More Planning

My head is spinning and it's time for bed. I spent the better part of the day organizing all my tours in a folder and creating an itinerary to leave at home for the family to follow our trip. I had some empty slots I needed to fill in so started on that. first I added a night at the Hilton in Perth and made a mistake on the reservation and ended up calling Hilton directly as the website wouldn't let me modify. As we are staying 2 consecutive nights on March 20 & 21st, the lady upgraded us to a suite with a balcony overlooking the Swan River. This is awesome and it only cost me an additional $29.00 Australian. I had previously rented a car through Alamo for when we get off the cruise on March 15th and was going to drop off on the 22nd March so I went in to modify this to drop off on the 20th. I therefore needed to call Alamo directly and they were going to charge me a $1,000 for the new reservation when the original was $520 for 2 days longer. I wasn't long canceling this reservation so I've spent most of the day looking at other rentals and found a great deal through Avis. Now I have to decide what I want to do in Perth for two days and what I want to do while at Jill's. I decided to give this a break for a bit and have started to do a bit of research on Wyoming & Montana as this will be my next land trip probably next year. I ordered a guide book for each state but won't do any formal research until we get back from Australia

Countdown

Now that Christmas is over, I can begin the countdown for our vacation.I got some great Christmas gifts for the trip...a nice book about Australia, a new vacation photo album, new travel diary, a laptop case, travel cushion, blanket & eye mask. Today I went to town & bought a new pair black shoes and nice little silver purse to use on the formal nights for the cruise. Now I need to find a converter for Australian electrical currency. The ones I looked at had European countries but not Australia. I am totally addicted to our cruise critic site and chat every night with those going on our cruise. Most are from England, Scotland and the USA but last week a fellow wrote me as he noticed I was from Nova Scotia. He told me that he and his wife are doing this cruise as well and they are from the Eastern Shore. How cool is that. This is the first time we have had someone from our province in our cruise critic group.

Christmas Day

I love the month of December with the preparations, hustle & bustle of the Christmas season. The Christmas parties and socializing with friends. My kitchen comes alive with the smells of gumdrop cakes, carrot cakes and homemade donuts.I made potato fudge this year. It is easy and is a wonderful recipe from my Grandmother Lottie.This year we had lots of excitement leading up to Christmas with Gibby & Deanna's house completion. Lots of friends and family helped with the move beginning on Dec 21,22 & 23rd. What a beautiful, cozy warm home it is and I envy the kitchen and pantry.Our traditional family gathering on Dec 24th with my family & Deanna's family and a visit by Santa were the highlights . The little ones were excited and the evening went well. I love both Deanna's family & Renee's Mom & Dad. They are all such a wonderful bunch. This morning I was up at my usual time around 5:30 but had to wait until nearly 7 am before Gibby called to say the kids were awake. Oh the excitement to see Lucas,Hannah & Jack opening the gifts with wrapping paper scattered everywhere. It brings back memories of when Gibby & Nick were little but even better we could walk away from the mess.We also spent time with Nick & Renee, Alison & Chumly opening their gifts and enjoying coffee that I didn't have to prepare before coming home to begin our Christmas feast of Creamed lobster, mashed potatoes,peas, rolls, coleslaw and Trifle for desert. It was nice to have Gil spend time with us and we were joined by my brother Shelley, Dawn & Gene as well. Now it's time to go to the d'Entremont Family potluck.This is always a fun affair with lots of great food, and the d'Entremont boys betting on something or other. It is also a sad time as it's been 3 years ago that we were planning a funeral for Grandpere Chike. Hw was one of the most gentle men I have ever met. i feel truly honored to belong to this wonderful,fun loving family.

Christmas Preparations

We had our first snow of the season and this old body doesn't like it.The bones have been creaking today! With the snow comes preparations for Christmas. With Christmas favorites playing in the CD and war cakes baking in the oven it puts me in the spirit of the season. I am truly blessed to have a talented daughter in law that offers to decorate my house and what a job she does. I love the looks of it and I hardly lifted a finger. You are a sweetheart Renee.More baking needs to be done and the gifts need wrapping but I'll save that for another day.

The weekend

Oh My Christmas is only three weeks away. I am so not ready.My baking is not done and my gifts aren't wrapped and my house looks like it has blown up. I wonder why I can't get motivated. Last evening Dr. Clark passed away. I didn't sleep well because I kept thinking about the 11 years I worked for him and how good he was to me during those years. He was a gentle man and loved by many and there are lots of young men in the area that have been named after him. My Nicholas's middle name carries his middle name. Today I am thinking of his daughter Jill, who is half a world away. This morning I left early. Sheldon was taking Lucas to play hockey so I tagged along and while they were at the rink I went to Sobeys for groceries. I had bought a cute poinsettia to take to Gil at Nakile but later found out there are many staff with allergies. I didn't go empty handed because I did remember to replenish his fruit basket with apples, oranges, bananas & grapes. He is doing much better today and the physiotherapist from the hospital visited yesterday and today he is able to walk with the walker again with assistance. Hopefully this will continue. Now it is time to start the chore of folding clothes and maybe later I will tackle some gift wrapping.

Hump Day

Came home from work early. Have had a bad headache for two weeks. Travel plans are coming together well. Australian Visa's are confirmed. Inquired about the visa's for Papua New Guinea. Canada doesn't issue them to this country so we would need to go through Washington DC. We will wait until we get to Australia and do them in Brisbane or we can have them issued through the cruise line for $50US each which will probably be easier in the long run. Took my new laptop to customs and got the certificate which states it was purchased in Canada so now I won't be accused of smuggling. Used my gift cards to Penningtons and purchased some new fancy duds. I'm on a roll. We've both had our H1N1 shots. Now we need to get our Tetanus boosters and I need to call the VON world health to find out about Yellow Fever as we are traveling to New Guinea. After this I just need to pack...well not really but I can relax for a bit