about 50 lbs to lose so I can gain back 10 on the cruise, hahaha.

Has anyone mentioned coming up with an iron-on design for a t-shirt that we can all wear at the sail away party or something??

 

[BuzzBoyMom]

Has anyone mentioned coming up with an iron-on design for a t-shirt that we can all wear at the sail away party or something??

Joy - that's a great idea. I was going to do t shirts and door decorations, but having one that we all wear would be neat.