Disney Cruise

We were so tired of the cold weather that we decided at the last minute to take a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas.  The Bahamas was nice especially the Disney Island, Castaway Cay.   The temperature there was a high of 66 degrees.  Not as worm as I would have liked, but a whole lot better than the 30 to 40 degrees weather at home.
 

Our room.

Every night we had a towel animal in our room.   

 

The view out our room when docked in the Bahamas.   

 This was so cool!  They had a detective crime solving game / hunt on board.  You pick a card that has a bar code on it and you get a map.  You program the card in the computer, then you are set to start solving the crime.  In specific locations throughout the ship, they have pictures on the wall that will inter act with your card once you hold it up to the picture.  The picture gives you clues to solve the crime.  We had so much fun running around the ship finding these painting and watching the clues unfold.       

 When we docked in the Bahamas we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the slide and pool with no crowds.  This is a very large tube ride that hangs over the ship.  The Chief and I sat and watched the gigantic screen TV while The Cisco Kid rode the tube slide.   

Enjoying all the outdoor activities.  They also have a couple of Basketball courts and football simulator games.   

Golfing on the ship.

 Ships photo op!  They have all the Disney characters on the ship, but I could not get him to take a picture with any of them.  I was happy he decided to stand there with this plaster pelican.   

 OK!.....The Food.  I will let the pictures tell the story.  This was not even half of the selection.   

 On Castaway Cay.  It was about 66 degrees.  I stayed in a lounge chair with a towel wrapped around me.  The guys went in the water and snorkeled. 

 

 Fun photo op's.

 

They had a Pirate themed dinner.  The Chief and The Cisco Kid dressed up for the dinner.   

It was fun to get out of the cold for a few days. 

 

Pinewood Derby

This is our last year participating in the Pinewood Derby races with the Cub Scouts.  The Cisco Kid will be moving up to the Boy Scouts and they don't have that activity.  The Cisco Kid won second place in his den and second place in the overall Pack race.   At the end of the Packs race, we have a race for cablings.  This year I decided to join the sibling race and race my car against The Cisco Kid's car.  Yes...... I did say my car.  I built one and painted it green.  I decided to make it with a Flower Cannon on the front of the car.  To make sue I did not promote violence, I told everyone that my cannon shot flower seeds instead of cannon balls. 

 His racing stats.  His car in this race went 196.6 MPH in 2.5140 seconds. 



My Car.....Of course when we raced, his car won. 



Christmas and all things wonderful

Christmas one of my favorite times of the year.  In our house it is all about spending time with the family, eating great food, watching the expression of our son open his unexpected gifts and playing with them all day.

The routine is that Christmas Eve we have the Cisco Kid open all of his Christmas stocking gifts.  My husband and I stay up very late and wrap all the gifts that evening.  Of course I spend a lot of time setting the gifts up under the tree.  I like that big WOW moment on Christmas morning when The Cisco Kid gets his first look at the gifts and I can capture that photo moment.   

It is always a pleasure to have my Mother in-law and Father in-law come in town to spend the holiday with us.  This year we had a special treat when my brother and my two nephew's joined us for the day.  It was great to watch the three boys get along so well.  My 16 year old nephew was so kind to play with The Cisco Kid who is only 10 years old.  Their playtime was all about the Nerf Guns & riding the Dune Buggy.  A typical boy thing.

First things First

Every year I make about 700 cookies and mail them out to relatives and friends.  This year is not any different.  I spent three day baking up a storm. 

 



Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Morning!

 We can't leave our Cat out.  This is the first Christmas we celebrated with our furry family member. 

The Cisco Kid asked for a new bike for Christmas.  We had no intentions of getting him a new bike because I knew he would be totally floored to get a Dune Buggy instead.  We gave The Cisco Kid a gift that had three hints of what his present was.  I took advantage of him thinking he was going to get a bike by wording the hints in that direction.  The first hint was.....Since he has gotten so big, this present is too large to fit under the tree. The second hint was....The present has tires.  He immediately said, Its A Bike!   The Third hint was the remote control to the garage and the clue card said..... You can ride this and you have to be very responsible.  Take the remote control and open the garage door too see what is waiting for you. WAIT FOR US!!!!!!    

The Cisco Kid loves Twinkies.  So of course Hostess makes a Twinkie maker.  We had to try and make some.   

 They tasted good but the cake was on the heavy side and the cream was not as fluffy.  The amount of sugar in these thing was crazy. But of course, he totally loved them.

We had so much fun Christmas day.  Thank you My Brother for coming over. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Merry Christmas!!

It was hard getting our Christmas card out this year and I was starting to get panicked.  Since there was only three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas it made it very hard to get everything together. 

Because there was only three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I put up the Christmas trees just before Thanksgiving.  It was a little strange for me since all the fall decoration and Christmas decorations were up together. Right after Thanksgiving I jumped into shopping mode.  Thank goodness the Chief did all the toy shaping because I went into Dune Buggy Shopping mode. I still had 1,000.00 cookies to make. YES!!! 1,000.00 cookies. It is not a typo.    

 I am Room Coordinator and Key Communicator for The Cisco Kids Class this year.  The Key Communicator takes care of relaying all the information from the PTA and Teacher to the class parents.  The Room Coordinator takes care of all the parties, any charity drives and coordinating Teachers gifts.  Then I still have all the things I do for Cub Scouts.  I am still the Den Leader, Event Coordinator and Camp Master. 

As a Den Leader I must make sure my Den is prepared for the Boy Scouts.  My den still has to do the Handyman award, Cyber Chip award Nova Award, Supernova award and the Swing award.  These must be done before February 27th.  On March 1st they will be crossing over to the Boy Scouts. 

We campout one weekend a month and I schedule the campsite.  We usually have between 60 to 85 people campout.  I have to make sure there is enough food and drink for everyone.  So not only do I shop for all the food but I cook and prepare for two breakfasts, a dinner and Smores for two evening around the campfire.    

As for the Event Coordinating,  I coordinate the beginning of the year party, the Christmas party, Pinewood Derby as well as the Blue and Gold Banquet.  I reserved the National Guard Armory for the Blue & Gold Banquet. I am in the process of making the Cub Scout Year Book, I have to get the food catered,  get decorations, coordinate the photographer and design and print tickets.

Now you can see why I was starting to get panicked.  I did a quick picture of The Cisco Kid with his cat under the Christmas tree and sent it off to Walgreens.  I had them in one hour and mailed them off right away.  Glad to get that checked off my list.