Digging Out

This morning Curt Jr. and Andy (our son-in-law) began digging us out.  From our measurements, it looks like we got about 18 inches of snow.  Not too many people have begun to move in South Riding this morning.  We have heard from our daughter Stephanie.  She was unable to get a flight out of Chicago last night after her flight arrived.  So, she check-in to a hotel near O'hare for the evening.  She doesn't have a confirmed flight to Washington Dulles until after 9:00pm tonight.  I'm sure that she and her daughter Zoe will be glad to finally make it toVirginia. 

Blizzard

This morning we woke to 7 inches of new snow here in South Riding, Virginia.  The National Weather Service is calling for an accumulation of 18 to 22 inches.  All the grandkids are having a great time playing outside and the parents are busy cooking and making hot chocolate.  We are waiting for our daughter Stephanie and granddaughter Zoe to leave Las Vegas and fly here.  However, we don't yet know if the snow will end long enough for the plane to land.  All-in-all this is making for a great white Christmas.

Arrived In Virginia

Last night we flew to Northern Virginia for the Christmas holidays. Stayed up late last night so hopefully we will get on East Coast time pretty quickly. We have been listening to the weather forecast and it looks like we could get some snow beginning tonight. In fact the forecast is now calling for between 9 to 12 inches of the white stuff. This could make for a white Christmas. Stephanie and Zoe don’t fly in until tomorrow. Hopefully they won’t experience any flight delays due to the weather. Everyone around here is starting to get into the holiday atmosphere. Food, food, and more food…….

Countdown

Everything this morning was focused on continuing the packing job.  Do we have too many shoes?  Will everything fit into the suitcases and still not go overweight?  Who knows the answers until we get done later today.  This is always the worst part of any trip.

We made some more final arrangements today.  Were able to upgrade our timeshare reservation in Pompano Beach for the 3 nights just prior to the boarding the Ruby Princess.  The Wyndham Palm Aire had been booked pretty solid which caused us to only get a Studio room.  However, this morning a 2 Bedroom opened up within the discount time period saving us loads of timeshare points and getting a much larger unit.  And, Cindy made final reservations for a rental car through Hotwire/Hertz for a great price.

Tonight we will be having dinner with Cindy's sister (Michele).

Packing

Started the packing process today for our upcoming trip.  When we depart Henderson next Thursday, December 17th, will be flying to Washington Dulles Airport.  The entire family will be coming to South Riding, Virginia to spend the holiday season at the home of Curt and Maria Cornell (our son and daughter-in-law).  Our daughter, Stephanie and here family (Andy, Zoe and Josh) will be flying to Virginia on two different flights on two different days.  Eventually, everyone will be in Virginia for Christmas.  We are looking forward to seeing Lance and Marisa (grandchildren).

Back to packing....It's always fun to try to remember to pack what you might need.  Since we will be gone for 73 days in two different climates, packing the right clothing will be interesting.  Hopefully we won't over-pack!  And of course we have a few Christmas gifts that will need to be carried on the airplane.  Tried to send as many presents as possible to Virginia ahead of time via UPS.

Ruby Princess

The Ruby Princess is the newest ship in the fleet.  It's 951 feet in length and carries a crew of 1200.  It easily accomadates 3070 passengers.  This is a great ship for cruising the Caribbean Sea.

Royal Princess

The Royal Princess is one of the small ships that Princess Cruises has in their fleet.  It carries 710  passengers and a crew of 373.  It is the perfect size to travel along the Amazon River.