Yule Blog

My Christmas gift to myself is that blog title.

Merry Christmas!!! I’m sitting in my current home, cabin 10601, enjoying some Christmas music and some Ghirardelli Peppermint Chocolate coffee (courtesy of World Market in New Orleans and the tiny coffee maker I took from the boys’ room). But how did I get here? Let’s review the last 48 hours or so of this Christmas cruise adventure….

December 23: A whirlwind of a day that ended with many a full shopping bag and still not every single thing I intended to get. Christmas, even at sea, is so much pressure! This week was exciting because I took the bus out to the Best Buy, World Market, B&N and to the Oakwood Mall. Oh boy, seeing the mall was even more exciting than seeing the Wal-Mart a few weeks back. Bath & Body Works alone was worth the trip. My Pumpkin Spice wallflower has made this a real holiday. Oh and I will add too that we began the day at the seafarer center, which is the best place ever. Global Ministries provides this place for crew members to use internet, make phone calls, send and receive mail and have treats! This week there were homemade Christmas things. Yes, please. Back on the ship, we attended our weekly family dinner featuring James’ parents. Tabetha’s fiancé Greg and his family came aboard as well. At midnight, we had a rehearsal for our Christmas show in the Stardust. Big Day.

December 24, Christmas Eve: Despite having gone to sleep around 3am, I wake up a little after 8 to eat and go to 9am mass in the Stardust. Yes, MASS! There is a priest onboard this week to celebrate masses. About 20 or so super-Catholics were in attendance for this morning mass. Msgr. Fitzgerald introduced himself and then asked us all where we were from, and he seemed to know everything about every diocese anyone was a part of. Impressive. Mass aboard a ship is comical (Kelly, Vinnie, Anthony, I wish you could’ve seen it). There was a table with a sleeve of hosts (in the style of Ritz crackers) and a bottle of wine and a bottle of Evian water. When the cruise staff girl came to open the wine before mass began, the priest asked her if he had to pay a corkage fee. Bits! After mass I talked a bit with the priest and then proceeded to the gym, where I realized that crowded ship + sea day = no machines for me. Fast forward to two full rehearsals for the Christmas show. They went fairly well and then it was nearly show time. After some scrambling for final Secret Santa arrangements, the cast was ready. It was odd and awesome to be doing a full show all together with the NCL company and all guest entertainers. Everyone is amazing and Ruben pulled us together in such a great way. First show could’ve been smoother…but was still good. We had a better audience (and a little more fun) in the second show. Just standing backstage with everyone and sharing our little rituals was so much fun. Although I learned that I hesitate before saying the improv standard of “Got your back” to a family of acrobats. Let’s be honest…I can’t catch any of them.

Post-show: party!! Ruben & Co once again come through and provide us with some awesome food and drinks. After more sugar overload, we pause the festivity for Midnight Mass to happen. Once again, it’s odd, but very nice. In my life I have only missed Midnight Mass once. I thought for sure this year would be twice. Thanks, NCL. Our party got rolling again once Mass ended. But we were all pretty exhausted. In an hour or so we wrapped up. Pictures of the evening were immediately put onto my computer. They will be shared this Friday, I hope. Peter makes an amazing Santa Claus.

Note on the Christmas show: I probably haven’t mentioned exactly what it is. Basically, they put all of the entertainers into one Christmas variety show, each of us doing whatever we do best. The singers and dancers (guess what) sang and danced to Christmas music, the tumbling family, Cameo Rascale, did some fun stuff like acrobatically putting a star on top of the Christmas tree, among other things, and Chantz, our resident musical wunderkind, sang and tapped. Second City wrote the throughline of a family reading The Night Before Christmas, leading into the music numbers. Tab and Shawn were mom and dad and James and I were the annoying young teen kids. Katy scored us of course…but what about Peter?? He was the best Santa Claus ever. Wait for the pictures!

Today, December 25, CHRISTMAS!! Here I sit, with half of my coffee gone, and The Christmas Song playing through my laptop speakers. I admit I’m a little misty. It’s not as though I have a home to think about missing. My parents have long since left my childhood residences. I may have even longed for Reno this year, but the only person left there is my sister and I’ve never seen her new home. This would’ve been my first Christmas in my new Chicago apartment, so all Christmas memories lie in the places that came before it (or on Michigan Ave or at Zoo Lights). So what is that I’m missing this year? Well…Erin, of course. He is in Wisconsin today, undoubtedly enjoying copious amounts of holiday fare and family. My parents are likely playing Santa to their residents, being family to those who have none. My sister might be working a very busy Keno counter (I don’t know if today is her usual day off or not) but only after opening presents with her husband and two young step-children. My aunts and uncles are spread out, my grandma is in Phoenix, where I spent a delightful Christmas two years ago, my closest friends are in Chicago, New York, LA and Florida, and my last several Christmases have been spent in different places each year. So the point of this long story is, I have no traditions. Well…except for music, food, and trees. But I can’t call any one locale my Christmas home. So this year, the Spirit is my home and the people are my family. And although I miss Erin, mom, dad, Amy and Meredith terribly, I am extremely lucky to have the people I have here.

In one hour, our Secret Santas will reveal themselves. We’ve had a lot of fun over the last week sneaking around and outsourcing our gift-giving to our cabin stewards and the production company so as not to be discovered. And as creative we’ve been, nothing compares to the lengths the production company went to for their SS operation. Those guys are nuts. Although I was incredibly proud of how I snuck a gift for my Secret Santee into James’ Ship n Males performance. There’s nothing like getting a jar of sprinkles from a guy in his underwear.

To close out this Yule Blog (yes!), here is the Night Before Christmas I wrote for my friends aboard the Spirit. It may not make sense to anyone else, but at least you’ll all know the names of my boat family….

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Spirit
A party was starting but no one could hear it
Just beyond Windows, aft on deck five
In the crew bar the holiday was coming alive

And I in my boxers, retired to my quarters
Flipping past Larry King and Law & Order
Katie was equally ready for snoozing
Six months is a while to be freestyle cruising

Tab was with Greg, James with his folks
Bethany laughing at Shawn’s gross jokes
And then there was Peter, to everyone’s delight
Starting a new drawing that would take all night

When to our surprise, we heard our phones’ ringers
Who was it? Our friends, the NCL singers
Kwame and Nick, Jenna and Chantal
What reason could they have for this late night call?

“Ombres in the Stardust! Games of Taboo!
If only you could hang out with all of the crew
But the Gaswirth Mansion has an open door
You can’t get in trouble for being on deck 4”

We sprang out of bed and put on our pants
On the way down the hall we ran into Chantz
We told him about our plans for night capping
I don’t know if he heard over all of his tapping

As we continued down the starboard hall
We spied something shiny: Cameo Rascale!
Gayle jumped the broomstick, while we heard Steve sing
Nicole hoola-hooped then tossed James a fifth ring

Down the elevator, on deck four we landed
Wait, it’s not cool to show up empty handed
We need something to show our thanks to Nick
We needed some beer and we needed it quick

Off to the crew bar as fast as we could
“I don’t know, guys, I don’t think we should
Even with our heads down and our nametags on
We don’t have the freedom they do on the Dawn.”

Then in a moment, we all knew the answer
Let’s call on our escorts, the NCL dancers!
On Katrina, on Joe, on Ruben and Bree
Katherine and April, Topher and Bobby

With you we can venture without any fear
Hooray! We can have one dollar beer
We gathered some bottles and also some cans
And thanked Ruben, our real-life Superman

Off to the party we finally fly
And hope we haven’t missed much Family Guy
Into Nick’s room the lot of us barge
Good thing his place is ridiculously large

Our Christmas adventure has ended this way
It may seem like just another sea day
It may not be tradition, but it’s something near it
Merry Christmas to my family aboard the Spirit