Getting Ready!

Yesterday I won twice at Mah Jongg in the morning, worked around the house in the afternoon, and then had dinner out at Bonefish Grille with friends from SOJC. It was a wonderful day!

This morning I'm down two pounds from Wednesday, so that is also nice.  Water weight leaves quickly!  LOL

Today we are PACKING before heading over to the Cove to work in the library.  We leave on our New Year's Eve cruise with Susie and Ed TOMORROW!  This cruise is 7 nights on the Norwegian Epic, a brand new ship and cruise line for us.  We are hoping we like it.  They gave everyone a free beverage package, so we have no worries about drinking for free on this trip, which is nice since it will be New Year's Eve.

We are going to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Nassau, and the private island Great Stirrup Cay.  Of course, we have been to all of those places before and will be at some of them again in February!  LOL  Doesn't matter.  The point is to have a great NYE celebration and some time with good friends.

I will be taking my computer in order to process the hundreds of photos I'll be taking, but I will not try to write any blogs.  That would require internet, and we don't really know what the NCL ships have for internet or how much it might cost.  I'll be writing blogs beginning again on either January 6 or thereafter when we return.

Meanwhile, I wish everybody a Happy New Year and may 2018 bring you much peace, happiness, and good health.

Mahj Morning

This morning I am teaching three new people how to play Mah Jongg.  I offered when I saw them post on the Nextdoor Solivita site that they were looking to learn.  I think it will be fun.  Then in the afternoon I  have a mani/pedi.

We had a wonderful time at School of Rock last night.  The show was amazing  We were in the nosebleed section, only three rows higher than us.  We were slightly off to stage right, but the show still looked great.  Ed had brought an extra pair of binoculars and loaned them to me. I really enjoyed using them periodically to see the people's faces up close.  I'm glad that most of our shows are Sunday matinees because we did't get home until after midnight!

It's a sad Weigh-inWednesday this morning.  I am 268.6, which is up a pound from last week and up ten from a month ago.  The holiday season has not been kind to me.  I have lost my control center, but maybe today I can find it again because all of our meals are at home today.

On Christmas Eve day, this past Sunday, we went to see The Last Jedi and then did the Chipmunk Xmas Tree Spree, a scavenger hunt to find stickers similar to the one with Stitch but this one was in the countries of Epcot's World Showcase.  Here are some pictures from that day.  At that point there are no more photos to post from our latest adventures.

Mexico was our first stop.

The pavilion had all new exhibits now related to the new Pixar movie, Coco, and the Day of the Dead celebrations.

One of dozens in a display of sugar skulls.

There's the wreath we were looking for.

So we got our first sticker in Mexico.

The Mariachi band performed songs from Coco.

The second wreath was in Norway.

I put the Norway sticker on.

As we came to the American pavilion the Candlelight Processional was starting.

It was too late for us to get a seat, but we stood in the back for awhile.

We really wanted to see and hear tonight's narrator, CCH Pounder, one of our favorite actresses currently on NCIS: New Orleans.

We also had time to watch the Canadian performers.

Canada was the last pavilion, so our stickers are complete.

We turned it in for a bag of buttons!

Bye Bye Stitch!  This year he is wearing a new hat.

Before we went home, we drove around Solivita to see the winners of the house decorating contest.  This is one of the houses that tied for first place.

This is the house that tied for first with the one above.

Good movies

We both really enjoyed our double feature yesterday of Downsizing and Jumanji, but we agreed that Jumanji was the better one.  Downsizing was good, but it didn't quite go the way we thought it would and ended rather abruptly.  Jumanji was just a ton of fun.

Then we had our Chinese food dinner, which we had both been looking forward to very much.  It did not disappoint.  After dinner, we watched the new Dr. Who Christmas Special and saw the current doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, regenerate into a WOMAN!  This is the first time since the show premiered in 1963 that the Doctor has been a woman, although his nemesis, The Master, has been a woman before so there was that precedent.  Great show!

Today I just went out for a little shopping and to mail out some birthday packages for the sisters-in-law whose birthdays are the first week of January while we are on our cruise.

This evening we are going out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with Susie and Ed and then to the Dr. Phillips Center to see School of Rock.  That should be a lot of fun, too.

Here are some more pictures from the last few days.

After we checked out of Old Key West, we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Every year we go see the Grinchmas show.

Then we wandered over to see the Hogwarts area and its decorations, although they are mostly at night.

Visiting Zulu, the resident Velociraptor in Jurassic Park, was something new for us.

She moves a lot and was actually kind of scary.

For the first time ever, we had lunch at Blondie's where they specialize in Dagwood sandwiches.

Our timing was also perfect to meet Olive Oyl, Popeye, and Betty Boop.  Betty was adorable and liked my nails.

Saturday we went to SeaWorld and ate lunch for free with our Passholder Meal Deal.  That was our last time since the deal is over at the end of the year.

We came here to see the holiday shows.  The first one was the Sesame Street  characters show in the Pets Ahoy theater.

Inside are lots of rays, sharks, and fish.  We always enjoy looking at them.

The dolphins were being cute today.

"Look at me.  I'm doing all my tricks just in case you might throw me a fish!"

I spent a lot of time petting the rays.  So soft.

The sea lions were barking for fish!

Clyde and Seymour have a holiday show, too.

Loved the otter!

Giant walrus always shocks everyone when he comes out.

Shamu holiday show is always beautiful.

Then we went to the ice skating show.

On the way out we watched the Christmas tree show along the lake, where the trees change color with the music.

We decided that SeaWorld does the best snow of all the theme parks.