halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[tchrmom]

When Fran takes the tree down!



I love to set it up........but it's good to start cleaning up this mess. Now my vacuum will smell "pine-y" for weeks.

Hope everyone had a great day.......I know we did!

Fran

 

[kritter]

I hear you...Would like to take it down soon..But Dh likes it up till new years day.. I htink I will start putting away someof our decorations this week though....
We had such a nice and relaxing day...
I have such a cold right now wish I was in florida Dave and fran...
Lucky you....

 

[kritter]

Hope you all had a great holiday..
Buck did your kids enjoy their gifts???

 

[kritter]

Where is everyone we are slipping to page two????? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what is everyone plans for new years?????

 

[captaincrash]

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

We just got back in from our holiday travels. As usual, one little girl sleeping on my lap as I type away here... and the other being juggled with Mom.

It was pretty crowded at the airport even though it is only the 27th. In past years we would go out well before X-mas and return in the new year. This time we deliberately returned early so we might recover from traveling with two kids. Good thing too as it was as exhausting as pleasant... in near equal measure!

At any rate, I managed to serve two standing prime rib roasts, and one evening with my fabled scratch clam sauce which did not turn out right since I could not scavenge all my usual components on Maui. At any rate, my relatives were polite enough on the flavor of the sauce - and they were happy with my Prime rib since I had enough on hand to carve huge portions for those with appropriate appetites. Plus it helped that I found a chain with the cuts on sale! Even cheaper then Costco and nicer looking cuts too!

So - I trust that everyone had a pleasant holiday so far! Has anyone gotten anything worth crowing about for X-mas? All I got was a pair of ralph shorts and a matching short sleeved shirt that I'll probably bring on the October sailing if it's not worn our by then! My spouse and I have been together so long (21 years now) that it seems increasingly difficult to come up with appropriate gifts ... Does anyone else have this problem? Frankly, my wait for a Bently Turbo R in the driveway with a red ribbon is wearing thin. O-well.....

 

[tchrmom]

what is everyone plans for new years?????

Our neighbors are having a party that we are going to.........It starts at 9-ish, That's just about the time I start getting sleppy at night. Mental note to self.....take a nap Sat. afternoon.

Captian..........your roast sounds too good. After 18 years of marriage, I can STILL screw one up good!!!!!!!!! Good thing I can make a lasagna and a pound cake to keep XLT happy!

Fran

 

[kritter]

Fran ,

the party sound fun but my friend just asked us what we were doing too and I feel like by nine I am ready for bed.....

Captain,
Good to hear that you are back and doing well....Your food sounded great..

I really do not have a hard time buying for my dh since it seems that he always has something that he wants as do I...This year I got him the satellite radio for his car.. and some power tools for the air compressor and a ton of clothes for work, other fun stuff for the computer a video game etc.....
He got me a new wardrobe more clothes than I willever need or want...Since I was sick last winter I lost weight and needed new winter stuff...Also a diamond necklace... and some other essentials pj's etc...

I love christmas and am so happy that Dh does such a great job shopping...
talk to you all soon,
kristin

 

[captaincrash]

Hmmm.....

Pound cake and lasagna sound really good right now. And prime rib is something I could rpobably do without for a few weeks now.

Kitter - it sounds like you folks went nuts with stuff this year. You got almost all your corners covered with the stuff given and received. I guess I'm sort of lucky we were on the road as usual for the holidays as this precludes giving or receiving anything much larger than a shoe box or two in volume or weight. Although in years past we gave gift cards with a photo of the "bulky" gift left back home. So.... just moments ago we opened the "bulky" Christmas gifts we left behind - mostly "Santa marked gifts" as we try to make the experience on the road our holiday thing for the kids sake.

So - as the New Years' looms large we tend to be "sticks in the mud" types now-a-days. <hmm - I think my grammer is off kilter there... pardon my sloppy diction> We have friends who still run out and do things on the slightly "wild side" in LA (like we used to). In our current state we tend to watch the midnite ball drop only one in 3 or 4 years now (live). I find myself waxing with whimsy when we wake in the new year having done little to ring it in. Having LA close by we used to go in for some wacky events when we were ... younger. Hmmmm,......

Anyways.... this year we have to tend to the kids and we'll probably have the same comments circulating like... "good thing we're not on the road with all the crazy drunk drivers and patrolling CHP (California Highway Patrol) officers running maximum enforcement on the freeways..." .... or we might muse over the silly expense imposed by the Vegas and Times square crowd - the former we've done/and the latter have not.

Heck, now that I'm thinking about it - we used to even camp over-nite to see the Rose Parade - and that was fun and surprisingly memorable - but now we barely wake in time to see the parade being rerun on KTLA (channel 5 - they rerun it every year)! But that actually might be something to try this year... hmmm, maybe right after I draft and edit this I'll look into remaining ticket availability since it seems barely sane enough for us to try. Even thought I sense my slightly conservative spouse is likely to say she would prefer to watch it from the comfprt and warmth of home. YEAH - yeah - YEAH.... you're musing by muted breath... warmth of HOME in California? I know it is a bit more chilly in other parts of the nation - but we just just came in from Hawaii and she sort of has a tropical vein in her even though she grew up in a one signal light town in PA. Seriously, she spent many summers in Hawaii as a child while living the rest of the year in PA. So she sort of had the best of both worlds. Me - I'm a California boy who never left (yet) for more than 3 weeks or so at a time.

OK... time to go get some vittles. Probably next to nothing in the fridge since we were gone a few days. Probably have to cut a can or crack the freezer for something ta eat. Hmmm.... maybe I can boil water for pasta if we have sauce laying around somewhere. I have turkey meatballs in the fridge from Trader Joes, and it's only 11:54 now... 20 minutes for a big pot of pasta sounds nice right now!

TTFN!

 

[fireplug]

We have a group of friends that get together once a month during the fall and winter into early spring. We all meet at one house and pick a theme for the night and then we all bring a dish and spend the evening together. Since its New Years Eve we are doing appitizers this month. We will stick it out till 1 am or so and then callit an evening.

My DW Coleen and I have been together for 21 christmas's too, this year we did small things although she did get me a GORGEOUS book about Walt Disney and his fascination with railroads. It is a very interesting book.

As for the cruise I was looking at the menus again last nmight. I can hardly wait. It will be so much fun.


Squid


PS Sorry gang wrong thread but it looks like you got a nice group going here!

 

[kritter]

We have a group of friends that get together once a month during the fall and winter into early spring. We all meet at one house and pick a theme for the night and then we all bring a dish and spend the evening together. Since its New Years Eve we are doing appitizers this month. We will stick it out till 1 am or so and then callit an evening.

My DW Coleen and I have been together for 21 christmas's too, this year we did small things although she did get me a GORGEOUS book about Walt Disney and his fascination with railroads. It is a very interesting book.

As for the cruise I was looking at the menus again last nmight. I can hardly wait. It will be so much fun.



Squid


PS Sorry gang wrong thread but it looks like you got a nice group going here!

Oh we have a great grouphere and you are welcomed to join us any time..have fun...

 

[kritter]

Hmmm.....

Pound cake and lasagna sound really good right now. And prime rib is something I could rpobably do without for a few weeks now.

Kitter - it sounds like you folks went nuts with stuff this year. You got almost all your corners covered with the stuff given and received. I guess I'm sort of lucky we were on the road as usual for the holidays as this precludes giving or receiving anything much larger than a shoe box or two in volume or weight. Although in years past we gave gift cards with a photo of the "bulky" gift left back home. So.... just moments ago we opened the "bulky" Christmas gifts we left behind - mostly "Santa marked gifts" as we try to make the experience on the road our holiday thing for the kids sake.

So - as the New Years' looms large we tend to be "sticks in the mud" types now-a-days. <hmm - I think my grammer is off kilter there... pardon my sloppy diction> We have friends who still run out and do things on the slightly "wild side" in LA (like we used to). In our current state we tend to watch the midnite ball drop only one in 3 or 4 years now (live). I find myself waxing with whimsy when we wake in the new year having done little to ring it in. Having LA close by we used to go in for some wacky events when we were ... younger. Hmmmm,......

Anyways.... this year we have to tend to the kids and we'll probably have the same comments circulating like... "good thing we're not on the road with all the crazy drunk drivers and patrolling CHP (California Highway Patrol) officers running maximum enforcement on the freeways..." .... or we might muse over the silly expense imposed by the Vegas and Times square crowd - the former we've done/and the latter have not.

Heck, now that I'm thinking about it - we used to even camp over-nite to see the Rose Parade - and that was fun and surprisingly memorable - but now we barely wake in time to see the parade being rerun on KTLA (channel 5 - they rerun it every year)! But that actually might be something to try this year... hmmm, maybe right after I draft and edit this I'll look into remaining ticket availability since it seems barely sane enough for us to try. Even thought I sense my slightly conservative spouse is likely to say she would prefer to watch it from the comfprt and warmth of home. YEAH - yeah - YEAH.... you're musing by muted breath... warmth of HOME in California? I know it is a bit more chilly in other parts of the nation - but we just just came in from Hawaii and she sort of has a tropical vein in her even though she grew up in a one signal light town in PA. Seriously, she spent many summers in Hawaii as a child while living the rest of the year in PA. So she sort of had the best of both worlds. Me - I'm a California boy who never left (yet) for more than 3 weeks or so at a time.

OK... time to go get some vittles. Probably next to nothing in the fridge since we were gone a few days. Probably have to cut a can or crack the freezer for something ta eat. Hmmm.... maybe I can boil water for pasta if we have sauce laying around somewhere. I have turkey meatballs in the fridge from Trader Joes, and it's only 11:54 now... 20 minutes for a big pot of pasta sounds nice right now!

TTFN!

Capt.
We do the same type of thing for new years jsut kind of hang around..It is better this way...Since it is soo cold and hard to make yourself want to go outside or anything....
I think we always over indulge with the christmas gifts but oh well it is fun and they only believe for such a short while....It is sooo fun though.....
We went and saw a cute movie tonight...Cheaper by the dozen 2 it was great I cried twice during it...Dh and I went alone which was so very nice...It was so funny and such a nice family movie..anyone who has older kids it is a must.. i mean like five or six years old where they can understand it if it is not a cartoon...Great movie... and makes you think about your kdis growing up..Steve martin was too funny....A must see....
Ok off to bed. we are going tomorrow to visit friends who just adopted twins from Russia...so we are so very excited to welcome them home...
talk to you all tomorrow...
kristin
so very excited headed to NYC to see the Lion King in a few weeks just found out today....YIPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Cheaper by DOZ 2 was on our list to see soon -

Steve Martin and most comedians are high on our "like to see" list - but the last 3 movies in the past 2 or 3 weeks have been Narnia... yup, we saw it THREE TIMES. Or rather my 4 YO daughter saw it 3x, I saw it 1.5x and my spouse saw it 1x and my niece saw it 1x as companion to my daughter.

And on the Russian twins.... I can only say WOW. What a wonderful thing - and twins no less. I can hardly imagine the work load in raising twins - and the beauty of keeping twins up for adoption together. I would think most folks would want just ONE toddler to adopt - and it must be a bit unusual to seek a family to adopt twins. How old are they?

Oh yeah... the Lion King! That should be great fun! We saw it twice at the Pantages out here in Hollywood (cheap seats once and good seats the 2nd time) and once in London. The LA group was much better but the London experience was a bit unique. Our daughter had a pretty good time too - but all we have to recall the experience is the fridge magnet and a solitary souveneer book. I would have liked to have seen it on Broadway but we don't get up to NYC very often. The last time we were there we caught up with old friends of my spouse - one of which used to be one of the performers in Starlight Express and a smattering of other broadway (and off broadway) productions. We went to a show with her and I sadly cannot recall the name of the production we saw. (sniff) I seem to have had another "senior moment" of sorts! LOL! However I do recall having seen Starlight Express in London about 15 or 16 years ago... a cheap "standing" entry ticket (you actually get assigned an area to STAND and watch - but I actually did find a regular seat to sneak into eventually.

Anyways - I don't want to come across as a big theater going sort - or globe trotter. We're not all that - just average sorts who get to a show and travel a little every now and then - and our theather experiences are mostly local stuff in LA or points near by. In fact, in the past 3-4 years 90% of out theater time has been to children's productions (Cat in the Hat and Sesame Street Live to recall a couple). Your slipping away with your spouse w/o kids to the go to the theater sounds quite whimsical to me right about now.

And FIREPLUG ....

In posting to this thread... are you scheduled for a different sailing? How about transferring your res to the Oct 28th Halloween voyage with us? We need more crazy DIS sorts for our little sailing!!!! I'm going to bring Pirate costumes for Pirate nite and then change into mildly serious costumes for the halloween event! C'mon over!!!!!!

Rgds,

 

[fireplug]

Thanks for the invite but I think my wife would faint, we leave for our next vacation/cruise in 3 weeks. And we are doing the 4 day DVC cruise on Oct. 22 so we would be nearby.............SO if we happen to get a windfall and buy more points I will certainly think about it.


Squid

 

[buckifan]

Kritter- If you haven't seen Lion King before, you are in for such a treat. Our family saw it last year and loved it.

About Christmas....we had a great one. The kids said they got everything they wanted, and truthfully, their list to Santa wasn't very long this year (which makes me happy). I get irritated at these kids that ask for the moon. In fact, one of Kylie's top requests was a new jump rope. She did get one as well as a "skip it" (like the old "lemon twist" toy that I grew up with--put it on one ankle, twirl it around and jump over it with the other leg). That was one of her favorite things. She recieved many American Girl doll outfits, but sadly is grounded from her dolls until further notice. See, I discovered just days before Christmas that she decided to give Kit and Kirsten haircuts!! And we have discussed this many times--NEVER cut these doll's hair!! Kristen's hair isn't too bad, she have to live with it, but now Kit needs sent back to the company to get a new head. It's over $40 with shipping, and Kylie is paying for it herself. I see this as a learning experience...she has to learn to take care of her things, or else she will be responsible for the expense of repairing them. I can say, I'm pretty sure she won't give her AG dolls a haircut ever again! I got my DH cologne for Christmas....Polo Black...it's new, and very nice! I also stuffed his stocking full of Twislers, his fav. I got (what I asked for..) a new carpet steam cleaner. I know it dosen't sound glamorous, but it really is what I wanted! We never do big exchanges, since we pretty much get what we need throughout the year, and we have a LOT of people to buy for.

As for New Year's....we are planning on dinner and a movie with the kids, back home to rock it out with Dick Clark until 12:01am....then bed! We are actually planning on going to see Cheaper by the Dozen 2, glad to hear it's a good movie! Drew got Cheaper by the Dozen DVD for Christmas....we loved the first one....so I figured this one would be good as well. Went to see Zathura and Dreamer this week.....both very good movies also!

Gotta go, I'm going to try to make some exchanges this morning before the crowds get too bad.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

 

[kritter]

buck, glad you are going to see the movie you will love it,.,,,

So sorry to her about the Ag doll..wow what a thing to do but oh well she will never do it again I am sure of that....
I bet you will have a nice relaxing new years eve as we will too...
I am sure I will be asleep before midnight...
The lion king should be great we saw beauty and the beast a few years ago and that was awesome too....so I am looking forward to it...
Capt,
you will love it too.....the movie...
The whole twin thing is soo cool and it is because of my friends that they were kept together...We are off to see them in a few hours.. I will post tonight about our visit.,...

 

[joksten2000]

Hope your year went well. Had 41 Lbs of meat for 8 people. Sounds like over kill but the kids love to have left overs, again & again. Will have a quiet New Years as is our usual. 105 days to our next cruise. then Alaska, then Holloween cruise, busy year, hope we can do this every year. Scary thinking of no pay checks after Oct 1st.

 

[tchrmom]

Hello to all!

Nothing much going on here in Tampa today. Kelly had gymnastics practice from 12-5 today......so I spent the day at the mall, passing time......people watching. It is AMAZING what you will see if you sit and just watch people go by. Saw a 20-ish year old in a sweater that I bought myself yesterday. Decided SHE looks WAY better in it than I do, so I guess THAT sale purchase item is going back.............
Some how I'm not sure a 40 year old and 20ish should wear the same style.

Not worried about drunk drivers here, as our party is across the street!

Fran

 

[captaincrash]

F-O-R-T-Y pounds....

... of meat for 8 sounds... N-I-C-E. But since my spouse and 100% of her family work in healthcare she is likely to **** an eyebrow at "US" with our grins over the fridge layout. LOL!

So.... Buckifan... I understand entirely. We pretty much do just the same - having been together for a while my spouse and I generally pick up everything we want or need through out the year. My spouse usually spouts how tough a guy I am to buy for. As the odds and ends we don't have yet are often the things we recognize as not seriously wanted by one another. On the other hand I suspect my spouse does not realize how seriously I want a ride on the next resupply shuttle to the International Space Station! Actually, in truth I am developing a desire to switch my PCs to Macs so I can use their Aperature program (for digital image procesing) and to use an Ipod seamlessly in their MAC environment. I just visited an Apple store seriously for the first time yesterday. Unfortunately, the tach could not properly address 3/4s of my questions properly - so I'll have to return to catch the appropriate specialist for my answers. Before I get all this stuff I need to have a questions throughly addressed.

At any rate, our Christmas was a routine one. It was all about renewing bonds with distant family. Getting our young kids together with all their like aged cousins was a real shuffle of cities and schedules. But I would score the trip as a near ideal schedule in the end given we only used 11 days. And I am not shy about admitting that I'm NOT quite fully recovered from it YWO days after returning. As such, we have an 8 day sailing to Mexico (our 1st time sailing south of Ensenada) for valentines' day and I reminded my spouse to set aside a day or two extra following our return for "recovering".

And TchrMom....
you're so funny! My dear spouse and I do a little random observation at the mall as you have exercised - and it is really amazing what you see if a moment is taken to look. Our here in glitzy ..." "... LA we get more kids wearing stuff that draws remarks from my spouse than you can shake a stick at. She grew up in a one-signal-light town in PA outside of the big city of Pittsburgh... and her tastes run to the "down to earth" sort more than the "lets' flash it all sort". And this was exactly what drew my interest in her 21 years ago as she was so different from the garden variety California Girl I usually ran into. Oh well...

So - gotta run.... TTFN!

 

[tchrmom]

She grew up in a one-signal-light town in PA outside of the big city of Pittsburgh

Which town would that be??????? DH was transfered to Pittsburgh, before being transfered to Tampa. We lived there from 11/96-8/2000. We lived in Plum.

Fran

 

[kritter]

hope we can do this every year. Scary thinking of no pay checks after Oct 1st.
Jockesten--what do yo mean by this?? you retiring????


glad to hear that everyone is well and wow eight pounds of meat is a ton...of left overs.....

here is a new pictures of my girls from WDW but I can not get it to shrink down sorry,...