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Jan.-Feb. 2007 Travel Tip: Never leave babies in an infant carrier while it goes through the x-ray machine. Okay, when I read that I laughed too. It must be a problem however. It is in bold type on the TSA website twice. They also suggest talking to your children about not saying things like, "I have a bomb in my bag." Might I suggest you not even plant the idea? I could see my grandson, Tyler, looking up at his mommy, a twinkle in his eye, and announcing that to the world with a peal of giggles following. Discuss with your children (age appropriately) that there are rules for flying on a plane and that you have followed those rules (be certain you have) but the nice people at the security checkpoint have to be sure, so they x-ray the bags and coats. Make it a game for the little ones. Can you find all the metal things you are wearing and put them in the bag? Then when they go through the machine they are rewarded with, "You found everything. It didn't buzz!" (Always makes me smile.) Lots of other information is on the website for your travel through the security check including the assurance that the agents will not separate you from your child. I have never seen any children being frightened by the security check. It's all in the attitude you set. On the World Wide Web: Writer's Wanderings Smiles: Most of the cruise lines teach their stateroom stewards the art of towel folding to create a menagerie of terrycloth animals throughout your trip. On the Grandeur of the Seas, our steward must have been bored with the usual bunnies, turtles, and monkeys. When I opened the door to our room one day, I found a man in my bed and it wasn't Bob!
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Greetings Family and
Friends! Wow. It's 2007! It's a big year for me. I have a significant birthday. Bless you if you think it's only 40 or 50. Last year was quite a travel year beginning with Antarctica and ending with a two week holiday cruise in the Caribbean. Bob has the year ahead planned and it looks like a lot of fun as well as quite a challenge. He is officially "semi-retired" now. The biggest challenge looks to be surviving the planning and execution of a trip to Disney World with the grandkids. Boy have things gotten complicated since we took our boys there. For Christmas Bob received the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007. That referred him to a website that actually takes the ages of your children and plans your day for you in each park according to the rides that are most popular, their location, and the time you visit. I'll be doing a webpage on our experiences and will let you know how everything comes out. The other big trip will be to Asia--mostly China. We will be starting in Beijing going inland to the Yangtze (3 nights on a river boat) and then on to a cruise ship that touches ports in Japan, Viet Nam, Taiwan, and Thailand. Lots of planning for that trip as well but married to a semi-retired engineer who's avocation is travel planning, I'm looking forward to lots of adventure and lots of new things to write about. Stay tuned. Thanks for letting me into your e-mail box once again! Smiles, Karen Happy Birthday Annie Pickels !! I mentioned she would turn 71 if my novel, In A Pickle (about a 70 year old widowed pickle entrepreneur who mistakenly puts marijuana in her pickle recipe) was still awaiting a contract the first of the year. It is--still waiting. A whole year now and still no answer. The good news is since it's fiction, she can stay "forever young" at 70. I will be meeting with editors in January hopefully piquing their interest in Annie as well as my other proposal: SMILE Power, Lighting your world with the gift of encouragement. The two books, The Bad Hair Day Book and Ho Ho Ho, to which I am a contributing author are now available on Amazon.com. (I found Ho, Ho, Ho, on sale after Christmas in a Christian bookstore.) Royal Caribbean has some great deals on cruises. Many are less than $100/person/night. To find the deals go to their website and click on hot deals or specials. (Other lines offer deals too, but RC seems to have the best right now.)
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The Gift That Kept On Barking (I know it's after Christmas, but this is a story about the consequences of trying to out-do grandparents and gift giving. Maybe it will help you for Christmas 2007). It was Christmas morning. The night before, we had given reverence to Jesus, trying our best to put the emphasis on the “reason for the season.” Now, full of anticipation, my kids burst into the family room and then stopped short when their Christmas present barked at them. Tied to one leg of the TV was a black and white Beagle-Terrier mix puppy. It was the only thing we could think of that their grandparents had not already purchased for them for the holidays. The dog received little attention that day and the weeks that followed. Instead, my kids played with all the toys that had come from my mother who collected their wish lists long before Halloween. Grandma brought the seasonal catalogs she received in the mail to our house for the boys to look over. She coined the term “wish book” long before JC Penney and Toys R Us used the marketing ploy. My mother always started shopping early, so by the time I got around to doing Santa’s work, my choices narrowed drastically. While my mother’s heart was in the right place, beating her to the toy store became a contest the rest of the year as well. There were some things that we wanted to be able to do for our children. We wanted to provide their first bikes and their first baseball gloves—even if it meant having to save nickels and dimes to do it. We wanted to be the heroes in our children’s lives once in a while. It took a lot of talking and negotiating to come to an agreement over the division of gift-giving responsibilities, but we finally worked out a compromise. The kids circled their desires in the wish books, and we met with Grandma before she started shopping and divided the list between us. Grandma got a few of the “hot” items and “Santa” got the rest. It was not until I became a grandmother, that I understood my mother’s desire to shower gifts on her grandchildren. Suddenly, every time I walked through a store, I saw a truck for Tyler, a doll for Danielle, and a puzzle for Kotomi. And now, there is the temptation to buy all the cute newborn things for Caleb. I want to see the delight in their eyes, to hear their squeals of joy—well, Caleb is too little yet, but he blows sweet little bubbles. I’ve used the same compromise with my grandchildren’s parents that worked with my mother. The wish list is made and divided for Christmas and birthdays. Often we celebrate the holiday after it has passed. When that happens, we try to buy something that compliments what they have already received—a cartridge for their computer game, extra clothes for a doll, more tracks or buildings for the train set. The compromise has worked well. The excitement is still there, and I maintain the respect of my grandchildren’s parents who want to provide for their children as I once did for them. Besides, they remember the dog—the gift that kept on barking. My Grandparenting column is at Positively Feminine.com (You'll find it at the Maternally Feminine page.)
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