we are across the Atlantic

We have been out of touch with the world for about a week on our transatlantic cruise. After spending a day at Casablanca Morocco and the island of Maderia Portugal the ship has been going strong. We turn our clocks back an hour every day or so. We are on an MSC ship, the Orchestra. It is a newer ship that caters to the Europeans and is going to spend the winter in the Caribbean. They have a lot to learn about customer service and with us just coming from a Disney Cruise we have been disappointed in quite a lot of things… They said they want to know how they can improve and Janell finally asked that we not write our cabin number on our suggestions. We are having a great time and have met many people from many countries. The entertainment team on board is wonderful and our cabin with the balcony has been fun. I may not be able to go back to an inside cabin. We can watch the ship dock and enjoy the sunrises and sun sets.

Kay and I have been sleeping on the balcony, we have a larger than single mattress from the couch hide-a-bed that we throw out and the temperature has been about 74 degrees at night. We enjoy the water and waves right outside our door…kind of like Lake Powell. Janell slept out once when we were still in the Mediterranean and she got cold so now the balcony is ours.

Christmas….. We watched the Nativity Story movie Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning we read what we had just watched, From Isaiah to Samuel the Lamanite to Luke 1 and 2. When I said we could read it or act it out it was unanimous, read. These teenagers who would have thought? We brought a string of lights we plug into our room and have a picture we brought…. our grandchildren dressed up as Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and a wiseman. We have a wooden 2 piece tree you slide the two flat pieces together to make a 3D tree. Christmas morning we opened the few gifts we brought/bought and had a nice morning taking our candy canes to the buffet and sipping hot chocolate through them… An Anderson tradition (I think it came from Cynthia Clark) we enjoy.

Finally we are at an internet cafe and Kay can get his BYU scores. We have had no TV signals for most of the transatlantic trip. Now we are in Guadeloupe, some French Islands with an active volcano.

bags

sorry about the computer, in Casablanca the keybords are different. we got the bags and have been having a great time, this computer is driving me crazy so i will write later: janae

Is it Jana

We are in France right now and had an adventure getting here.
1) we had a 3 hour delay on the runway at Salt Lake City Airport because of snow.
2) we literally saw our plane to Paris leave as we were getting off our late flight.
3)we had to sleep in Houston TX and went the next day to Atlanta/Rome/Genova.
4) they lost ALL our luggage going from Rome to Genova
5) we took public transit to our hotel and found there was a water problem and we were moved to the place we started walking from... it was raining
6) still no luggage
7) we got on the ship still no luggage
8) we are in France... still no luggage
9)we're going shopping...... bye....
Is it Jana... our bad luck Niece.. you be the judge......

NYC Baseball caps and bonnets

When I was 8 (1969) we moved to NYC and lived in Columbia Student housing so my dad could attend school at Columbia University. 4 kids in a 1 1/2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen smaller than a very small bathroom. The fridge was below the counter. We were in NYC for 3 years.

The first year my mom got wind of the Metropolitan Opera Children's chorus auditions. We knew some kids from our ward (church) who were in it and my mom drug Merrill, Debbilyn and me down there to audition. I remember singing "My Country Tis of Thee" for the audition and I got in. Debbilyn was too young but got in the next year with Merrill after his year of singing lessons from a lady in the ward (his voice changed mid season and he was instructed to not sing- he had solo parts carrying a cross across the stage etc.)

I had short interesting hair. The interesting would be the way my mom cut my bangs. I think they learned in Relief Society (oldest female organization in the world) that you could cut straight bangs if you put a piece of cellophane tape on the bangs and cut. The problem was you needed to be a general contractor to get a straight line, so a bunch of us girls the same age had bangs that sloped this way or that and we were fine with that at the time..... I digress......

NYC... anyway my mom had me grow my hair out. If I was going to be in real Operas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City I needed to look like a girl. My first opera was La Boheme where I was a little orphan boy that ran across the stage singing and bothering the toy maker. They put my beautiful hair in a cap!

Caps are good and I have gotten into caps now that my hair is long. When I wear a baseball cap I can go an extra day (or two or three..yikes!) without washing my hair. I even have matching ones. If only the pioneers crossing the planes had baseball caps...... you know what? they did!! They had original baseball caps.. bonnets to hide their gross hair too. I feel so connected with my ancestors right now.

Janell's Doctor visits

Janell had two Doctor visits this week. One was to the podiatrist where they looked at her strange feet (high/low arch). She has had the same orthotic for 5+ years and they were way overdue. The last time we went they mentioned surgery but the Doctor said this visit, because she has been dancing (6-7 hours a week) her feet are still weird but are very healthy and she only needs a new orthotic! great news. They also have cool new ones that weren't developed with the cavemen.

Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving she went in to the dentist to have her 4 wisdom teeth removed. One was stuck. We have been going to the same great dentist for 22 years so he deserves to be on our blog this week! She had mashed potatoes and ice packs for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2008

Turkey by Sandy Inman

For Thanksgiving I was so excited Kay was coming home and invited his whole family to have Thanksgiving with us.... I guess they didn't miss him as much as I did or I am the bigger looser than I thought but no one wanted to come! Maybe Caleb is the one who attracts our guests?

Frances invited us to her home as she didn't want to leave. The two month old twins seem to have her more grounded than most new moms. You need an extra trailer to go anywhere with the contraptions of twins. (The newborn baby stroller she loves (thanks Davin) is almost too long for an elevator). Kay, Janell and I spent the WHOLE DAY, we're talking 12 hours with them and Marc's famliy. We watched the Maceys day Parade (where my family was- in NYC) on TV, Ate and ate and played a new game called the Farming game... If you like Monopoly and Settlers this is for you without the feelings of suicide (Monopoly- when you don't own a monopoly and everyone else does) and chlostrophobia or Island fever (Settlers- when you can't move and the game goes on without you).

And what would a family get to gether be without real entertainment...... babies!!!!!!!

Janell's Volleyball game

Janell (player in the back) was part of a Young Women's volley ball team that was pretty good and got to the final finals but couldn't win when two of the top players couldn't come. For the final game Janell was made the team captain (oldest there) and they played their hearts out but with only two of them... Janell and a foreign exchange student from Sweden, that had several years of volleyball experience we just didn't cut it. Janell had to step up. It was fun to see her playing harder than usual, being an example and encouraging the younger girls, a great positive leader. She is a really good consistent server and if we can play the serve there have been some games she has served almost half the points! We weren't winners but Janell was. I was pleased to be her mom.