Merry Christmas

A virtual Christmas Carol from our home to yours!

Trimming he Tree

Everyone helps out!

Hendrix tests the lights...

Finding just the right spot for the Micky Mouse bell ornament...

Hendrix inspects...

Bandit and his boy recover...

and Hendrix says, "Good Job"

Brotherly Love

I thought I'd share a little film clip showing how families bond during the holidays.  Enjoy!

Blue Blankie

I spent the weekend restoring Blue Blankie, which involved deconstructing it, reinforcing nearly every original flowered blue square, replacing several squares, new batting, back, binding, quilting.

Here are series of photos that document the progress.  One shows the back side, with the number of light colored reinforcements (not all - I think only two or three of the floral squares ended up without basking).  The final product has a free "icky corner" - a corner that is not encased in the binding, so Lian can rub her eye and nose with it (hence the name icky corner).   Lian picked out the fabrics.

Heading Home

Up in the air, on our way to Atlanta.  The marvels of air travel today never cease to amaze.  I'm uploading the last of the photos to Picasa, while looking up just how long one should expect to cough with a chest cold (up to three weeks, totally unacceptable).  Mr. Sha is several seats ahead of us, working on math homework.  He got his art homework posted at the Orlando airport.  We have a very short layover at Atlanta, then a long flight, medium drive, then home!  Home, give Stuc her gifts and see the puppies!  It will be nice to see the Joid too, but don't know when that will happen.

Illuminations from our balcony

So nice...you can see the fireworks, but don't have to sit through the annoying globe scene:

Dinner at the Derby

A nice, slow, relaxing day for Mr. Shaw, Math Man, and me.  We went to Hollywood Studios today, and Mr. Sha ran around collecting Fast Passes for us.  This meant we rode Tower of Terror, Rock and Roller, and Toy Story Mania all in quick succession at the end of the day.  Lunch was at SciFi Drive Inn, were we enjoyed clips from some classic grade B movies (including Plan 9 from Outer Space).  Dinner was at one of our all time favorites, the Hollywood Brown Derby, and we were not disappointed!

Mr. Sha, waiting to be seated for dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby.

Hanging out at the Yacht Club tonight (sounds so snooty).  Math Man is doing laundry.  Mr. Sha was wandering around.  I spoke to the Joid (who did well at his conference and is headed home) and Stuc, who is keeping the pups occupied and out of trouble. We miss them both!

Slow and Steady

Taking it slow and steady tonight.  We moved to the Yacht Club - our first time here.  Our room is the second room furthest from the lobby, with a lovely view:

Two Sickies, But Still Having Fun

We might be slow, but we are steady! We modified our plans to skip Epcot tonight and went mini-golfing instead.  A close game, 40-42-42, with the par for the course at 56.  Math Man came out ahead, but then again, he was keeping score.

Dinner tonight was the best kind...whatever we could scramble from the gift shop.  A couple of healthy options (some fruit and veggies) and of junk.  We all feel rather sick.  We tried for a quick food place, but they were all backed up and we were too tired.

Since we had a good (and healthy) lunch at Crystal Palace today, I don't feel too bad about this!  This is vacation after all!

We had a great view of Illuminations from our balcony, with the benefit of being able to come inside for the boring globe parts!  What a life!

We all miss the Joid, since he should have been here today...we hear he could be having a better time.  Oh well.

Stretching the Umbilical Cord

This darn cold forces me to retire early, so of course Mr. Sha does not trust Math Man on his own and send him with me, leaving Mr. Sha all alone at Epcot.  I know he will be fine.  He will do better on his own than the Joid, I think (at least in terms of navigating his way back).  Still, the fact he so grown up, and the fact the Joid is so grown up that he is going on a trip to present a poster at a conference all on his own...well, that umbilical cord is sure stretching.

In spite of the fact my lungs are filled with gunk, we had fun.  We had a great cast member, Iliana, who was from Puerto Rico, guide us through the aviary today.  She pointed out every bird and explained that if the males and females looked exactly alike, they would band the males on one leg, and the females on the other.  She also told us about a bird who accidentally broke her first eggs, so they gave her another species of egg to hatch, and that bird still hangs out with the mother, even though the two species don't typically get along.  Another interesting tidbit is that the birds generally don't need to be acclimated to the new group, but once in a while they do get overly aggressive birds (for some reason more often from Asia) and then these birds have to be sent to another partner institution.  Math Man got lots of great bird pictures.

Mr. Sha and I posed like the ancients.

We saw Festival of the Lion King.  Joid will be very sad to know he missed another musical.

The early evening (before I wimped out) was spent eating our way around the World Showcase in Epcot. We sampled food from Morroco (Kefta Pocket, Harissa Chicken Roll, Baklava), Japan (Pork Kakuni - very tasty), Singapore (Shrimp Cake on a Sugarcane Skewer with Singapore Noodles, Tiger Beer), Italy (Ravioli di formaggio all'Emiliana), South Africa (Seared Filet of Beef with Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Braai Sause, Bunny Chow-- vegetable curry in a bread bowl), and Norway (Rice Cream).  Delicious!

Now Math Man and I are back resting and Mr. Sha is out in the freezing cold, all by himself, with me worrying.  He's probably having the best time ever!

Some memorable photos from the day:

Memories Old, Memories New

Being at WDW always brings up memories of trips past.  I saw a little kid "dancing" in his car (stroller) - just the and moves - and was instantly transported back to Mr. Sha freely dancing in front of the Morocco Pavilion. I see the young kids so excited, and remember our boys, racing to get to Goofy's Barn Stormer again and again!  I see the older kids so cool, and see our boys, going on Space Mountain with their sunglasses on, cool as could be, riding it time and time and time again.  I see the families dining. On the trams.  I see the kids with the parents and wonder how they interact.  Then I look at their parents and wonder if they look at me, hoping that when their kids are the age of Mr. Sha that they will still be travelling with them, enjoying their company as we do.  Well, as we do most of the time.  We are human, after all.  All I know is that I treasure each opportunity to be with my family, and miss those who are not here.  It still seems so strange to not have Joid and Stuc not with us.

Today were super excited to check out the new Star Tours!  I don't want to spoil it - but let's say, it's better than the trip to the moons that we experienced before.  Here's Mr. Sha modeling the stylish 3D eyewear:

We ate at one of our favorite spots, 50's Prime Time Cafe.  It wasn't too crowded, so Mr. Sha and I had a chance to relax in the mid-century themed living room:

After lunch, there was time for pin shopping (of course - another favorite memory of mine!) and the boys are seen seriously studying the offerings:

We saw the show Beauty & the Beast, in part to spare Joid the torture on the next trip.  Math Man, Mr. Sha and I appreciate the detailing that goes into the costumes, although the show is rather condensed (Belle goes suddenly from the village to being held captive by the Beast with no explanation!).  Disney really does a great job on the costumes:

We ended the day with a trip to Epcot and more memories...mainly the memory of me making a major mistake on the schedule (tomorrow has extra magic hours at Epcot, not tonight), getting stuck inside Test Tract "due to inclement weather," and a memory that brings back many other memories...my cold returning to my chest.  So many trips where one or more of us has been sick!  Soldier on we must!  Drug up we must!  No time for the weak, this is vacation!

Color

Our second full day comes to a close.  We have been helping Mr. Sha locate the necessary color combinations for his art homework assignment.  Tertiary.  Complimentary.  This and That and The Other.  We have been seeking and gathering objects to photograph to help him complete the assignment.  There is a folder in Picassa called Art Homework (or something like that) with the photos labeled.

Speaking of ART, while at Animal Kingdom, we saw Finding Nemo the Musical.  While the music may not be the best, the puppetry is stellar.  

The night was spent at Magic Kingdom.  Mr. Shaw was so happy to get a pass on Country Bear Jamboree for the evening, but he didn't escape Hall of Presidents!!

We closed the park and are now happy and exhausted!

Royal Treatment

Math Man, Mr. Sha, and I had a pretty magical day.  It started by with the alarm going off at 5:00 a.m. and our inability to figure out how to silence the thing (so it must be magical).  Next, we packed up and headed to the front desk to seek a room change.  Cast Member Betty (more pixie dust!!) was not only able to accomodate our request for two queen beds, but she was able to upgrade us for a nominal charge to a Tower room at the highest level that's not "special club level" -- 11th floor! Magic! 

Off to Epcot we go!  Lunch with the Princesses, and they were so lovely!  We asked them to say hello to a special Princess back in Logan, and they all did.  Even Mr. Sha obliged to take a couple of photos!  Of course, this was soon countered by extreme royal sword fighting in Germany.  I loved the fact that they now have PINK swords, shields, and crowns.  Mr. Sha was handily defeated, of course.

Since the Joid is not with me, I had to ride the wimpy green version of Mission Space.  This did afford me the opportunity to take photos of the scenes in which Joid claims there is a Hidden Mickey in the clouds.  Can anyone spot it?

And the best part of Mr. Sha's day (not) was his introduction to fine music.  He attended a few sets of Starship.  This photo pretty much sums up his feelings:

Now we are back in our lovely hotel on the 11th floor.  Math Man is helping Mr. Sha with his math homework.  He won't answer whether doing his math is better or worse than the Starship concert.

Tomorrow...off to see the Animals!

We arrived! Today's adventures included a lovely second class air trip (complete with continuous seat kicking for second flight), and a cool rental car (Nissan Maxima -- keyless ignition! We couldn't figure out how to start it and had to ask). We got to our hotel in time to move dinner up (at the Wave in the Contempary, where Mr. Sha first learned he loves scallops) and had time to walk over to the Magic Kingdom to check out some rides. Since we were missing the Joid and the Stuc, we decided we would honor them by going to a totally awesome attraction first...Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. You can see by the top photo the level of excitment this generated in Math Man and Mr. Sha. It was actually better than it was before. We also, believe it or not, went on the Tea Cups, and photographic evidence is hereby provided of this historic occasion. No turning of the central disc was allowed, so no tossing of the lovely dinner at the Wave occured. We manged to attend several attractions, including the tail end of a very patriotic Electric Light Parade, photos of which will be posted to my Picasa album. They are just too moving to be available for wide public consumption.

A new chapter in vacations begins

Here we are in our Hilton Hotel (which looks just like the Hilton I stayed at in Washington D.C. last weekend), starting our much anticipated vacation to the Holy Land. This is a new one for me. I realized on the drive down to SLC that I've taken vacactions, or at least work trips with some fun time tossed in, with just Mr. Sha, with just the Joid, with Math Man, with just the Stuc...and with the combos of Mr. Sha, Joid, Stuc; Mr. Sha, Stuc; Joid Stuc; Stuc, Math Man, Joid; ... every combo *except* Math Man and Mr. Sha! This will be a first!

I am a bit sad to not have the whole family together. I miss Stuc and the Joid, but know that in May we will have a glorious trip in which we celebrate all that is holy and pure about the most magic of places.

Mr. Sha is not too happy about the fact he must work on some math while on vacation. He actually did 14 of the 96 problems he has to do, so has 14.6% completed. It took him less than 30 minutes...but the build up of dread was at least an hour. He does not wish me to report his psychosis. He worked very hard to make up as much work as possible prior to our departure.

Math Man is laughing at a book Mr. Sha's teacher gave in to read about color. It has a chapter on romatic logos and features two rabbits humping. It promises to be an interestng week.

Tomorrow we rise at 5 a.m. to catch our flight. Stay tuned for daily updates.