December 25, 2007
I’m sitting here and it’s just about midnight on the 25th – so Christmas is over already and I’m looking at my clock and it says it is 7:34 a.m. back home where Christmas is just getting started – pretty amazing how the world works, eh?
The ship is decorated beautifully for the Holidays. The atrium fountain is full of fake snow and gifts. There are several large Christmas trees around the ship and just the overall feel of the holidays is here!
So last night we had a Christmas party for the kids with Christmas crafts and Gingerbread men etc. After that, I participated in an International Christmas Choir. It was last night about 10:45 p.m. for all the passengers. There was a Filipino Choir that sang, an Indonesian Choir then the “International” Choir with everyone else. It was pretty neat and made it feel a little bit more like Christmas for me – getting to sing in it and all. We did four carols and while one of the cast members was singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” we were all standing behind her and “snow” began to fall on the stage – it gave me goosebumps – it was nice to have that special holiday feel. We concluded the performance with all the participating crew (about 100-125 of us) lining the stairs and the lounge with candles singing “Silent Night.” It was beautiful!
This morning was a great Christmas morning- while it was hard not being home with all those things that I’m used to on Christmas morning. We set up the lounge with lots of Christmas décor and the captain made an announcement that “a large flying object with lots of animals and a red nose leading the way” was making its way towards our ship. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, the Captain came on again and made the announcement that the unidentified object was Santa and he had landed on the bow of our ship. Patrick (a guy from my old ship) and myself were told we were hosting the event. He’s the DJ/Emcee on the ship, so I assumed he’s be on the mic the whole time and I would just kinda gather the kids and keep it flowing. Well, apparently, he called the kids up by age group and I had to provide the entertainment and be on the mic the ENTIRE time. I was talking to the kids about what they wanted/what they got etc. I was actually quite comfortable and ended up getting several compliments from my bosses, the event manager and the cruise director, so I was very excited about that! The snow was falling and we gave out gifts (backpacks) to all the kids and did photographs with kids of all ages. Everyone really enjoyed it and it put us in the Christmas spirit!
Tonight, they had a cocktail party for the crew at 5:15, where all cocktails were free. Then, we were served a dinner on the Lido deck by the volunteer cabin stewards. It was great to be served and we had tons of fun having a nice dinner all dressed up. The Filipinos and Indonesians were also served by volunteer Entertainment/Deck and other departments – so everyone got their well deserved relaxing time to be served and waited on!
All in all, a nice Christmas – my first official Christmas away from home. I guess I really am growing up?!?!
Right now we’re sitting in the middle of nowhere – we have 3 straight sea days (rough sea days at that) sailing from Tasmania to New Zealand. All the Christmas trees have fallen over several times! The kids are loving the wave pool and the walking crooked – I, however, hate looking like I’m drunk all the time!
I hope everyone back home has a blessed and wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I know I am extremely grateful for all that God has given me and changed in my life over the course of the last year. Every single thing was for the better and every decision I made appeared to lead me in the right direction, despite my hesitation on some of them. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and overall, I feel the best I’ve ever felt and I hope and pray that my life continues to go the positive direction.
Like I said, I’ll continue to update you all as much as possible. Not too much has happened yet – I’ve been working so much trying to get Club Hal in order I haven’t had much time for anything else with all of the holiday activity!
Love you guys and miss you all!
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