Christmas Cruising

This Christmas, I made a spur of the moment decision to join my friend, Mechiel, and her family on a seven day Western Carribean cruise. The kids were super excited about it. Can't you tell in this first picture? They weren't terribly thrilled with the time it took standing in line to embark...

Our cabin was quite tiny, but it made it all the more cozy for us.

The first couple of days we were at sea. There was attempt to swim in the pool, but it was wicked windy. The kids swam for a few minutes anyway of course.

Mechiel and I pampered ourselves with a massage and facial.

Our first stop was Jamaica. Anna, PJ and Dorian went snorkling (Brennan called them the "Snorks"). Mechiel and I, even though we were hesitant, took Ella and Brennan of the ship and into Jamaica. It was going to be very costly to take the bus into downtown and I really wanted to get Ella's hair braided. We ran across a young girl who said she knew someone who could do it. That she would just walk us through the gates and get it done. Sounds good, right? We follow her, and get lots of looks as we are walking. We walk, and walk, and walk, through empty shops and behind buildings. I have to admit, I was feeling a bit nervous. I turned back to look at Mechiel. She was walking a lot further behind. I thought maybe we were walking too fast for her. Finally we got there, and Ella got her hair braided by a nice lady named Paula. I did a little bracelet shopping in the store behind them. Later, Mechiel confessed to being scared too. I said, "Oh, so you were going to let something bad happen to me and the kids?!?" Being such a good friend, she said, "No, I was going to go for help if something happened to you!" Thanks Mechiel...nice to know someone's got your back.

Brennan waited so patiently. The Jamaican ladies kept saying how cute he was. Anyone who knows Brennan, knows how tough that kind of talk is for him. He's very shy, but secretly, I think he loves it. I asked him if he wanted his hair braided to, but he refused. He did get a bracelet though and enjoyed saying, "Mon" after each of his sentences.

Once back on the boat in Jamaica, we had lunch and got this cute picture

of the kids with Jamaica in the background.

Each night there were different towel animals in the room. The kids took turns each night, not without arguing of course, with having the towel animals on their beds.

Here's Brennan with the frog.

Anna and I went on an excursion in Grand Cayman. We got up close and personal with the sting rays. Since there's no dock in Grand Cayman, we took a tender in. From there we took a bus ride and then got on a smaller boat. After about a 25 minute ride, we were ready to meet "Bubbles" and her friends.

Anna was a little skittish at first. The sting rays were very large. Believe it or not, and I don't have pictures to prove it, I touched one too. I even got a full body massage from one of the sting rays. Then, the guide told me if I kissed the sting ray, it would bring seven years of good luck. Who doesn't need luck? Besides, everyone was doing it.

I caved to the peer pressure and kissed it. It was pretty gross...