Just Cruisin'

We're back! Last week Spencer and I went on a 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean, and we had a blast. I have to admit that we were slightly surprised at the predominance of geriatrics on the boat, and even folks under 30 were hard to come by.

Day 1 of the cruise was spent at sea, so we had fun exploring our ship and going to some of the activities that were going on throughout the day. Here's a mini tour of some of the hots spots on our ship:

Getting ready to board the Grandeur of the Seas in Tampa, Florida.

Doesn't Spencer look excited to run through the safety exercises?

We got an inside cabin, mostly because it was the cheapest option. It actually wasn't too bad, but one day we woke up at like 10 am and had no idea it was so late because we didn't have any windows. My only room complaint was that the showers were SOOOO small. How's a girl supposed to shave her legs in such a tiny area? Believe me, it wasn't easy.

The main Centrum area; it was all decorated with tinsel, gingerbread houses, Christmas trees, Santa's sleigh, and reindeer.

This was a pretty chandelier in the Palladium Theater, where we enjoyed lots of comedy shows, music and dancing performances, the Love and Marriage game, and a juggling show.

The Great Gatsby dining room was where we always had dinner. More stories about the folks at our table will follow in a few days.

This is the main pool area, with 4 hot tubs and a million lounge chairs. The first day at sea was super windy. I took a newspaper with me up to deck 10 to do a crossword puzzle while I laid by the pool (we never actually swam in it over the course of the week). Then I put it under my towel, flip flops, shirt and shorts as we watched the belly flop contest, but when that was over my towel was blown over and my paper and pen were no where to be found. Oops.
The Solarium was an adult only pool area with 2 hot tubs and a little cafe. I think we went in the pool for about 5 seconds because it was really cold and salty, so we opted for the toasty waters of the hot tub.

Spencer and I became pros at shuffleboard. Actually... we were terrible, but we had a good time trying. I would usually win when we played by the real rules, and Spencer would always kick my trash when we played by the much easier fake rules that we made up.

We also enjoyed watching the sunsets from the uppermost deck of the Grandeur.

Yay Christmas!!

I know it's not much, but we've put up our Christmas decor. This is our very first Christmas tree, and I really like it- but boy is it a pain to put lights on a tree. I arranged and then re-arranged them like 4 times. It took forever!

We even have a fireplace for our stockings! Spencer and I bought 2 when we were out shopping, and then I found my old one in my ornament box. So I just figured I might as well hang them all, couldn't hurt to have a little extra color.

The Nativity.
My Mother-in-law gets me a new addition to the Willow Tree Nativity for Christmas every year. Such a great gift!

New Additions

This is our loot from the day after Thanksgiving. And thanks to Spencer's gift cards at Best Buy and Target, we only spent $10.

Here are some other purchases we recently made that are unrelated to the sales on Friday (but I am just as excited about):

A baking rack for the kitchen...

and a console table for the living room.

We even ordered a real dining table! So come Dec. 28, we'll finally be saying "goodbye" to our ghetto card table and folding chairs. Hallelujah.

The Black Eye Story

Well, as it turns out, the story of how I got my black eye is not all that exciting. Katrina and Ashlee's guesses were the closest, but thanks for humoring me with all of your other scenarios.

So here's how it happened- Spencer and I play volleyball in a league with some people from our ward/dental school. We had a game on Tuesday night, and I was playing middle hitter. This guy and I went up to block a hit from the other team, and when he brought his arms down his elbow knocked me in the face (which I suppose is less embarrassing than getting hit in the face with a ball). It didn't hurt that bad, but I couldn't see at first because my contact was all messed up in that eye. Then it fell out completely, and Spencer found it on the ground. So we called a quick time out, I went to the bathroom to put my contact back in, and we played 2 more games.

Over the past few days it has been really interesting to run errands with Spencer, because after people look at me, they almost always glance at Spencer with an assuming look in their eyes. And that just makes me mad.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we went to my Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. It was the first time I'd been there since high school, and boy was it good to go back! My aunts' sure do make a mean Thanksgiving dinner.

Don't be fooled by the almost-empty table. This is after the full meal, winding down with some of Jacque's yummy pie.

When we got home, we started making plans for our early morning shopping tomorrow. And so far it just sounds... early.

Just in Time for the Holidays

Tonight I got my first black eye since I was 5 years old.

I've been trying to think of a cool story to tell people about how I got it, since I will inevitably get lots of questions on Thanksgiving Day, at church, etc. How do you think it happened?

We're Looking Forward To...

• Spencer being done with his finals tomorrow!
• A week off for Thanksgiving break, with the day-of feast taking place at my Grandpa's house.
• Day after Thanksgiving shopping. We were sold last year when we got some sweet movie deals in the wee hours of the morn. Spencer has been saving a $25 Target gift card since last December for this very day.
• Escaping Ohio's cold December weather for a week long cruise visiting:

herehere

hereand here.

It will be our first cruising experience, so any advice from you seasoned cruisers would be much appreciated. I've already told Spencer that I'm determined to do some karaoke on the ship since I was too chicken to do it at the resort we stayed at on our honeymoon.