HO, HO, HO, SNUGGIES AND SNOW!

We bring Season's Greetings from our house to yours!

We have been pretty busy since we returned from Europe and I haven't had the time to post here. I probably should say that I haven't taken the time. I should never have too much to do to neglect keeping in touch with friends.
Thanksgiving came and went and it seemed like Christmas was only a few days after that! As I grow more "mature", the time flies by much more quickly each year. We had the family over Thanksgiving and a good time was had by all.

The turkey was smokin' hot and so were the Cowboys that day. They beat Oakland. Go Cowboys!!

Frank and Franklin went to the game together since this is a tradition on Wright Street. He's gone to the game on Thanksgiving with his Dad from the time that he was learning to walk, so I always relinquish my seat for that one game.
We spent a lot of time after Thanksgiving catching up with things that we had missed out on while we were in Europe.
We went to the City Club about 10 days ago with our Financial Advisor for lunch. The club was decorated for Christmas and it looked beautiful.

All I had with me was my Iphone, so I couldn't get the quality I like in my photographs, but you get the idea.

We had a wonderful lunch. Frank had fish and I had chicken pot pie and it was almost as good as the one that I make!

Our granddog, Harry, celebrated his 4th birthday right before Christmas. He was hoping for a bone but all he got was a cupcake. Hope that he wasn't too disappointed.

We also have a new addition to the family ... Dozer. She belongs to Dayna and Nicholas and is a darling pup. It's funny to watch Harry try to interact with Dozer. He thinks he's a big dog as well and Dozer just looks at him like he's crazy!

Christmas Eve morning it started to snow and that is extremely unusual for Arlington. It had been in the high 70's the day before and then dropped into the 20's. What a switch. As we say here in Texas, if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute!

It really was pretty neat to look out the window and see the snow falling down while the Christmas lights were twinkling.
We had our traditional Enchiladas and beans for our Christmas Eve dinner right before we had the tree. I set the tables early so we could just relax and sit down and eat after the gifts were opened.

As you can see, I didn't put up the big tree like I usually do .. just a small one. It worked just as well as wasn't nearly as time consuming as it is to get the big one out of the attic.

The boys were very patient as they waited for us to have our pre-tree libations before opening the gifts.

Rachel was the designated Santa this year and was in charge of handing out the gifts. We were so sorry that Matt and Tyler couldn't be with us but his family has a long tradition of gathering on Christmas Eve as well, so he was with them this year. At least we had all the troops here on Thanksgiving and that's always special.

After putting on her crown, she donned her Santa hat and that made her position official

As usual, a good time was had by all before as well as during and after our gathering. Franklin was the self-appointed Asian bar tender.

While we visited and enjoyed some Christmas Cheer, Rachel went outside with Connor and they made a snowman. He was pretty tiny, but very cute. They did a great job with what they had to work with!

We always have English "Crackers" on the table at Christmas and this year was no exception. We all wore our crowns as we enjoyed a New Mexican meal.

We had a special surprise this holiday. One of Dayna's friends has just moved here, so we were privileged to have her with us to share in our Christmas Eve gathering. Since her family was in Chicago, we were her adopted family for the evening. It's always such a blessing to have a guest at our table. During the course of the evening we found out that Brittany was also an Aggie like Frank! That was really special. Gig em!!!

It's also a tradition to watch "A Christmas Story" at our house on Christmas Eve. If you've never seen this film, I highly recommend it. It will bring back wonderful memories of your childhood if you're over 50 and things to look forward to if you're not! I took this shot of it on the monitor as the story unfolded on TV. For those of you who are not familiar with this film, all the young boy wanted for Christmas was a Red Rider BB Gun but his Mom wouldn't let him have one because she was afraid that he might shoot his eye out.

One of the artists on a web site that I subscribe to painted a scene from the film, so I transposed the TV scene with the painting. The painting is on the left and the actual scene is on the right.

I'm inserting this link and hopefully you will be able to link there and see a brief version of "A Christmas Story" with Franklin and his family ... even Harry! It's a real hoot!!! Just click on the link below and you can view it.
Holidays by JibJab Sendables - Christmas - Video shared by Patricia
When we finished opening the gifts, we had a little something extra for the big "kids". They always like to receive cash (who doesn't!!!) and we try to present it in a different way each year. This time they each received a "Snuggie" with money inside. I persuaded them to model them for me so I could get this shot. Of course, we bought "Cowboy" Blue. What else!!

Christmas morning we went to church. It was the first time in years that we didn't go on Christmas Eve. The church was so beautiful and it is always such a blessing to be in God's house to celebrate the birth of His son!

There were banks of poinsettias everywhere. The Wise men will travel across the church for the next 12 days and will arrive at the creche on the 12th day of Christmas which is the Feast of the Epiphany.

The service ended around 11:00 a.m. and the candles were extinguished until Sunday morning.

We then went to Franklin and Beth's for a few minutes to see what they had gotten for Christmas. They were busy putting things the boys had received together so we didn't stay long.

After all, there are other things to do on Christmas morning besides visiting with grandparents, especially when there is new "stuff" to investigate!

Harry was also very busy with his new "friend" :-)

He finally decided that it was time to take a nap as he was pretty bored with the whole scenario.

One final note. I have just bought a new Macbook Pro and Franklin has hooked it up for me so I can use my TV in the bar as my monitor. It's WONDERFUL! Now I can blog in Hi-def. Nothing like the electronic age.

I just wish my Dad and Jim were still with us. They loved gadgets and we could have had such a great time playing together. Thank goodness for Nick and Franklin. They're into all things electronic as well.

Here's wishing each of you a very blessed Christmas Season and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

XOXO,
From My Three Little Loves and Pcasso

FROM ARLINGTON TO VENICE AND BACK AGAIN!

We are on the last leg of our journey with less than 24 hours before we arrive on home soil. It's both a happy and a sad time for us since we're ready to come home, but we also hate to end this wonderful adventure that's taken us to the other side of the world.

We have spent the past 5 days at sea and it will be good to see land again, especially after our scare a few nights ago!

We will be tendering in to Half Moon Cay for the day.

Little San Salvador Island, Bahamas (also known as Half Moon Cay), is one of about 700 islands that make up the archipelago of the Bahamas.

It is located roughly between Eleuthera and Cat Island. It is a private island, owned wholly by Holland America Line. It is usually a one-day stop (port of call) on most Holland America Caribbean cruises, and requires a tender ride from the ship to land, and vice versa.

It's a great place to get your "land legs" after having been at sea for several days.

The island is about a hundred miles southeast of Nassau. Holland America purchased the island in 1997, and has developed only 45 acres (180,000 m2) of the 2,400-acre island, with the goal of maintaining as much habitat as possible for wildlife. The island is also a significant nesting area for waterfowl.
Once we were on land, we walked to the headquarters where Frank got directions.

There were signposts inside telling you where things were, but it was much easier just to ask. The signs were more of a joke than actual directions.

Activities on the island include swimming, sunning, horseback riding in the surf, scuba diving, jet-skiing, cycling and snorkeling. Lots of activities for the younger crowd.

Deep-sea fishing, parasailing, glass-bottom boat rides, and nature walks also are available. In order for me to parasail, I would have to have had so many martinis that I wouldn't have remembered doing it anyway!

They had a variety of what I call water toys available for rent, including Hobie catamarans, Sunfish sailboats, windsurfing sailboards and kayaks.

We went to the bar for a drink when we first arrived (it was extremely hot and humid here) and figured out what we thought we would like to do today.

We decided to take it easy, so we took a ride on the glass bottom boat (I still can't figure out why Frank picked this rather than another activity since we had just gotten off of the water!) We don't sunbathe or ride horses anymore, so this was really the best choice for us. Anyway, the skin surrounding my bikini was a little wrinkled and I didn't bring an iron ashore ;-)

The water in this part of the Bahamas was some of the most beautiful that we've seen.... clear and sparkling and a true turquoise blue. The island was really quite pretty.

We saw a few fish amongst the coral but all in all, it was just a nice, relaxing ride and something to do to be off of our ship for a while. Anything to postpone packing!

After having been on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia on our world cruise, this left a lot to be desired so far as seeing different varieties of fish.
Our guide's name was Aretha and she was delightful. She even sang us a song as she showed us the flag of the Bahamas. She was no Aretha Franklin, but she had a decent voice and she was so proud of her island!

The boat was small but adequate enough to accommodate the 14 of us. She brought oranges along so I suppose that was her lunch as she was nibbling on them most of the tour.

It really was a nice little island and a perfect place to stop for a short visit.

We returned to our ship mid afternoon and started getting organized and packing. At least all of our things were in one room, so it was much easier than packing at home when you're getting ready to go on a trip. We made arrangements to have our luggage taken from the ship by a company that was provided by Holland America and for a small fee. Once we were packed, we didn't have to deal with it at all until we got to Dallas. We even avoided customs and that was wonderful!
We had an early dinner and said goodbye to new friends as we watched the sun set from our balcony one last time.

We arrived early in the morning in Ft. Lauderdale and went to the airport to wait for our flight home.

I think the best way to end this adventure is with a slide show with a few of the photographs that I took. I hope you enjoy them. Until next time, thank you for traveling with us.

XOXO, Pcasso