Feb 13th, 2020 Day 41 of 128

Another wonderfully relaxing day at sea.  I enjoy starting my morning at the Pinnacle Grill fro breakfast and this morning I got mom and Valerie to join me.  The food is good, the service is amazing and the mimosas are free.  We are starting to see a rotation of some of the staff as their contracts are ending.  We got approximately fifty new crewmembers at our last port in Chile and sadly had to say goodbye to some that we had become close with.  I know that is ship life but I hate change as does the girls.  After breakfast Megan and I went off to our Project Linus Blanket making activity.  They approximated they brought enough blankets to complete 400 blankets this year, up 100 from last year.  They announced yesterday that they anticipate running out of yarn with the next ten days. Over 200 blankets have been completed and with the yarn people currently have checked out, the remaining will trickle in.  So they started accepting donations so that they can purchase additional yarn when we come into port in Sydney.  If anyone has any personal connections there, please let me know as soon as possible. We made a donation ourselves and hope they can acquire more yarn so we can keep crocheting along.  The rest of the day was spent doing arts and crafts, tutoring, lectures, some shopping, a secret craft project, and then a family pizza party.  Geoffrey, the Club HAL director reserved a space for all the kids and families on board and had the kitchen prepared us a private dinner.  It was nice to be with the other kids and their families for a little while. We recently got a new 6-year-old little girl who came on board with her mom.  Her dad is an officer on the ship and they are here for about three weeks.  Valerie and Megan are happy to have another girl on the ship.  The other three children are a 7-year-old boy from China and a 13 and 14-year-old boys from Seattle.  They are all getting along surprisingly well.  I expected at this point for there to be more “sibling” rivalry, but that has not happened.  After dinner we went to the show this evening, it was a group who sang ABBA songs and we all love their music and sang along when we could.  Even Valerie was jamming, thanks Mamma Mia.  The talk around the ship today was focused a little on whether or not we’ll be able to get off the ship in Easter Island. I guess the seas can be rough there and it is a crapshoot as to whether or not we’ll actually be able to disembark.  We are hopeful; as it is a port we are really looking forward to.  The other big topic about the ship is to whether or not we will be allowed to dock in Singapore.  With everything in the news with regards to the coronavirus virus, we just aren’t sure what is going to be decided.  We have time till we get there so it will be decided on, in our best interest when it needs to be.  Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  There are lots of events scheduled around the ship for the holiday.  Lots of couples on this trip.  It is also a Gala Night so we will get a chance to get all dressed up.  I will spend the holiday loving on my mom and my girls, enjoy the box of Chocolates sent to us via our amazing Cruise Specialist representative LynnDee, missing those not here with us, and probably relaxing at the pool.  Love and Hugs to you for this special day.  Celebrate love.  Love of friends, family and self.  Big Hugs, Debra