I was speaking with my sister Sarah and she said I haven’t written in forever… And I realized, "I haven’t". Where has the time gone? On the 7 day cruise we took over Christmas every moment from 8 am until midnight was full. We sailed with friends Peter and Karen Skipp (Chuck and Peter friends since age 14, then I joined the gang at age 16, and Karen joined about age 23.) Peter and Karen’s two beautiful adult daughters joined us and quickly found Chuck’s and my hideaway in Vintages for pre dinner wine or champagne. I loved vintages because they have outside tables and I see a lot of people I know. At the first Mass on board I took my prayer book up to help out a girl who Father chose to sing! Then I read at a few Masses and father put me up on stage at the Royal theatre to sing at Christmas day Mass with a powerfully voiced Jamaican genteman. We sang about 8 hymns! So I knew a lot of people from daily Mass and they would stop to talk as we enjoyed the garden at Vintages (Including Father himself). The two giant RCCL cruise ships, Allure and Harmony have a beautiful Garden called Park Place on deck 8. You can’t tell you are on a cruise ship. Our cabin on the Harmony overlooked that garden and we got a huge balcony because they used the space next to us for storage but gave us the storage space’s balcony!!! Every day I woke up when I wanted (but remember the storage space is next door) so it was wake up time between 8 and 830am. Quick shower, put on clean clothes, and trot down to the Diamond lounge for latte machiato. We are Diamonds because we cruise so much so we get inordinate amounts of lattes, wine, and water all for free. I tell people to be loyal to a brand and "get the loyalty points". After breakfast in Diamond lounge almost like clockwork I was off to the pool from 11 to 12. Lunch, read my Maeve Binchy books, and take a nap. Get up, get dressed, formal wear two nights, lovely dinner, go to shows. Amazing shows. Back to room about midnight. Meanwhile we got off the ship twice to go to Cozemel twice (the weather kept us away from the private island so we stopped twice in Cozemel where we have a cute little bar called Ernestos where we eat mexican food and drink Dos XXees (how do you spell that?). Nap after. Dinners were lovely with the 6 of us as family. Food was wonderful. The last night we all went to Chops Grill as travel agent had given us dinners. We drove from Cape Canaveral to visit Renee and drink and eat more!!! And we ate Thai food with her. Then we binge watched the 2nd season of Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime. Home for 2 days, I was so relaxed and tired that I totally forgot it was New Years Eve and when I heard fireworks I thought they were practicing!!! Chuck went hunting in Georgia with Dave and Sam, but not before I made him find all my mural painting brushes, rollers, roller pans, etc. I need to get into his shed and create my own space for my outdoor paints. I have painted for 3 days since Chuck left first covering our enormous shed with a base coat and today… mountains rose up! It is a huge shed. I am having a wonderful time at St James church. Today we wrapped about a million presents for the mission children (we have a lot of farms and migrants here). The church ladies are a lot of fun. That’s about it! I need to sink into Chuck’s easy chair and rest my poor paint covered body! God bless you! Angels with us!
Categories