Bryan Family Christmas Cruise, Part 6: Merry Christmas! And...oh...we're still on the boat?

Merry Christmas, ya'll!  Oh, wait...that was about a month ago.  Well, rejoice, because the final segment of Bryan Family Christmas Cruise 2009 is finally making it out into the blogospher!  Phew, made it.  Well, here's what Christmas morning looks like on the boat...and usually I take a very traditionalist stance on the cinnamon rolls.  We always have cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.  The big boat didn't exactly do stellar cinnamon rolls...but there were there.  Phew.  Hiding right there behind the muffins and the all-too-important coffee.  And yes, we totally busted out the stockings for the boat.  It was oodles of fun!

Going to have to say that Christmas Day was our waviest day on the boat - check out the coffee wave action going on as we took in second breakfast (yeah, second breakfast...isn't that what cruising is all about?  eating excessively as you're bombarded with food 24 hours a day?).

After caffeinating ourselves and steering clear of the overly-excited children, we played with our new toys (stockings really are fun!) and spent some time on Mom and Dad's balcony...being careful to not go overboard in the wind and stormy ocean action.  It was only a tiny bit intense.

Oh, and maybe we spent a little time snapping a family portrait or two...yes, using the reflections again...

We also took in some shuffleboard action before the crazy weather drove us indoors.  For the record, shuffleboard takes a little practice before you can actually manage to get one of the discs to actually land in one of the boxes without touching any of the lines.  Or at least it does if you're a Bryan.  Maybe we just didn't have our good sea legs or something.

Christmas lunch...totally hamburgers and hot dogs AND ice cream.  No cooking or baking or candy-making for us, which is a little bit sad but also a whole lot easier.  Oh, and on the big boat you know it's the holidays when there's a snowman fruit and veggie carving.

You also know it's Christmas when your towel creature for the day is an angel...a tip angel, really.  She came with envelopes for gratuities.  Hmmmm.

And you really can't beat Santa on skates for the Christmas ice show!  Although I do have a small problem singing along with "there's no place like home for the holidays" when we're all on a big boat in the middle of the ocean.  This is not home for anyone, people.  Think about it.

Christmas dinner!  And...a real picture of the four of us!  Thanks, waiter Richard!

I was really proud of Dad for branching out on his dessert selection and going with noodle kugel...but it looked like brains.  And tasted like poo.  Sometimes branching out just doesn't quite work out.

Thank goodness Amanda had leftover chocolate to save us.

After dinner we headed down to the theater to check out a tribute band to the Temptations - it was slightly rocky going with the boat wiggling around in the waves, but we made it.  Barely.  And I have to say that some of the ladies in high heels were really having difficulties.  Especially if they had previously enjoyed an adult beverage or two.

And now...day after Christams...we're still on the boat.  What, no sandy beaches to distract us?  Nope, just boat.  Alllll day.  Wait, aren't you supposed to stop and let us off on a beach somewhere?  Nope, just chill on the boat all day.  Ok, cool!  Let's do some bargain shopping...

...and posing by the giant Christmas tree and eating of the ice cream and exploring of the ship and playing with the walkie talkies and card games in the solarium...

...also some deck exploring and bridge discovering...

...and kitchen touring, which I thought was just exceptionally cool (even if it did involve running up six flights of stairs to exchange the flip flops for real shoes and running back down and catching up with everyone - thanks for waiting, Chef Andrew!). 

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And after all the kitchen excitement, Dad and I finally figured out how to get on the helipad...but of course it was raining.  Boo.  Time to give up those dreams and just get ready for dinner.  Dinner where Dad ordered not just prime rib but lobster, too.  Yes, Dad, totally give yourself some thumbs up action for that.

And before we knew it...time to hustle ourselves and all our stuff off the big boat.  We had quite a collection!

I'm so glad we were able to take such a fantastic trip as a family over the holidays.  I'm a big, big fan of travel, and it's nice making some of these memories with my dad, mom, and sister.  Love you guys.  Also really love the enormous statute of Sam Houston between Houston and Dallas.  It's ridiculously awesome and just a little bit scary.