Christmas day on the boat

John and I have done Christmas on a cruise ship before and noticed

 that they brought in Santa to give all the kids presents and do pictures and so we figured that would happen on this cruise as well.  This time we got to stand in line and wait with Oscar who was excited to get closer and closer to Santa, but when the time came, didn't want to sit on his lap at all.  He did shake 

hands with Santa like daddy did, and let us hold him near Santa, but as far as sitting on this stranger's lap, forget it.  And this is my kid who doesn't meet a stranger and that I feel like I'm going to have to teach "stranger danger" too.  Apparently, if they're dressed

 all in red with an obviously fake beard, he's leery of them anyway.  Good kid.....We got to have a nice lazy day on the boat with a little bit of sunshine, some short swimming for Oscar, followed by drinks on the lido deck which was deserted.  Julie, Dave and the kids came up probably with the kids being forced away from their new kindle fires and had some drinks with us.  It's easy to find a table and a waiter on Christmas day apparently.  Julie and I were able to make a pampering day that was 

supposed to be facials and was facials, but also included 400 women in the little salon and while we got to get some good skin care tips and got to really cleanse and tone our faces, the sale in the merchandise area was more our speed and we got some good extra gifts.  We

 planned on dinner in the main dining room, but, of course there is no way to reserve a table and when we got there, we got a little pager and went to the bar for drinks.  But, we have 4 kids that are ready to eat and we're begging for nuts from the wait staff and again, I'm irritated with the whole 

 "freestyle" cruising thought.  If it's "freestyle", I would be eating right now....but I'm able to give Julie's kids the little presents we had found in ports for them while we waited and we were able to make it all the way through dinner without any meltdowns by the kids.  Dave 

and John took them out while Julie and I finished our bottle of wine and got to talk a little.  It seems like there was no time for just sitting and relaxing on this cruise.  We were in port all the time and there were things to do on the boat all the time and we never just sat in a chair and watched the sea go by, which is my favorite part of cruising.  We're gearing up already this evening for getting off the boat and have to pack bags and have them outside the door by 11pm.  Oscar gets some more little books for Christmas and these have to be read many, many times every night for the next 10 days to the point where I can read them without looking at the pages, but he has gotten a lot of words on this trip.  Really important ones like "beach", "mud", and "back".  Back and mom might be important, but let's face it, he's not going to need "beach" in Michigan for a while.