Oh, Donna, (welcome home to you, by the way) I remember a couple of years ago when we were sharing holiday decoration pictures, and seem to remember yours were most elaborate! (and over the top beautiful) Can you not help yourself with this endeavor? I would LOVE the excuse not to decorate!

We got to Hilton LAX at 6:30 last night? Set alarm for 3 am as we were at LAX at 4:30 am for 6:20 am flight - all went well arrived home at 5 PM we are dragging - the Hilton LAX is nice hotel spent our short time there in the bar surprise!!- we had corner suite with great windows for flight viewing - miss you all and Merry Christmas - Donna, Tony has set out some small trees with lights and someone decorated a large ceramic dog at end of our sidewalk!!!!????

Glad you made it home, Joanna. Is your ceramic dog wearing antlers or a bow?

Olivia, you are right that I tend to decorate "over the top." I am working on curbing that enthusiasm. This year, it's only a couple of small trees with lights and an arrangement or two. Very simple and VERY understated but at least it feels a little like Christmas and I won't have much to put away next week.

Donna, you must have a big attic to store all that stuff. Mine has to fit in a space "under" the stairway, all of it!

Friends must have decorated my old "estate sale bargain" doggie - he sat on the lawn of an OLD ocean house yrs ago and I brought him home ($15 later) and Tony sprayed him black - he has greenery and ornaments around his neck first time in many yrs - sooo cute -

It is great that everyone is checking in. Home safe and sound, albeit exhausted. Merry Christmas Lamb'rs.
Lynn

Welcome home LAMBies.......So happy to hear from you.... Merry Merry Christmas to all....
xo

We are home too!! Like Marcie said, we had the "express walkoff" option and we were off the ship at 2pm with no customs?!?! Since we thought we were getting in much later, we had to wait until 3:30 for our limo driver as that is the fastest he could come to pick us up. Then off to the Sheraton till it was time to go to the airport for our redeye. When we got to Dallas for our connection, the jetway broke and we sat at the gate for probably an hour while they tried to fix it. Meanwhile, our connection was boarding while we were still at the gate. Needless to say, we had to OJ it through the airport to catch our connection with NO time to spare! They were almost finished boarding when we got there. We were home by 2pm with the cat and we dragged in the luggage, set up the litter box and went to bed by 4pm, lol. I just woke up at 4am and I am already dreading what I have to do today. I think I will only unpack the one suitcase that has things we need to shower and go grocery shopping and that will be it for the day!

Betty reporting in. Home about 11 last night, but nicest surprise - walked into a Xmas decorated house. Hilton was fine and the Regent staff working there were great. Couldn't believe my good luck at LAX. After checking in at Continental they sent me to over to TSA area. This man says that I would need to put my purse in my luggage. I said I planned to while standing in line. He says - "Lady, you are the line." Unbelievable, but obviously I'm not complaining. Would love to spend the day watching football - instead luggage, laundry and the grocery store are calling. But with such a great cruise just behind me, I won't mind that much.

Home again. Went through check-in at Air Canada like a dream....noooo hastles this time.
Regent really came through big time in all the land arrangements they made in LA. Everything like clock work. Never did meet up with Betty ,however did talk to Joanna and Tony at the bar. Had a lovely "last meal" and drink with Steve and Liz (SNL) before heading to bed.

Came home to a fully decorated home (outside)...all lit up....soooo pretty. However not going to be able to do inside,have a terrible cold and feel like a wrung out dishcloth....yuck

Pat, I may be jumping the gun on this but check with Ngaire you may be in for a surprise about 6 2009.

Glad you and Ray got home worry free Pat - was so nice to meet you beginning with dinner at Orbit restaurant in Auckland - sounds like you have the "pooch" bug??? I did 4 loads of laundry, just sent Tony to the store for chicken take out, both still dragging, our kitten ignored us for most of last night but there she was next to me in bed this morning yeah! Leave for Gainesville tomorrow (daughter and family) and they didn't ask me bring anything!!! My cooking reputation is a big flunk - OK with me!! Lamb was a special cruise thanks to all of you Lambies -

Glad everyone got home ok.
We walked off the ship priority at 3 pm, grabbed a cab, asked the cabbie to go through In-N-Out burger, bought him lunch and he dropped us off at Long Beach airport by 4 pm. Waited for our Jet Blue flight with no problems and landed after just a catnap at Dulles at 5 am and the limo was waiting. Home by 6:30 am hugged the dogs a lot and WENT TO BED. Up at 11:00 to get the mail and try to get organized. Ended up in bed at 7 pm. Alan and Donna, know what you're talking about - don't know why we're jetlagged with just 3 hours difference. Feels like 12!
No snow here in Maryland - 55 degrees and fog. But it's Christmas and we're home with the dogs after a fantastic time on LAMB. So nice to meet all of you. Joanna, I'm drinking a Lemon Drop in your honor tonight! Pat, miss playing trivia with you! Don and Michele - what a blast! Jim and Jan - hope to see you soon again. Marcie and Tom, thanks for being such great hosts to such newbies. Betty - have fun with your decorated house. Enjoy that chili.
Kathy

Like the rest of you, we too are tired...must be "boat" lag!

Where do I begin to tell all of my new friends at LCT how much I appreciated your support and encouragement as I embarked on my dancing debut. Chuck and I never imagined that we would find such a wonderful caring group of people to make this trip our best ever! Wishing all the Lambs and "LCT'ers" the best of holiday seasons.
We look forward to seeing you soon!!

Valerie

Valerie,
Tom received a CD of the entire semi and finals, as I'm sure you did too. I've enjoyed watching it again and seeing what a terrific job you did! I wish there were a way to make it into a you-tube to share with others who didn't get to see you. I just can't figure out how to do it. Maybe Michele will have some photos to at least post.

We so enjoyed meeting you and Chuck!!

A Few photos of Valerie, courtesy of Chuck:










Valerie you can open your eyes, this is not a dream. YOU WON!!!!!

Hmmm that does sound good! Wonder what New Years and Yom Kippur services are like onboard. ;)

Just want to say again how much fun it was getting to meet all of you and I know about being jetlagged.

Fantastic photos of you, Valerie! That split was so exciting! (editing to say: The crowd went wild!) Thank goodness Chuck has some still shots. Thanks, Chuck & Ken, for posting them! I was too far from the stage for the flash for stills to be effective. My video is in production stage. I don't have a clue how to do Youtube either, Marcie :( Darn! We need to learn how to do this!! (Easy for Valerie to look good!)

Hope everyone can now see why the words AWESOME and MAGNIFICENT don't even begin to describe Valerie's performance. She was and is the best.

Those photos are great - I would love to see this on Youtube if it can happen somehow. Many congrats, Valerie; you looked stunning!

Actually the photos were taken by Guest Chef and lecturer PAULETTE MITCHELL,she was in the front row. I just sent them on to Ken to post.
Chuck

Wow, those pictures are fantastic.

Congratulations Valerie! I bet after that split, the competition could not touch you!

Well Jan and I are finally home.
got here about 2:30 today. We must be about the last ones?
Everything was great except one piece of our luggage was destroyed some how. Giant rip in it.

I know everyone has been wanting to see Valerie's winning performance on Dancing With The Mariner Stars, so Don & I managed to edit & upload (with permission) our own video version of it into YouTube! (...thanks to the valuable help of our future son-in-law!) Quality gets wrecked in YouTube but it's exciting to finally have it work!! So, ENJOY everyone!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V-7N930jKlE

Oh Michele, it's perfect!!! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy all over again! I can even hear Mark whistling in the background when they announced the winner :)

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! What an incredible performance - and Michele, Don and future son-in-law...wonderful job of getting it uploaded! Thank you!!!

Yeah! It is so fun hearing our LCT voices cheering & whistling on this video!! Great memories :banana: :banana:

I now have this bookmarked and will watch it every day for months to come.
Thanks Michele and Don.
And also thanks to Valerie for a splendid performance.

Michele & Don,

I loved seeing the video. Thanks for posting it!

Great job Michele & Don....Valerie was soooooo great! Thanks for taking the time to make the You-Tube for us.

Tony and I have watched it twice - so much fun and such good memories - we sure had LCT cheering section for Valerie! She was hands down the BEST!

I just finished watching the video that Chuck sent of the whole event. What a fantastic evening that must have been. Valerie and Igor were a standout. Everyone did well but Valerie and Igors dance was far more complex. SO GLAD it is up on utube -- yeah Valerie.

Valerie is just amazing!!

Michele & Don.....

Many thanks for the video - I missed the actual
performance and was kicking myself. The whole ship was buzzing about it and now I get to see what the buzz is all about. Great work, Valerie! I enjoyed meeting some of you. For being so close here in San Diego, I had a long trip back - first at the Hilton, then to the LAX to find Regent hadn't confirmed my changed flight and I stood in the holiday travelers line to rebook for about 2 hours. It worked out okay, as LAX has some great restaurants, and I took a leisurely lunch. I'm so happy with Regent and the cruise was fantastic. Take care, everyone, and have some fun today. Jini

Congrats to Valerie. That was a wonderful performance. Many thx to Michele and Don for posting this for us non-LAMBsters.