Christmas this year is going to be quite different than my preceding 60+ Christmases. All of which I celebrated and enjoyed those celebrations.
Why is this one going to be different, juvat?
Beans, I thought you'd never ask. First and foremost, it's the first Christmas that Mrs. J and I are Grandparents. I know I've mentioned MG in every post since her birth (and I'm trying to ween myself from that habit), but she is probably the center of our universe right now.
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| She's way more aware of her surroundings now than she was the last time we saw her 10 days ago. |
Another difference, Mrs. J, wearing her travel agent hat, is assisting two local wineries in putting on Winemaker Cruises (one each). We have been on several of these over the years and they typically conduct seminar's and tasting on the sea days and the port days are pretty much on your own. And, typically the people that like learning about wine and tasting it also, are usually the people we hang around with, so...
Win/Win.
We've got one scheduled mid-January with our friends the Owners of Texas Hills Vineyard. with whom we have, quite literally, traveled all around the world. In those travels, we've done a wine cruise with them twice before and had a blast. This one has many of the same people attending as the previous tours, so laissez le bon temps rouler!
She also organized one for Texas Heritage Vineyard, a newer winery in the region. This will be a first for both the winery and us, although the owners have been enjoyable to work with. So...We shall see what we shall see.
In both, the winemakers will handle the educational parts of the program, and most importantly, bring the wine. Mrs. J will be there to handle any "issues" which may crop up. Me? I'm just the Steppin' Fetchit guy. But...
I'm quite experienced at that.
Another aspect of this is finding out what impact WuFlu lunacy (WuFluLu is officially now a word) will have on that. Mrs. J has been working very diligently on trying to make sure everyone understands what can and cannot happen on board. Long times on hold with different answers to the same questions haven't helped. She had recently joined a travel agent organization and received a coupon paying for the cruise portion of a voyage for two. All the other add on costs (There are many!) are ours. She decided that we would use those coupons for the same cruise itinerary on the same cruise line as our Wine Cruises. Then we would have first hand knowledge of the WuFluLu's impact on the voyage and be able to answer our client's questions better.
See why I married her? Talented, Hard-Working, Lovely, Funny and Smart (well except for that marrying a fighter pilot thing).
So. At the point you are reading this, we should be somewhere in the Caribbean, either wrapped up like a mummy to supposedly protect us from some disease, or basking in the warm sun with a tropical beverage in our hand. I'm praying (hard) for the latter.
We'll get home just before Christmas at which point we will be prepping for the return of Little J and DIL around the 30th. They'll arrive at the Austin airport 24 hours (on their reset watches) after TO which translates to 36 hours of actual travel. We suggested and they agreed to stay at the Austin Airport Hilton and we'd pick them up the next morning. Late Morning.
Their R&R will be extended through mid-February as their previous one last year was cancelled by...you guessed it...WuFluLu.
But, rather than celebrate Christmas Day, the Family will be celebrating the Visit of the Magi. And I think that will be absolutely wonderful. And kinda resembling that particular Biblical setting.
So, if responses to comment aren't appearing or are written by the support staff (you know who you are) that will mean bandwidth on the cruise is not what we'd been led to believe it was. My apologies.
