A&L_Ont

Close. Very close. Just not spicy. Sweet tea for the beverage.

We are now at the gate and they need 8 people to give up their seats for the flight. They are offering $800 a person to go on the next flight. Should we take it?

Checked in and partaking in the…

Loaded. Here and now is the time to press “go”, and we are gone. Sunrise here is nice, but nothing compares to the sunsets at sea!

We are just flaked out getting ready to wind down and guess what movie is on TV? Grease. I have seen it numerous times in the Royal Theatre but never on TV. Is this an omen, or a sign to change the channel? I guess Lisa will tell me. OK, back to the scheduled material. After the Christmas festivities and days of eating, I’m not sure how we will survive a cruise, but it’s a sacrifice we’ll make. No calories on a cruise so we are good. So, who else is coming with us? If you don’t want to follow pre-cruise adventures come back Saturday morning. If you want to see what we get up to checkin tomorrow and Friday. No matter the case, hit subscribe to follow along. Get ready to raise your glass to the sky, like we’re trying to grab the chandelier, cause next years gonna be better than this year.

We have been following the forecast and are very happy to see and hear this good news.

What else did we do today? We knocked off all the items on the to-do list. All that said, 8am tomorrow we head to Detroit for our Delta flight to FLL. Thank goodness it isn’t Southwest. Many on my roll call have been effected, with folks changing flights to other carriers and some even driving from Chicago and Texas. Speaking of driving, these are some of games played in Canada this time of year. I’m very familiar with all of them. By the forecast tomorrow we should be OK. 🤞

How did we spent our day today? We went out for a celebratory pre-birthday lunch at the Keg Steakhouse with the grandmas. What’s on the plate you ask? Billy Miner Pie. If you ever go to the Keg it is a great dessert.

Who’s with me? Well, I know Lisa and Owen sure are. We sail Saturday on Harmony, out of Fort Lauderdale. Cabin and itinerary will follow later, but let’s be honest - the ship is the destination. We are flying down a couple days early and are really looking forward to getting out of the cold everyone has had to endure these last few days. Even the people of Florida have had to suffer. (pull out the tiniest violin) 😉 Christmas was packed away yesterday and our suitcases are the ready. Lucy knows something is up, but Sharon will take great care of her. Lucy last week. What a difference a few days makes with the snow. Don’t worry, she isn’t buried. She will however give us the look of indifference tomorrow morning.

Hey Dani, you beat me to it. How about the rest of you? Have you ever sailed on NYE? Have you ever sailed on your birthday? I haven’t, until now. Had things been different last year, I would have celebrated my 50th birthday on a ship. It’s almost a year later and I’m hitting 51 on the 31st. For me, it’s time for two firsts, NYE and my birthday on a ship. This will be a lot of fun.

I’m not sure about the second part of my title, but I know my New Year is going to start with a fresh kiss. Macklemore, thanks for such a great song with Next Year. It’s going to be my marching tune, the theme for this live review. Wanna get pumped up, hit play. Heads up, there might be a one or two bad words so please skip it if you want.

Thanks for the information. Our plan is to get the bands on embarkation day ASAP. We are fortunate enough to have 2, one hour secessions for Star but that’s the only time we will take advantage of it. We might do a private rental if the lines are bad all week. I’ll say hi the MX for you.

If it is the manual turn and twist I don’t see why not. For some reason the episode of Family Guy when Chris starts a push mower comes to mind. Google Chris starts lawnmower if you don’t remember the skit.

@soremekun if you are fluent in sarcasm meet us at terminal 18 Saturday morning. 😉😂

JC, sorry to hear that that your ended up feeling sick. Thanks for the wave reports and videos. I’m looking forward to hitting it on Saturday. LOL, I also saw my balcony in the background of the videos. You got me amped to go.

For some explainable reason I think this Christmas for the HBE4 family was meant to be the way it was. Mrs HB4E will be looking down from above, as you and your step-daughter helped bring a sense of family to the people who were without. It certainly seems as though you have found a new tradition to add to some from the past.

To go away is always great, to get home after is sometimes even better.

I agree with you. We are halfway to pinnacle and we sail 2-3 times a year. The most every was maybe 5 or 6.

Christmas in our house has been put away. With the cold snap and snow the outside lights will remain out and on until it gets a bit milder. How about some food porn. Yesterday we had the last of the Christmas gatherings at my MILs. It was a sampler meal with all bringing something. There was too much as always and I’m thankful that the meals are slowing down. Sharon’s cheese crisps. Shrimp with avocado on a slice of cucumber. More shrimp. Bits and bites etc.. Nacho dip and veggie plate. For the daring, pickle wrapped with bacon, breaded and deep fried. There was plates of cookies and the non-traditional Nerds candy canes.

This is awesome that their joining you for the week. After being with my extended family for almost a week I’m ready for a week away.😀

I may have also fallen sleep in May chair this afternoon. 😉😂

If I were to get one this would be the exact route I’d go. looking forward to arias shots of the deer in your yard.

@Jimbothe drone looks great.

I’ve been enjoying all the Christmas Greetings, food photos and videos here. You have all been very busy and it looks amazing. The blizzard watch is still ongoing. Our church and almost all in our area have cancelled their Christmas Eve services due to the weather. Highways are still closed and you may have even seen the news story where close to 100 people slept overnight in a Walmart. They blew up air mattresses, used new bedding and ate food from the deli. We pushed our Christmas Eve gathering to tomorrow at noon. I’ll have to blow snow in the morning and see that both grandmas are here. I’ll probably have to drive them over, but they are minutes away. Earlier in the evening we watched Elf, White Christmas and Scrooge is just waking up in his bed on Christmas morning. Our gifts are out and we are waiting for Santa to arrive sometime tonight. We wish you all the best from our house. Some of you are following decades of traditions and some of you are making new ones due to the year that has been. No matter the case, happy or reflective, please remember that your loved ones will never be far from your heart. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and big hugs to my CC Family. Andrew, Lisa and Owen.

This was one of my favourites this year…