Christmas 2024 Reminiscences (2 of 2)

Part 2 of my Christmas 2024 Reminiscences focuses on activities, not things: games we played, an extensive list of tasks Jeremy and Robin generously completed to help out Frank and me, and family gatherings we shared.

Games
Games were mainly trying out new Christmas gifts. Alex loved his new manipulative game for dropping circles into a playing board. Technically this was a Bingo line-up 4 and not a Connect 4 but it had two advantages. There was no bar beneath to slide sideways to release the stacked disks. Alex could contently play without inadvertently bumping the release and dumping the disks. He could start playing immediately and not have to check if the toggle bar was positioned correctly. Plus, how could I pass up those bright red and green colors for Christmas? Alex enjoyed it a lot; he enjoyed taking turns with Isaiah to play without the restriction of rules or color preferences. Isaiah, on his own, also liked the color patterns he created in solo play.

Alex loves his dancing Christmas tree. Even Jeremy danced along with Alex and his tree that sings a jazzy version of "Oh, Christmas Tree" while waving its arms, shaking its branches, and wiggling its bottom. You can see the tree performing starting at 2:00 in this YouTube video and ending at 3:01. Jeremy even jigged along with Alex as the tree sang and wiggled. After each performance, Alex is sure to give his tree a love. This tree is not a new 2024 addition, but has been a true Christmas tradition for Alex for many years now. Every year we take it to the St. Denis Home for a few weeks around the holiday to entertain the clients and staff.

We've had this inflatable ringtoss game for a few Christmases now and folks like the challenge. You can see the game in action, included two grandmas inflating it, in a picture from 2022 and in my post for Christmas 2022.

Isaiah and Autumn played several games of Christmas checkers with each other or with a parent or with a grandparent. I bought three of these sets when Robin and Dan were little and each Robin and Dan have a set in their own home. The novelty of Grandma's house makes it a bit more enticing to play here, though.

Friday night, Robin and I took Autumn and Isaiah to Lost Worlds Adventures in Livermore, a dinosaur themed play zone, to blow off some steam. The place was quiet that night and Isaiah had wanted to play laser tag but there were not enough customers to do so. The place was great and rose to fix the situation. Some of the staff joined in as players to fill the gaps so the interested kids could still have the fun experience. 

Sunday was the middle of the visit and we picked up Alex and went bowling. We bowled two games: the first was Oxenford versus Chambers; Robin won with a score of 113. Then we mixed it up and did parents/grandparents versus kiddos. It was a pretty balanced competition but, alas, I have no photo of the final scores. I could never time taking the shot without the orange rectangle overlay.The important thing was that we all had fun, and it was a pair of friendly games. Isaiah got a bit tuckered out a one point. Real nap or fake pose...? I'll never tell.

We had pizza for lunch and then posed in front of the bowling alley's Christmas tree for photos - with Santa of course. I remember taking Vivian and Lillian bowling here one time at Christmas. One ran off in one direction, the other in an opposite direction and in the ensuing chaos somebody knocked over poor Santa. Aaah... memories. These pictures are memorable for another reason. Autumn is smiling and willing to pose. Those pre-teen years often bring about a photo-taking aversion. 

Jeremy, Isaiah, and I played  a few boisterous rounds of The Hot Dog Card Game from Dog Man. It is a fast-paced game of memory and the player who "eats" the most hot dogs wins!

A very popular activity was operating a combination bank/slot machine that I wrapped up as a joint present for Frank and Alex. Alex loves banks so that aspect was for him. When Frank was a child, his mother loved to play the slot machines at the Rod 'N Reel restaurant during their summer vacation at the Chesapeake Bay so I thought that aspect would be nostalgic for him. Frank's family affectionately called the casual eatery the "Rotten Eel". To this day Frank vividly remembers their crab cakes... and the slot machines. This gift soon became solely Frank's, not Alex's; but Frank shared generously with Autumn and Isaiah who also became very engaged in the slot machine operation portion. The slot machine lights up, sounds a bell, and dumps out coins when a "jackpot" is hit. Who'd have thought a last minute $5.99 purchase at a local drug store would have had such an impact. I've included a link to the Rod 'N Reel Resort showing its growth since its establishment in 1946.

One of the jigsaw puzzles we assembled was a 300 piece puzzle called Christmas Stories. The details were really fun to locate and discover. I must reveal, although this was my gift, I did not have the opportunity to participate very much. I was pre-occupied with playing Christmas checkers against various opponents. I will sheepishly admit that after our visitors left, Frank and I did the puzzle again so that I could feel I'd given his gift to me sufficient attention.😉

Another jigsaw puzzle, my gift to Frank, worked out really well as a joint venture. The 400-piece puzzle was arranged as four 100-piece puzzles, one each for a car of the train. They linked together when completed. The LEGO construction of the train added more interest to the image; it also added to each person's incentive to complete his assigned car.

 

Jeremy, Autumn, Isaiah, and Robin played Guess in 10 the Marvel edition. This card game has the players ask up to 10 questions to help identify the character on the playing card. It is really just a specialized, formalized game of 20 questions. Frank and I knew we would not have a prayer of a chance at knowing any of the answers; we are not of the Marvel world! I did gift Frank a version of the Guess in 10 the Disney edition where there was a finite probability we could be successful. We played it the following week with friends over a zoom call. Since we had the cards and our friends did not, they could only play the role of guessing. Alas, they could not even succeed in getting Mickey Mouse. Frank and I will have to play with each other. Not all gifts are winners...

Working hard

The visit was not all fun and games. Robin and Jeremy worked their buns off doing tasks we suggested we could use help with. Robin had assured us that Jeremy liked feeling useful. We put an optional to-do list on the white board trying to be sure that Jeremy would feel "useful" but not "used". He studied it and then calmly said, "I think we do all that this week". The biggest job was getting all the baby stuff from the attic: a pack 'n ply, a high chair, a car seat, a booster seat, a bouncy chair, and an oak crib complete with frame spring and mattress. It is now in our neighbor's garage awaiting deployment to a needy family in Livermore. There was scope creep I must admit. A set of hard maple bunk beds with associated desk and chair also made from out of our attic, out of our house, and ready for give-away. 

Jeremy made his mark other places as well, figuring out how and changing the light bulb in my sewing machine and in my sewing room ceiling light fixture. In our yard he trimmed the pepper tree and installed sprinkler head protectors and organized the outdoor shed. Amidst all this activity Robin and I managed to squeeze in a visit to my local quilt shop. After their visit, when Frank and I put away Xmas stuff, we were so impressed at how Robin had organized our attic. Today I dropped off lamps and a TV wall mount at Good Will, other treasures that had vacated the attic thanks to the efforts of Robin and Jeremy.

Family Gathering and Meals

Our first night we enjoyed a party pan of Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo I had pre-ordered from Strizzi's. Jeremy, Robin, Autumn and Isaiah had been up early enough to catch a 5:00 am flight from Oklahoma City so I expected them to be close to a zombie state by dinner time, even though we ate early. But the food went over really well. We recalled how a year earlier, when both Robin's and Dan's families had been in Livermore for Thanksgiving 2023, the dish (from Costco this time) had gone over well with one small hitch. The chicken had been layered on top and not mixed throughout. Since the six kids were served first, taking servings from the upper surface, the adults had fettuccine without any chicken. We did better this holiday. The Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (with chicken distributed) lasted two nights and the other nights Robin and Jeremy cooked, or we/they brought in takeout. I was not chief chef at all! 

New Year's Eve we all went to bed before midnight although the sound of mini-explosions made falling asleep difficult for a few. Every one was tired. I thought the pops and whistles were just noises from locals, but apparently the fairground, in the next town over, held fireworks. Autumn was able to watch them from her room, tucked in bed.

January 1st, our final night together we dined on a tilapia recipe Robin had made earlier in the week. It was so good we requested it again. There are two pictures that follow — one taken by Autumn and one taken by Isaiah. We wanted to be sure all were included. Improbable as it seemed with that number of folks, no one had an awful expression. We all seemed pretty happy.

After dinner, the night before they were to leave, rather than traipsing to a movie theater, Frank and I bought a copy of Wicked to view at home. This choice of venue was a smart option. We could take breaks and Autumn could sing along at the top of her lungs without disturbing a movie audience. Frank and I could have captions; we could go back to repeat certain scenes, or misunderstood conversations, or favorite songs. Some of the extravagant dance scenes with their extensive choreography and staging were impressive; we did not feel at a disadvantage since we did not see them on a big screen. Our large flat screen TV was big enough.

It was a great Christmas season. Although Frank and I were both a little under the weather with some temporary medical stuff, for short, intermittent stretches  the Oxenford presence certainly lifted our spirits. The pressure of "houseguests" and "entertaining" was lifted and we all just hung out and enjoyed each other in a low key mode. Yay — what a great start to 2025!

New Year's Day in Ensenada

Overall our day was fun but Ensenada, Mexico was my least favorite activity of the cruise. In my opinion, there were good parts and not-so-great parts and I will share both.

We awoke Wednesday morning January 1, 2014 to find our ship already docked at Ensenada, Mexico. Our side of the ship was against the dock. Right out our stateroom window we could see where we would be visiting that day. My first impressions reminded me of scenes from movies and were not favorable.  We could see the expanse of the town in the distance. There was not a tree in sight and it looked terribly hot and sun bleached, like a desert shoot-it-out scene from an old western movie. In the dock area near the ship was a lot of security fencing and guards with rifles patrolling back and forth. It reminded me of the high security around the nuclear weapons that you see in James Bond movies. We actually debated not getting off but realized it was another new experience and, after all, we had never been to Mexico.

We did debark, via gangway this time, not via tender boat as at Catalina, and passed through security. Vendors were taking pictures and wanting to sell them to you. I actually posed with a parrot perched on my shoulder, which was kinda cool, but we did not buy the photo. We took a 10-12 minute bus ride into the town. We tried to browse the shops there and what an awful experience! If you even glanced at something the shopkeeper was in your face about giving you a good deal.  If you tried to walk by without entering they blocked your way to direct you into their store. Little kids were around you begging for money in exchange for Chiclets. One attractive scene, however, was a very brightly colored entrance to a motel that I thought deserved a photo.

This made me think of the movie Fools Rush In in which the husband comes home to find
his Mexican wife's family has repainted the entire interior of his formerly neutral beige home. 

We met up with John and Marita and Dave and Janet for guacamole and drinks at a bar called Papas&Beers. The guacamole was freshly made at your table as you watched. It was delicious. The company was great. The weather was pleasantly sunny with a gentle breeze, much better than I had anticipated when looking out from our stateroom window earlier in the day. The entertainment was to watch a Papas&Beer employee perform a ritual on each person who volunteered, or possible even paid for the "pleasure". Tequila and beer was poured in the person's mouth and down his throat, his mouth covered and his jaw clamped in place, his head jostled back and forth vigorously, and then he was turned upside down and shaken. The crowd cheered and laughed and applauded this spectacle. Even though I thought the act a bit inane, I was impressed with how even the stoutest of men could be inverted by one of these employees who really had a grasp of the concept of center of gravity and moment arms. I never did participate in these type of college spring break shenanigans, even in my younger days. I thought they were pointless then and still do now. Voicing this opinion when you are young labels you as a "stick-in-the-mud". Repeating this opinion at my age dubs me a "fuddy-duddy". I wonder... is "stick-in-the-mud" to "fuddy-duddy" is a naturally recurring bio-cycle?

Walking back to the bus, Marita offered me a Chiclet she'd bought from a little kid at some point. "No!" I barked in irritation, nearly biting her head off. She retorted, "I was just going to give it to you; I wasn't trying to sell it to you..." I guess I was a bit worn down. Our route back to the bus passed through a very quaint courtyard area. I was drawn to the architectural features of the wrought iron railings. Frank and I posed for a quick shot with a rather bemusing caballero who was holding a beer and a serape.

I thought this staircase looked like it could have been right out of
the Cartwright's ranch house of the Ponderosa of Bonanza.

We're three cabelleros, three gay cabelleros, they say we are birds of a feather.
We're happy amigos, no matter where he goes, the one, two, and three goes.
We're always together.

I was fascinated by a street artist creating beautiful paintings with cans of spray paint. He put on quite a show since he dried the layers quickly with a blow torch and would even, very daringly and dangerously, light the paint on fire as it was sprayed from the aerosol can. I snapped a quick picture of his work in progress. The solar-system-like picture emerged from applications of spray paint, with some dabbing with cloth, and some random cans used as round templates.

A cross between an abstract and a space painting, the artist's creation is unique.

After we were all back on the ship we had lunch and played a round of miniature golf on the topmost deck. We did not keep score religiously and did not take ourselves seriously; we just had a good time. It is kind of revealing that I enjoyed sedate miniature golf more than youthful kegging.

En guarde!    Touché!    Foiled again?    Fore!    Whatever...

We passed some time before dinner in the Candlelight Lounge. In keeping with its name this lounge had candelabras scattered about. We had a rousing round of a game called Farkle which is played with six dice and some relatively simple scoring rules. It has a fun twist in that under certain conditions you can add the points the player before you makes to your score for that turn. A person can come from behind and win.

Farkle scoring is not complicated. The six dice game is very portable and travel friendly

After dinner, in the evening, we went to a "Love and Marriage" show patterned after The Newlywed Game except that the three selected couples had been married a few days, about thirty years, or over fifty years. One of the questions was to fill in the blank, "The ugliest part of my wife is _________". The oldest husband filled in the blank with, "You don't survive 52 years by being stupid!". We stayed for another game show patterned after Family Feud. The funny part about that game was the names the teams chose for themsleves. They were the Griswold's (the family from the Chevy Chase movie Vacation) vs. the Obamas (all white team members). We also did a small amount of dancing and had a cocktail in one of the lounges later in the evening. Frank and I posed for a picture at one of the ship's backdrops as an idealized reminder of Mexico.

Olé!

The next day would be our day at sea, with no shore excursions. Frank and I had signed up for a Behind the Fun tour of the ship and were looking forward to that experience and learning about the inner workings of running a cruise ship.

New Year's Eve at Sea

On board the ship people dressed formally for dinner New Year's Eve. As we were leaving the stateroom, Frank complimented me. Sort of. He said, "You know, for 65, you don't look very matronly..."  Granted I was wearing a very loose fitting knit dress chosen mainly because it packed well but ... matronly? Of all the adjectives he could have picked he chose that one! And he overstated my age by five years!

We went to the ship's theater production, Motor City, a tribute to music of the 60's, 70's and 80's. It had a cast of eight singer/dancers but enlisted more cast from the audience. Our group were VIP's (we were in line early) and so John and Janet got to dance and gyrate up on stage while the rest of our party got to watch from front row seats. It was a lively, very colorful, energetic production less than about an hour or so in length. It was not as awesome as a Reno or Vegas show but it was fun, especially being part of it.

Afterwards we walked the Promenade Deck 9 stopping at various lounges, attractions and shows. The Piano Lounge had a big circular bar formed liked the black and white keys of a piano keyboard that looked as if it were made of fondant. The Violin Lounge had columns with scrolls on them just like the neck of a violin and also featured a large glass display case of beautiful violins and violin like instruments of all shaped and sizes. We went to an adults only comedy show in the Candlelight Lounge. It opened by the comedian taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r- to set up, getting his coffee, adding milk and sugar, positioning and repositioning his stool. When the majority of the audience was restless (probably a good five minutes after Frank and I were) he innocently looks up and says, "What, do you start work as soon as you walk in the door?" It was a part of the act but I did not think it was that funny. In retrospect, maybe it was because that is the only part of the act I remember. There were photo sets with different backdrops scattered along the promenade and Frank and I posed for photos at some of some. Here is one. I liked the red chandelier.

The photographer posed us. It looks like I like Frank. After 38 years of marriage I still do!

When at sea the time of sunset depends on where you are. But for the transition from 2013 to 2014, as long as you are in the same time zone, midnight is midnight.  We had two choices for welcoming in the New Year. We could go outside on the pool deck where there was some sort of clock count down or we could remain indoors in the atrium and welcome the new year with a balloon drop. We elected the atrium. It had a great vantage point from the higher decks where we could watch all the dancing and celebrating below and we could look up and see all the glowing lights on the glass dome above. The cacophony at midnight was a lot of fun as people jumped around and danced, couples and strangers hugged, balloons fell and popped, streamers floated about, and everyone jostled everyone else. The sound of music, laughter, cheers, and clapping was everywhere. How Happy!

The Grand Atrium stretches from Empress Deck 7 up to Sports Deck 12,
and is topped by a glass dome at Sun Deck 14. Yes, I just noticed. There is no Deck 13.

Looking up you see the glass dome of the Grand Atrium.
Outside, up on SunDeck 14, a jogging track circumvents this dome.

Being on a cruise ship is certainly a more festive and fun way to ring in the new year. Had we been back in Livermore we would have been in bed probably before 11:00 pm. We still did go to bed soon after the merriment. Tomorrow's port of call was Ensenada. I had never been to Mexico nor ever used my passport. The shore excursion would be another first for me on this trip.