Here we are! It's the Fabulous Spirit fun people!

[alwalaska]

Originally Posted by 3dogsrule

Only thing I heard about not wrapping was if you were carrying presents through security checks on airlines. I sent some wrapped presents to Ken and Customs didn't mess with 'em. But these are going within the US. Unfortunately everything is too large to fit in even the biggest flat rate USPS box. And wow, I just checked the rates online, FedEx is like half the price of USPS (for Priority anyway, about the same as Parcel), so I think that's the way I'll be going this year. FedEx lines are usually way shorter too!

Thanks for the tips though Ann. Happy wrapping, everyone!

Glad to hear you have it all figured out. I've been doing some wrapping too and noticed there are many more boxes for Melissa than for Scott. I guess I need to remedy that.

[3dogsrule]

Heeheehee that's what got me in this trouble in the first place Ann (having too much to fit in a flat-rate box), bought more for one than another and had to make up the difference!

[Lena B]

Merry Christmas, Fabulous Februaries! We're having the perfect holiday time with a surprise visit from an old and dear friend. I love this time of year...

[NewYearsBaby]

Who's joining me later for my birthday party in the Chatzy room?

[alwalaska]

As long as we aren't playing games, I'll be there. I only have my boy for one more day, so we were going to play some Yatzee or something before he goes.

[NewYearsBaby]

Sorry I bailed on the sailaway party today. Karen and I were having a pre-sailaway party on the deck that turned into about 3 hours!
Only 5 more sailaways before ours!

[alwalaska]

Where are all of you? No one has been on this or the 2011 thread all day. My little girl leaves tomorrow and then I am back to the traveling rat race, so I probably won't be able to make sail away unless I get to my hotel earlier than I'm thinking.

Wave by to the Spirit for me.

[NewYearsBaby]

Hi, Ann. I'm here now. It's been a busy and productive day. I in fact have been pretty busy all week. But now that the halls have been undecorated, and the Arkansas Razorbacks have won the Cotton Bowl, and the kids are all bathed and "at sleep" as Eden says, I can relax.
Also my cruise preparations have begun in earnest. I got the NCL points redeemed for onboard credit.

[alwalaska]

Originally Posted by NewYearsBaby

Hi, Ann. I'm here now. It's been a busy and productive day. I in fact have been pretty busy all week. But now that the halls have been undecorated, and the Arkansas Razorbacks have won the Cotton Bowl, and the kids are all bathed and "at sleep" as Eden says, I can relax.
Also my cruise preparations have begun in earnest. I got the NCL points redeemed for onboard credit.

Hopefully my honey will undecorate while I am gone this week. Even better than that would be if he put up all the new bath stuff I got for Christmas.

I don't know if I'll make sail away since my hotel is an hour or so from the airport and I don't land until 3:30 supposedly. I'm flying US Scare, so who knows. My baby is almost "home" in Cedar City. She got stuck on runway in Salt Lake for a while on her way back.

I've decided that whichever child leaves 2nd is the hardest. I was fine when my son went back on Tuesday, but I've been really moody and weepy today. Does it ever get easier?

I didn't think you still had kids at an age to bathe and put "at sleep" any more. Do you have company or am I confusing you with someone?

Your sleeps until your cruise are getting low. Have fun preparing.

[NewYearsBaby]

Hi, again, Ann. My original 3 babies are all in their 30's. Two are *almost* 40! It gets easier as long as everything is going well with them. But let there be a health scare or a fender-bender, and the mom instinct goes into overdrive. I hope Scott and Melissa are both safely back at college after the holidays and you can relax.
We have our 3 youngest grandchildren almost every Friday night and Saturday while their parents work. Those are the ones who were bathed and fed and at sleep in the earlier post. Also they are the ones we took to DisneyWorld the 17th - 24th of December. We had such big fun!
Safe travels to you!

[NewYearsBaby]

Well, Alas, they closed us down on the 2011 thread. At least they let us reach our goal of 5,000 posts!! And they were very nice about it.
So here we all are. Karen, Thanks so much for setting this up for us. You knew we would need it!

[alwalaska]

Originally Posted by NewYearsBaby

Well, Alas, they closed us down on the 2011 thread. At least they let us reach our goal of 5,000 posts!! And they were very nice about it.
So here we all are. Karen, Thanks so much for setting this up for us. You knew we would need it!

5,000 seems to be a magic shutdown number. So sad , but at least we had this setup and ready thanks to Karen.

[Holstebro]

How sad to see our old roll call thread being shut down. However, they did warn us many months ago - following which our ever-resourceful Karen set up this thread. So here's to our continuous friendship on this thread and may it bring us to another magic 5,000 posts.

Ginny: we're anxious to hear news from you.

The Arkansas contingent: did Isaac pay you a visit, too?

[Lena B]

Hey, Eva! We're all finding our way over...Yay, Karen for setting this up ahead of time!

Isaac is knocking on the door, but so far we're not letting him in. It's a very very slow moving storm.

So far, I'm still teaching this afternoon, but I've called everyone to say if the weather gets nasty STAY HOME! I hope that they listen...I really don't want my students and their families stranded at my house...They might just find out that perfect Ms. Lena is kind of naughty...

[dr.d]

Karen, thank you for setting this up. I wonder why we migrated from it but now we're back. Hooray!!

Ann, please do cruise with us!

Lena, if I'm really good, may I be stranded at your house????

Di, how about your house????

Hell, we all know we're welcome to all our homes. We be sistas!!!

Eva, are there hurricanes or tornadoes in your region?

Ginny, Bill and all in storms way, I'm praying for you!

[Lena B]

Donna, if you're really a little bit naughty, you're welcome at my house!

Ann - if you're really very nice, but are amused by friends who are a little bit naughty, come on friend!

Spirits, you are all very welcome here, but I try to convince my students that I'm Saint old lady nice Lena...they might just be shocked...

[3dogsrule]

Well darn it, we knew it was a matter of time before they shut us down. And yeah, it was nice of 'em to let us reach 5k. But......I'll miss the ole thread!

It was a rainy day/night but it was for the most part a slow soaker, so not really much flooding and only a few trees down here and there. We fared much better than our southerly neighbors. Although, we do still have a chance for severe storms/tornadoes later in the day, the chances aren't too big. Ginny, we'd love to hear how you're doing!

Happy Friday everyone!!

[Holstebro]

Lena, we all knew right away that you're a candidate for winning the naughty contest and I do hope that by now your students have figured out as well. If not, they may now be playing with a full deck

Karen, thank you for the weather update from your region. Hopefully, it does not get worse.

Luckily, we rarely have hurricanes in Denmark and never any tornadoes. No real earthquakes either, no poisonous animals except a rare viper and only the occasional flooding. But we do have blizzards, rather cold winters and have just had a miserably cold, grey and wet summer.

Happy weekend everybody. I'll be going out of town on a romantic getaway, sightseeing and staying at a hotel in the southern part of Denmark.

[NewYearsBaby]

Originally Posted by dr.d

Di, how about your house????

Well, of course, we be sistas, and we would have a fabulous time under any circumstances, but at my house, for now, you would have to sleep in the floor! After saying for two days that Isaac was pretty much a non-event here at the lake, last night was different. One of the last rains that blew through brought with it a severe thunderstorm and we took a lightning hit to the guest bedroom. We have some pretty significant damage, a very stinky and torn up guest room, no power to a section of the house, perhaps a tree will have to come down and a section of ceiling and roof replaced. But we were so lucky and blessed. Two of the children were here. They are unharmed and in fact they slept through it all, so they are also untraumatized. One of the firemen said he had never seen such significant charring without smoke and flames.
The storms settled down but, unfortunately, I didn't. I am exhausted and I feel a nap coming on after the kids leave!!

[3dogsrule]

When that lightening hit Di, it sure scared the *&%# out of me and the dogs! Sara, who in her old age is mostly deaf, came unglued and practically crawled up my rear end. I knew it was close but I didn't know it hit my mocha-choc bud!! I can't believe our power stayed on through that mess. I was glad to see the fire department check everything out last night and so thankful it wasn't worse, but I bet that might have given you a coupla new gray hairs Dianne! And glad the kids slept through the commotion. I want to see it later, we'll have to drink a mocha-choc toast to how much worse it could have been!!

Karen