Radiance 9-14-07 Polar Bear Express "Special"!

Dramaqueen wrote:

First chance I've had to post today.
Congrats Di and Michelle. I'm so glad for both of you. Which cruise did you win? I'm confused with there being so many.

Me too!

Di won the Santa's Second Chance - February 14, 2010 sailing aboard Celebrity Solstice (I think )

I won 3rd place in the song contest - Caribbean Princess - 4th of July Sailing 2010

Jul - you know I agree with you. I was complaining about the mass emails from the beginning. It's impossible to look at someone who has over 20 votes and 90% of them are 1 posts wonders and not know that something was fishy. I hope that tax bill stings. Luckily I get to sail with that person. I will happily sit in my inside cabin and know that I didn't cheat to get there.

Whoops...........

SUSAN

Home again..........kinda beat right now,but wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY,Susan...........hope its a good one.....

and congrats to the latest round of winners amongst our group........Looks like I have some updating to do.............

We had a great time ,but glad to be home relaxing......

Talk to you all tomorrow~!!

Welcome Home Kathy................we missed you!

Yup........DITTO...welcome home Kathy.....missed ur smiling face!!!

Welcome Home Kathy!

And, thank you everyone for my B-Day wishes. It has been a good one. Got my hair done and lots of shopping for fun stuff for me! Ray ended up going in to work, so no celebratory dinner for me, but I went to Chili's for lunch! They are opening a new Olive Garden in town and that's what I was craving, but it doesn't open until January... so I settled for Chili's!

Happy Belated Birthday Susan First chance I've had all day to pick up my puter. Can't believe Ray went in to work. He needs to be careful.

We had a great day. The kids got in right on time no problems at all. The picture turned out great, really cute. We got home about 8pm and everyone is in bed already. I'm very happy to have them. The baby really grew since we saw him.

Welcome home Kathy. Good to have you back. Off to catch some

Susan.

Welcome home Kathy.

Welcome home Kathy!

Thanks everyone for the congrats! Yes John and I can not believe our luck.

The kids made it safely to PA.

Up early for work can't get started until 4. So just checking around.

d

Up a little early around here too.........Keep hearing some beeping going off but everytime dh and I look for it, it stops......driving me NUTS.....

Gotta work this am, then make several dozen deviled eggs for 'family' cmas night. At this point I'm dead tired and would rather sleep!!! Maybe I'll get some energy as the day goes on.

have a great day y'all

j

Oh, Sheila, that is so great that the kids were on time! Hope you have a FANTASTIC visit with them all!

Jul, I had a watch once that I only took on vacations... it was waterproof, so was great for the beach. It had an alarm feature and every once in a while I would wake up in the middle of the night hearing beeping, but could never find it. Turned out the watch was in my overnight bag in the closet and the alarm somehow was turned on and went off in the middle of the night! Hope your beeping is something simple like that.

I'll be doing some baking and Wonka-ing today! Never got to making my rum balls yet and I HAVE to do them today!

Good morning--we are at -14 and still lots of wind with travel not advised. Guess we will be staying inside today.

Susan--sounds like you had a good birthday, do hope Ray takes care

Sheila--thought about you and your family plans yesterday, glad to hear it all worked out

Hi everyone

Thank you for the cards and Christmas wishes, and a big thank you to Diane for my package. I'll be the one SPB opening it on Christmas day.

I'm not much of a writer (I hear Patti agreeing wholeheartedly with that ) and sometimes I don't log on for a couple of weeks, but I do try and keep up with what's happening.

Susan - So glad to hear Ray's doing fine, but hope he decides going back to work is not a good idea.

Jul - Congratulations on the twins, sounds like a lot of hard work.

Seems I missed out on all the contests, but congratulations to all those that won. They mostly happened when I didn't log on for a couple of weeks, so I snoozed and losed .

We've had snow and ice for the last week, and it may last through Christmas. Portland has this sort of weather so rarely that we aren't really set up for it. They don't use salt on the roads (bad for the environment) so it's sand only and snow chains. I've managed to get to work OK, but slowly, and had to stay in a hotel a couple of nights. The dogs love the snow and come in looking like large snowballs.

Happy Sunday

Hello Jean #2!!!! I've missed you! I too am waiting until Christmas to open Diane's gift. My sister also sent me a present that I haven't opened... she just can't understandy my self-control!

Ray worked all night and won't be home until 1 or so this afternoon. The winds are very bad right now. Power lines down all over the place. Ray thought the power would be off here at the house since a major transformer blew about half a mile from here, but thankfully all is well! The furnace is having trouble keeping up though... I think I posted earlier that we wouldn't be sub-zero until tonight... I lied! We are at 5 below now, that equates to 30 below with wind chill! Guess I'd better get baking to warm up the kitchen at least!

Murphy wrote:

Hello Jean #2!!!! I've missed you! I too am waiting until Christmas to open Diane's gift. My sister also sent me a present that I haven't opened... she just can't understandy my self-control!

Ray worked all night and won't be home until 1 or so this afternoon.

Thanks for the welcome . It's around 16 here, very cold for us.

I've always waited till Christmas morning to open presents. Just one of those things - I love surprises. I have gifts from the friends I cruised with in September waiting for me, and a couple of birthday presents too. We meet infrequently so try and get all the gifts ready so we won't have to mail them!

Ray will be exhausted after working all night. It's bad enough after sitting at a desk all night - totally messes up my sleep schedule, but I can't imagine what it's like to have to move around and supervise people too. I'm surprised the doctor let him go back to work so soon.

Jean, did I miss your B-Day???? Hope it was/is a happy one!!!!

Ummm, the Dr didn't let him go back to work yet... he wasn't supposed to go back until tomorrow, but the Dr did say it was up to Ray if he even went back then, depending on how he felt! He has to go for a follow up visit on Tuesday. I'm wondering if Ray will tell him he went to work early!!!!!!

Murphy wrote:

Jean, did I miss your B-Day???? Hope it was/is a happy one!!!!

Ummm, the Dr didn't let him go back to work yet... he wasn't supposed to go back until tomorrow, but the Dr did say it was up to Ray if he even went back then, depending on how he felt! He has to go for a follow up visit on Tuesday. I'm wondering if Ray will tell him he went to work early!!!!!!

My B-Day's in February - we sometimes exchange gifts a year in advance. Anything to save postage charges.

Why is it men rarely follow Dr's directions, and don't do the preventative medical stuff that we all do. I know some of the prodding and poking isn't very pleasant but it's better than the alternative.

Anyway, to get to some more pleasant stuff - I can smell your baking from here. Wish I was a couple of thousand miles closer!

Good to see ya Jean! Hope you have a great holiday season.

Susan....no baking on this end.........gotta make 48 deviled eggs tho...ickkkkkk.......why are they such a pain to make?!?!?!? But sooo good to eat?!?!?!

Back to the kitchen.

j

Jul, I don't mind making deviled eggs, as long as they peel ok! It's when you get the "fresh" dozen that stick that they are a PITA!

Rum balls are chilling, or should I say the ganache is setting. They won't be balls until later this afternoon.

Now I'm going to make those EASY candy cane pretzels. I think I shared the recipe last year...

1 bag of pretzel rings
1-2 bags of Hershey's candy cane flavor kisses (but any flavor really works)
1 bag of red/green M & M's

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Lay a single layer of pretzels on the paper. You can place them pretty close to each other, but they must lay flat
Unwrap the kisses (this is the hardest part)
Put one kiss inside each pretzel ring
Put in the oven for about 10 minutes... watch carefully... when the kisses start to melt, pull the tray out
Immediately place one M&M on top of the kiss and press down. The kiss should spread so that it fills the pretzel hole.
Cool completely before attempting to remove from the parchment paper.

Dh must have bought 'stale' eggs cuz they peeled soooooo easy this time.....Usually I'm cussing up a storm trying to peel them...and I boil 24 eggs and end up with about 12 I have to trash due to bad ugly peeling....this time I get only one that didn't peel good.........sooo at least that's done.

Onto a nap!!

have fun Willy wonka the 2nd!!

j

I love reading the messages here...makes my heart smile....

I am about to be caught up...about

Love all the cards from everyone...I was bad, I tore right into the package...love the suprise...Daine is sooo talented & thoughtful!

Made Shelia's pork loin or lunch...was fabulous

back to washing & cards...

Afternoon all, John and I spent the afternoon watching a pay-per-view movie the Indiana Jones movie that came to the theaters last year. It was good, he slept through some of it and I just about finished the baby afghan I'm making for him to give to his hair stylist. No I didn't start it today I started it on Thursday.

Very very cold here today but at least the sun is out.

Need to get my rear in gear fortunately I only work at work 2 days this week.

Jean2 great to see you posting.

Susan someone at work made those pretzel, kisses & M&M thingys they are very good and habit forming.

I was plesantly surprised when I made our pre-cruise hotel reservations this morning to discover that I had enough Marriott points for a free stay. Guess it really is my lucky weekend. Although the lottery left me high and dry.

We're still pinching ourselves.

d

Welcome home Barb! Hope the trip was great... it's a bummer getting back to reality though isn't it!