Pre-Christmas with G'Kids

The G'kids did not have school December 21st. We brought them to our house for the weekend because we will not be around after Christmas to spend time with them. We are hoping to head south on December 27th.

There were no electronics at our house so we depended on projects to keep them occupied and busy.

puzzles 

baking cookies

and candies

playing games

This was our Christmas gift from the G'kids...

(a movie date with popcorn; their treat)

The Grinch movie

and a Christmas Village

one cottage has a skylight*

* lessons learned from this first time project: use a serrated knife to cut the gingerbread pieces; build (glue/frost) the houses the night before, with another adult; buy more stuff/crap for decorating the houses; only the white frosting works well (don't waste $ on anything else). Hope I remember this for next year!

Sure will miss these munchkins for the next few months!

Merry Christmas From Our House to Yours

We celebrated Christmas last weekend, December 15th. The family gathered at our house on Saturday and Sunday. We had one week from the end of the cruise to get the house ready, buy and wrap gifts, and think food. It was one of the least stressful holidays that I can remember. We went bowling on Saturday afternoon, played more Farkle, had a delicious dinner prepared by OFS and OFDIL and opened gifts. Everyone was here for brunch on Sunday morning and then it was off to church for the G'Kids Christmas program.

M was a member of the chorus

Miss W was a sheep, a black sheep

rapping sheep

Miss W had a 'short' solo and quite a number of speaking parts

the Sunday School and Wednesday School kids 'sign-up'

to be in the Christmas Program

Miss W had to audition for a singing part

"All About That Baby"

A video of their rap posted by Pastor Chris on her Facebook page. Click here.

On Friday, the G'kids invited us to school to see their short programs. Miss W's third grade class had a video of each class member reciting an original poem of verbs in Spanish. McBe's first grade class sang a song (in Spanish) for their parents and visitors. I understood chocolate from the song; not much else.

M holding the 0

sharing his poster of 3 wishes

A busy and fun weekend. Our first Christmas in our new house. The weather was very cooperative so OFD could travel from Minneapolis and get back home without any worry.

Last Port of Call~Costa Maya, Mexico

I thought I had all the port-of-calls on the blog, but as I was getting ready to post something Christmas related, I noticed I was missing our stop in Mexico.

Costa Maya is a western Caribbean port designed exclusively for the cruise ship industry. It is about 100 miles south of Tulum.

LOVED the color of the water at the pier

and look at the length of the pier!

musicians greeted us as we walked along the dock

our ship was the first to dock

two others joined us later in the morning

that meant several thousand people shopping and exploring the area

Welcome to Mexico

Mahahaul, a small fishing village, is nearly a ghost town

when the cruise ships aren't stopping

our excursion was to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins

This Mayan community was flourishing in 360 AD and did so until around 1000 AD. The rainforest took over and hid most of the temples for the next 1000 years. In 1942 the Cohuo family established a farm at the base of the Gran Basamento and lived there with their children and cows until an American archaeologist when flying over the region, noticed the number of hills in an area that should have been flat. Excavation began in 1994 and Chacchoben opened to the public in 2002. 

the tree of life

thorns on the tree of life

an uncovered temple

one of several excavated temples

wild palms

Cohune palms can grow to 90' tall and are very abundant in the this part of the rainforest. They produce a nut (large grape-like cluster) used for oil. The fronds are used to thatch roofs. The heart of the palm is also a human delicacy. The outer bark is used to feed pigs and chickens.

climbing to the top of Gran Basamento, the ritual hub of the community 

not like the temple climb in Chichen Itza!

'Moses in a basket' plant

fresh pineapple 

Oh, so yummy!

There were several fruit stands along the road from Costa Maya to Chacchoben offering coconuts, pineapple, melons, bananas and plantains. The prices were so reasonable, but the van did not stop. So we were excited to see we could buy fresh cut pineapple at a little mom 'n pop stand at the gift shop.

water, soda & beer was offered on our bus tour

I chose the beer

Good choice!

After the tour, we spent some time in Costa Maya. First on the agenda was some lunch and then some shopping. After all, this was the final opportunity!

interesting menus, especially the drink menu

some liquids and then some lunch

healthy flamingos on the property

loved the tile steps

no geocaching at this stop

It was an awesome cruise!

Belize

On December 4th we anchored on a NCL owned island, Harvest Caye off the coast of Belize. (British Honduras when I went to school and learned the Central American countries!)

Because Harvest Caye is a private island (Carnival and other cruise lines have developed their own islands), there are no geocaches and no events allowed. We had to develop a Plan B.

We took the ferry to Placencia village (another island???) of Belize, about a 20 minute ride.

There we rented a golf cart so we could get the two geocaches and have lunch at the Tipsy Tuna. I had read where other geocachers had done the golf cart deal and OFD read great reviews about the Tipsy Tuna. Thus our agenda for the day and 3 hour golf cart rental.

very friendly road ways for the cars and golf carts

geocache #1 done

geocache #2 done

and of course, some flora to add to the collection

Things we saw while driving the golf cart on the main road in Placencia Village...

we didn't

lots of little market stores

and all the necessary public services

including a cemetery

without a geocache!

our lunch destination

lots of cute signage along the boardwalk to the beach side

business

star fruit decorated our adult beverages

the establishment did not have any electricity for some unknown reason,

so our lunch selections were limited, but still yummy

we enjoyed our time along the beach watching people

our cruise ship ported at Harvest Caye

many little sail boats in the harbor at Placencia Village

We did a little shopping before returning to the Norwegian Cruise Line owned island and their shopping area where we left a few more $$ and enjoyed some fish tacos and drinks at the Landshark. Another great day of sunshine, blue sky and blue water. One more port of call and then it will be back to reality...