Merry Cruisemas - Day 4

Christmas day was a lot more somber than usual with the uncertainty of Brandon's mother. It kinda felt like Christmas was canceled because we were missing half of the family and we didn't have the usual traditions of opening presents and stockings. But we tried to make the most of it and did enjoy not having to prepare (or clean up after, any of our food). The two kids didn't seem to notice too much so the adventure continued.

The cruise line made some preparations for the holiday with a Christmas sing-along with eggnog and cookies. Here we are, singing and eating and chatting in the main foyer.

Throughout the caroling, we kept getting reports of Santa and he showed up with impeccable timing as soon as we were done with our singing. We set off to the Queen's Lounge for pictures with the jolly old man (who was actually very, very young) and sexy Mrs. Claus. Even though there weren't many children on the ship, the line still managed to be very long.



Lucy wasn't interested in sitting on Santa's lap but she was interested in her present - a little Holland America stuffed bear.




Then it was more ocean watching out the window except this time, we saw a bunch of dolphins diving through the water. They were a little too far for us to take pictures though but it was cool to see them.





Bedtime brought some diaper free time for Lucy who "helped" us as we packed to go home.

We had received updates throughout the day on Brandon's mom. While we were cruising on our way to Acapulco, the rest of the family had a sleepless night in a hospital in Cabo. When they realized that she couldn't receive the kind of care that she needed, they realized that it was time to go home. But looking for flights day of (on Christmas day, no less) proved to be challenging. Flights back to Buffalo (where my in-laws live) would have taken over 13 hours with multiple layovers and they knew that it would be too much for Brandon's mom. Fortunately, there was a direct flight back to Salt Lake City (where the majority of us lived and also, where a huge percentage of extended family lived). So Christmas evening, the rest of the family returned to SLC and checked my mother-in-law into Huntsman Cancer Institute. Brandon and I bought out plane tickets that night from Acapulco back to Salt Lake City and got ready to leave 4 days into the 14 days cruise. We would be missing Guatamala, Costa Rica, and Columbia, a ridiculous amount of food and housekeeping. But in a lot of ways, it was nice to not have so much uncertainty and be able to go home.

So the last pictures from the cruise are of the rest of us in the airport in Acapulco. We had spent the morning signing paperwork to get off the cruise (who knew it would be so much work to leave a cruise - you would think that they would be happy that they have fewer people to feed and less rooms to clean).

Here's Ethan - doing what he does best. Lucy certainly seemed to be entertained though - it's always so nice to have family around to help out with the little ones.


And Adrian, doing what he does best:

Maybe there was a little relief to have the blessed internet back. It would have been good to have the 2-week break from it but there might have been a little hyperventilation from the facebook/twitter addicts.


Brandon got in some comic book time - rereading Miyazaki's Naussica.

Some things just aren't meant to be and the Panamanian cruise for the Dayton Family over the holidays was one of them. Wish we could have had a Merrier Christmas and Happier New Year's than we did but there is always next year...