Today’s a new day! A new year actually ~ Tuesday, January 1, 2019!
The first day of the rest of our lives, right?? Let’s start this new year and this new day with something really cool to talk about. Travel! All kinds of travel. What kind of travel do you like? I LOVE it all and I’ve done quite a bit however, I am just now getting ready to get real serious about it going forward.
Two days ago, I disembarked a 10 night cruise that I spent with my family over Christmas. It was the end of an era for us. Many years ago, we chose to take our 3 children on a cruise for Christmas to avoid subjecting them to the endless hassles of traveling the 12 hours “up north” to brace the dreary cold , slush & snow of Cleveland and the family feuds as we hustled our little people from house to house, with no-one able to make a decision where to go for dinner or what the 28 member family members would spend the days and evenings doing for our 5 day holiday adventure. So Cruising it was and they could join us (one year 19 of them did but that’s a blog for another day).
Now, 15 years later, our mid-20 something adult children spent the past 10 nights in their “upgraded” balcony cabin (no longer the interior we could cram them into across the hall) with Beverage Package as we sailed some of the Southern Caribbean Islands for what I’m assuming will be the last time for our immediate family unit! It was fun, mostly. Time for it to end. The oldest, our son contracted a new significant other since we originally booked the cruise so the original enthusiasm waned drastically and we all had to endure the lonely pangs of young love for the duration. The middle & youngest children, both girls had a ball with all the attention they received, enjoying the time they had with each other in their new founded love and mature relationship with each other. Something as parents we hoped and longed for their entire lives. So, did we rob them of the traditional Christmas? Yes! But we created our own kind of tradition and hopefully, we can spend the next few years before weddings and grand-children trying to make up for those lost years by decking the halls and going full bore with all the typical Christmas “stuff” that regular people who don’t cruise at Christmas do.
Cheers for a Happy & Adventurous 2019!