Day 6- At Sea (again)

Cruises are actually a REALLY easy way to vacation. You get to see lots of different places, all your food is easy and quick to get and super yummy. There's tons of entertainment and you only have to pack and unpack once. Taylor's family LOVES cruises (it doesn't hurt that they get his Aunt's discounts too). And I love cruises- in theory. Unfortunately there's a strong prevalence of motion sickness in my family. And while I am blessed with a less severe case than many of my siblings and mom, it's still there. So cruises are great for me... when the boat is stopped. And that amount of time just depends on which cruise you pick. This cruise wasn't too bad. Mostly we were in port and on land most days and sailed during the evenings and nighttime. Which is mostly fine for me. I can manage to keep my food down for a few hours as long as the water isn't too choppy, and then by the time dinner is over and I'm ready to heave, I can go to bed and nobody minds me missing the shows and dancing and other entertainment because well, someone needs to put the kids to bed and I'm happy to put myself to bed too.
Unfortunately there are people (ahem, Taylor for one) who enjoy having days when they are "At Sea" or as I would call it "trapped on a slow moving boat". And this cruise had 2 of them. So mostly I slept/sat on the balcony in the breeze/ downed lots of dramamine those days. I missed a few dinners and everyone was very understanding- especially Taylor who did all our laundry and watched the kids while I couldn't.
Of course it was the Christmas season so there were some fun activities the kids wanted to attend and when the Gingerbread House contest overlapped with the one and only activity Taylor was dieing to do (play Bridge with old folks- yep he's weird like that :) I sucked it up (literally) and took my boys to the contest.
I deserve some credit here folks- managing to get the walls to stay up, frost the roof, supervise the placement of candy all while pulling away 6 little grubby hands who wanted to eat the candy and while supervising them to go get more supplies. Not a small feat- especially when fully doped up on dramamine. We didn't win- heck we didn't even stay for the judging, but we went and the rest of the cruise the boys got to walk past their house each time we went through the buffet and they were very proud of it. So it's a winner either way!

Truthfully there is lots of entertainment on board. Taylor and the boys played ping pong for hours- also shuffleboard which was bizarrely their favorite. And it was fun to hang with all of Taylor's siblings and spouses/fiances. These were taken shortly after a rollercoaster ride in the pool. Taylor swears that THE place to be if you're seasick is in the pool because the water always equalizes and so do you if you're in it. Unfortunately it means a lot of getting thrown around too if it's that rocky- and it was.
Here's the winning Gingerbread house. Someone came up with an overwater bungalow which is quite appropriate to a cruise through Tahiti.
Shredded wheat for the roof and even swedish fish. Genius! I could have thought of that except, of that's right, I was doped up at the time.
It was nice that the cruise people tried to make the season come alive for the kids. The weather certainly wasn't screaming Christmas but the decorations were.
Fabulous!