{New Years}

New Years was pretty low key for us this year.  Dave had to work, shocker!  He finally got home at 8:00pm and we headed over to our friends Holly and Josh's house.

We had a fun time chatting, eating and laughing.  midnight came, lit some fireworks, blew some horns and came home.  We are getting OLD!

{Christmas 2011}

Merry Christmas??  It is so weird not having snow.  It is 50 degrees today!

Christmas time is always a stressful time of year for me.  I get tired of all the store advertisements about sales they are having.  My boys are getting older which equals wanting bigger and better things.  I stress about how much money to spend.

One thing I do love is Tradition.  My mom always had such fun traditions.  I have done a bad job at continuing some of them, but one thing my boys count on every year is Christmas Eve Pajamas.

Now that Dave works retail he has to work a lot during the holidays.  He had to work until 7:00pm on Christmas Eve.  I made the boys wait to open the pajamas until he got home...it was tourture!  I actually enjoyed it.

I can't believe how big these kids are!  The pajamas are MEN sizes.  And this year I included slippers

 Okay, well maybe they aren't so big.  They are still goofy kids!

McKay - Age 13.  Xbox 360 for his room, clothes and shoes (and not cheap ones either, all name brand), Sled (bad idea, we don't have snow!) Ipod Shuffle and xbox games.

Garrett - Age 11. Xbox 360 for his room, Legos, Clothes and shoes, (name brand of course), sled and xbox games.

Dave and I try and take it easy and don't buy a ton of stuff for ourselves.  We both got clothes (ohhh I like name brands, the kids really know what they are talking about!) lol  I got pots and pans, Dave is getting a sticker kit for his 4 wheeler but I am letting him pick it out.  And we are going to the Lady Antabellum concert on Valentines Day <3

We had a nice, relaxing day.  Dave didn't have to work!  It is the only day of the year they are closed.  We went to a movie, Mission Impossible and ate lots and lots of food.

{Day 10. Home...oh wait, Athens, Greece again}

We woke up on Day 10 ready to come home.  NOT HAPPENING!  Air traffic controllers went on strike until noon.  Our flight was leaving at 11:30am.  Now normally being stuck on vacation is a dream come true.  Not here.  It is pretty unsettling being stuck in a different country that is having problems with no way out.

We made the best of it and walked around.  All of the sites were closed due to the strike.

As we were walking someone told us not to walk much further because a huge group of people were gathering to protest.  So what did we do? Kept walking of course!  We had to see this!

The Olympic stadium was closed but most of it you could see from the gate.



A perfect example of how crowded it was and how they have NO laws!  The motorcyle just jumping over the curb.  And why do you think they have those yellow cement balls?  So cars won't do the same thing!



We found our comfort food!

What an adventure!  We had an amazing time!  We are now world travelers and can't wait to figure out where to go next!

{Day 9. Athens, Greece}

Our last day was spent in Athens, Greece.  Or as our guide called it, "concrete jungle"  Every square foot of this place has a building.  It is SO crowded.  And they didn't take into consideration that people would want cars so there is no parking.  Oh wait, yes, they park in the street, on the sidewalks or pretty much anywhere they feel like it.  In America usually cars will look for pedestrians.  Not here.  If you want to cross the street and be alive you better RUN!  It is a game of frogger.

Greece is going through some major problems.  They are pretty much broke and the government is making hard working people pay more money in taxes.  The rich don't pay taxes, they find ways to hide it.  That makes these hard working people VERY angry and in return decided to go on strike.  Sanitation workers were one of them.  So what do you do with the garbage?  Just throw it on the street of course.  It was a very nasty, stinky place.  Garbage on every corner.

Our first stop was the Acropolis museum.  We were lucky it was open due to the strike.  They built this museum around the ruins and made glass floors so you could see them excavating it.  pretty cool.

Athens pretty much worship Owls.  My kind of place :)

Another view of the "concrete jungle"

{Day 8. Santorini, Greece}

This is what we woke up to.  The mountains looked like they had snow on them.

But as you get closer, they are houses.  This was our favorite stop!

You had 3 choices to get to town.  A tram, Donkeys, or walking up the same path the donkey's did which equals walking in poo.  The line for the tram was really long so donkey's it was!  I am so glad we did this!  It was so fun!  They throw you on a donkey and until you reach the top you are at the donkey's mercy.  And they had their own agenda.  So stopped to just hang out for a while, so walked slow, and some were in a race.  Mine was in a race and kept trying to pass the donkeys in front of him, even if that meant cutting them off.  Dave was on a slower donkey and got left behind.  When he finally caught up he started waving his arm riding it like a cowboy.  The guide started yelling at him saying, "PROBLEM, PROBLEM, PROBLEM!"  We were laughing so hard.  I guess that was a problem.

It was SO cold and rainy that day but it didn't stop us from exploring this amazing place.  This is a destination we would come back to see for sure.

We discovered the best food on the planet.  Souvlaki.  It was meat, veggies, a secret sauce and FRENCH FRIES wrapped in a pita.  YUM!

We took the tram down.  It was really rainy and the donkeys were slipping on the wet ground when we were coming up, imagine what they would have done going down.

This was our last night living the lifestyle of the rich and famous.  I could get use to having a butler.  This is Serge.  He took such good care of us all week and brought us anything we asked for.

This is Tayfun.  And boy was he fun!  We got to know him pretty well at the resturant and he would joke around with us.  The first day at breakfast he asked me for my ticket.  You should have seen the panic in my face.  I thought I missed something.  He started cracking up.  My kind of jokester.  We were friends the rest of the trip.

This was our favorite place to eat.  On the pool deck with the hot stone.  The man standing by Dave was french.  He was a dirty old man but cracked us up.

And last but not least was good ol Oscar.  He made sure Dave's drink was NEVER empty.  He knew exactly what we drank and ate.  Loved him!

Tayfun singing happy birthday to Dave.  Not a bad way to spend your 36th birthday!

The fancy cake they brought out for us to share with everyone.

Our home away from home for 7 days.  It was heaven!  As you can tell Dave did NOT want to leave.

Goodbye Silver Sea.  We will miss you!  Until next time.....YES we will be back!  THE best cruise line.