Best Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary Gift EVER!

When my DH gave me ballroom dancing lessons years ago, I thought he'd never top that gift. It was eight weeks of regular date nights and something fun we could do together, minus the kids for a change. Of course, we never mastered the tango. Didn't have the attitude for it. All we'd manage was getting into the correct hold, looking fiercely into each other's eyes and then erupting in mass giggles.

But we had a good time.

However, this year my DH stuffed my stocking with a present that will cover Christmas, both our birthdays for several years and the 40th anniversary we'll celebrate this spring.

He's taking me on a 30 day cruise to the South Pacific! Squeeeeeee!

Along the way we'll cross both the equator and the International Date Line and make stops at Hawaii, Fanning Island, Rarotonga, Society Islands, Bora Bora, Tahiti, Moorea & Nuku Kiva.

I know. Sounds delicious, right? I'm still pinching myself.

We've been committed travelers all through our married life, mostly since my DH worked in travel technology. When he visited clients in Tokyo or Dusseldorf or Amsterdam, I'd tag along and play tourist. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've lost track of how many times we've visited England. But while we were in these terrific locations, he was working, so I explored these wonderful places solo. Now that he's retired, we want to change that. It's time to enjoy our adventures together.

Plus, he says he really wants to find out if it's possible to get tired of being on a cruise ship. Guess we'll see...

If you'd like to come along on the voyage with us from the comfort of your own computer screen, please sign up to follow this blog by email. Just put your email addie in the form in the right hand column. I promise to share our traveling highlights and bloopers with equal attention.

Now I just have to figure out how to pack for 30 days...

Suggestions?

Christmas Secrets

When I was a kid, I was a firm believer in Santa Claus. The old gent was always very good to me and my sisters so I had no reason to be dubious. That's why, when a classmate tried to tell me he wasn't real, we almost came to blows.

But the seed of doubt had been planted, so I decided to find out for myself.

We always spent Christmas Eve at my grandmother's home. She had a wonderful old house with an oak banister she wrapped with pine boughs and a tree big enough to fill half of the living room. A wreath with a candle in the center lit every window. The only flaw in the place was that there was no fireplace, but my grandmother solved that problem by putting up a cardboard one for us to hang our stocking on.

How Santa Claus managed to enter the house through that cardboard fireplace was one of the great mysteries of my childhood. I'd always taken it on faith . . . until that Christmas.

That night, I waited, lying beside my sleeping sister, until the adults went to bed and the house grew quiet. Then, I heard a rustling in the living room below. I slipped out from under the covers and padded to the head of the stairs. Peering through the greenery, I discovered my grandmother below.

She was filling each of the stockings--a fragrant orange in the toe, nuts and hard candy on top of that, and a small toy in each. Before she could catch me out of bed, I tiptoed back.

Well, as it turned out, my classmate was right. There was no Santa Claus. But I learned I had something even better--I had a grandma who loved me.

When did you learn the truth about SC? Do you still believe? ;-)