Santa Claus is Coming

Sorry that I haven't been blogging. There is so much to do. I have the house pretty clean and ready for the Holidays. I figure I will have nine overnight guests for Christmas. I have the tree up. My snowflakes look spectacular. I could use twice as many. Tomorrow is the Lions Christmas Party and next week is the Quilt club party. I am not done with my shopping yet but almost, just the difficult ones left.

A Perfect Evening

Last night I sat in the living room working on Fish City and hubby sat next to me reading the Smithsonian Magazine. He would tell me some of the things he had read and then would look up more about them on the Internet or the encyclopedia. It made for a stimulating discussion and a just the two of us moment.

Home

We got in last night from Portland. Mostly, we are taking it easy today. I am washing clothes. Have to get the baby spit-up out.(Really I am just bragging. There was only one blouse with baby spit-up) The cats are so glad to see us and follow us around all day. I have been also starching the snowflakes I made on the cruise. Some of them are surprisingly beautiful, others are just surprising. Hubby took almost 400 pictures, digital cameras are wonderful.

This is the group of eight which we traveled with along with the Cruise event planner and his wife the cruise party planner.

These are the Akaka Falls on the island of Hawaii.

The Arizona Memorial inPearl Harbor.The Grand Canyon of the Pacific on the Island of Kawai.A Pool Party aboard the ship.Walking through a lava tube on the Island of Hawaii.

Portland

We sailed to and from Hawaii on the Holland America ship "Zaandam." The Pacific wasn't very peaceful. Our first day we had seas of 12 to 17 feet with gale force winds. Hubby and I were both a little seasick. It rained everyday that we were in Hawaii, some of the excursions on Maui were canceled because of flash flood fears. We really enjoyed the big island of Hawaii and would love to go back there. We went up on the Kilauea crater. It was pouring rain but it cleared long enough for us to see. The crater has become more active in the last few years and you can no longer drive around it. We also saw the volcano at night from he ship. That was spectacular. Another neat thing we saw was the grand canyon of the Pacific on Kauai. Well worth seeing. The seas were rough on the way back and cold so that on a trip to Hawaii I never got into my bathing suit. But a cruise is always fun with the great shows and wonderful food.
Now we are in Portland and Sammy is terrific. This morning I played with him and he smiled and wiggled and made all sorts of cooing sounds to me. I am hopelessly in love with him.

Almost Ready

I have my suitcases packed except for my make up. I have one suitcase with warm weather clothes for Hawaii and another with cooler weather clothes for Portland. Hubby hasn't started packing yet. He likes to wait until the last moment. I had my hair cut and colored today(it is not naturally brown). Tomorrow I go to lunch with Mom and Thursday I have an appointment to have a pedicure and manicure. I am really looking forward to a relaxing cruise. That almost seems silly because I am retired and relax most of the time.

Fish City

One of my sadistic children gave me a counted cross stitch pattern for Christmas three years ago. It is called "Fish City." The directions alone take 15 pages and the finished project is 29 by 21 inches. I manage to get three pages a year done so I am on the 5 year plan. Right now I am pushing it to finish my third page this year. I don't know why I even start things like that. When I was first married I embroidered curtains for the bathroom to match the plastic shower curtain.

So Much to Do

We leave for San Diego on Friday and then Hawaii on Saturday. There is a lot of packing to do. Because we are going up to Portland Oregon for Thanksgiving( to see Sammy) Christmas will be fast upon us when we get home. I have been addressing all my Christmas cards so I can mail them when we get home. I am still working on Kameren's dress. I took all my scraps of light weight corduroy and am making a patchwork dress for her. So far I am still sewing the patchwork together and haven't started on the dress. I am making it a size larger in case I don't finish it. I hope she doesn't find it itchy and won't wear it.