Wow!! Where did 2015 go... seriously?! I cannot believe we're already here, post-Christmas. I feel like this year has been a blur. Anyone feel that?
Eric and I did the drive to FL for Christmas again this year. We've take to enjoy that drive time, making it all part of the journey to enjoy. Mostly. We drove straight through to Jacksonville on Christmas Eve, and woke up to head to my parents on Christmas morning. 
My sister and her family couldn't make it up that way until that evening, so it worked out fine. Having the youngest in the family being teenagers, the 'magic' of Christmas morning isn't as much of a necessity. It happens, I suppose. But that gave some time with just Eric and I to spend with my parents. Nan was not able to make it down this year and spent Christmas with some extended family in PA. We missed her a lot, and hope we can get her back to FL for future Christmases. We'll see.
Christmas, itself, was pretty standard for a Cwalina Christmas. 
Lots of gifts with the nine of us there, and some fun surprises that no one expected. Still extremely enjoyable, for me at least. I love how our family does Christmas. I wouldn't say we have formal traditions, but there are still traditions. Like where we sit, for example. Don't ask me why, but if anyone tries to sit someplace new, there's confusion everywhere! It's kind of amusing. Regardless, I love watching reactions to the gifts - no mater how old we get, we all seem to enjoy it.
The day after Christmas, to avoid the draw of the TV and being lazy, we went to the zoo. 
This was my mom's idea, because she wanted to see the new tigers. Which I definitely liked the idea of, too! Here's the crazy thing, though... it was in the 80's and almost too warm to walk around the zoo! A lot of the animals were even seeking shade to keep cool! Even the tigers! We still had a good time feeding the Lorikeets and walking around, though. And I learned that Eric is afraid of (or 'doesn't like' them, in his words) birds, reptiles, and amphibians... he wouldn't go into any of those exhibits. It was kind of funny. But we managed to walk through and see what we wanted before they closed, and headed home.
After breakfast, Eric and I left the next day. We only went as far as Savannah, and enjoyed the afternoon and some dinner there. 
Wasn't a major event, or anything... just meant to be some down time to ourselves before getting back to the real world after the holidays. It was kind of nice, actually, and thought maybe we should get back to making the trip down a two-day trip, as well, just to keep our sanity in check. I guess we'll see next year.
Finally, we left bright and early the next morning. Only had a band of rain to drive through, though it was some heavy rain. But it was still relatively warm until we gut way up into Kentucky. And at that point, we were done with stops and just needed to get home. So all in all, it was a good trip. And a good Christmas.
Sometimes the years goes by faster than I'd like. This has been one of those years. But with a fast year comes a quick departure for my annual girls cruise! And I cannot complain about that!
This year we switched things up a bit, as we added a fourth to our crew (Sabrina), which led us to book a suite on the ship (Brilliance of the Seas) so we could all still do the fun rituals of getting ready together and such. We were able to get a good deal on the suite, too, as we didn't book until 6 weeks out! Not recommended for those who like to plan way ahead, or those who get nervous about 'the back-up plan' if Plan A doesn't pan out... but it worked quite well this year.
Our itinerary included just two ports, with two days at sea. Kind of the best of both worlds (in theory) to give everyone a little of what they wanted. We left of December 14th out of Tampa, with the first full day (the 15th) being at sea. We made the most of what turned out to be about an absolutely perfect day at sea, and were at the pool side nearly the entire day! Surprisingly, we all did a good job with sunscreen on this first day, and no one go too much sun. Usually, at least one of us missed a spot or two, or just went to long between applications. That made it good for the rest of the cruise.
Our first port was back in the Grand Cayman Islands! Last year we missed out on our swim with the stingrays and were very bummed about it. We were determined to make up for it, and getting back to the islands was one of the reason we chose this itinerary. 
We found a local tour company that took us out to Stingray City on a catamaran, which on its own was cool, since it kept the number of people on the tour to a minimum. The water was still a little rougher than I think any of us would've liked, but it was still workable to get in there with the stingrays. And it was amazing! They were everywhere!! I almost got knocked down a few time by them trying to swim between my legs. Well, that and the waves pulling me off the ground and me, overcomplicating things, by trying not to come back down on top of one! We were able to feed them, too, and I had one gnaw on my knuckle when he took the fish from me. Didn't hurt - just felt weird! It was a really cool experience, and I'd love to do it again, if the water was a little calmer so we could maybe enjoy the rays a little more without the added complication of the waves. But at least we got to do it once!
After the stingray swim, we got to snorkel over some reefs for a little bit. Again, because of the slightly rougher waters, we couldn't go to the major reef area, but since our tour guides were local, they were still able to get us to a good area where no one else really was. it wasn't as exciting as the stingrays, but of course, we weren't feeding the fish, either. Still some pretty cool snorkel views.
Our second port was Cozumel, which has become a regular stop. Of our five years of doing this girls cruise, we've stopped at Cozumel three of hose years! Of course, we don't do much at this port, either. Literally. We go to a private beach club that's all inclusive, lay on the beach all day, have a good locally prepared lunch, and just completely relax. Which is probably why we keep going back - it's a day of guaranteed relaxation. Not that the entire cruise isn't relaxing, but it's just nice to have some semi-private time to relax.
Finally, on to our last day cruising at sea. It sucked. First time since our first cruise that we had a non-sunny day that the captain couldn't find us some sun. 
We did, however, get to go tour the bridge of the ship, which was really pretty cool. But beyond that, as the day progressed, the seas got rougher and rougher, as we heading directly into a weather front. By dinner, only about half the passengers actually made it to dinner, and ginger ale was being served as if it was water. It was like that well into the night, and likely until we got back into Tampa Bay, which was in the early hours of the morning. But we had three solid days of vacation fun, so really no complaints.
It's hard to believe we've been doing this for five years. Not sure if we'll keep it at four or if that was a one time celebration for Sabrina, but I think Karla, Jen, and I are content to keep this going as long as we can handle cruising.
My sister and her family couldn't make it up that way until that evening, so it worked out fine. Having the youngest in the family being teenagers, the 'magic' of Christmas morning isn't as much of a necessity. It happens, I suppose. But that gave some time with just Eric and I to spend with my parents. Nan was not able to make it down this year and spent Christmas with some extended family in PA. We missed her a lot, and hope we can get her back to FL for future Christmases. We'll see.
Lots of gifts with the nine of us there, and some fun surprises that no one expected. Still extremely enjoyable, for me at least. I love how our family does Christmas. I wouldn't say we have formal traditions, but there are still traditions. Like where we sit, for example. Don't ask me why, but if anyone tries to sit someplace new, there's confusion everywhere! It's kind of amusing. Regardless, I love watching reactions to the gifts - no mater how old we get, we all seem to enjoy it.
This was my mom's idea, because she wanted to see the new tigers. Which I definitely liked the idea of, too! Here's the crazy thing, though... it was in the 80's and almost too warm to walk around the zoo! A lot of the animals were even seeking shade to keep cool! Even the tigers! We still had a good time feeding the Lorikeets and walking around, though. And I learned that Eric is afraid of (or 'doesn't like' them, in his words) birds, reptiles, and amphibians... he wouldn't go into any of those exhibits. It was kind of funny. But we managed to walk through and see what we wanted before they closed, and headed home.
Wasn't a major event, or anything... just meant to be some down time to ourselves before getting back to the real world after the holidays. It was kind of nice, actually, and thought maybe we should get back to making the trip down a two-day trip, as well, just to keep our sanity in check. I guess we'll see next year.
