All's Fair in Gum Drop Buttons and War

So my Christmas night ended as one of the funniest Christmases of my life.

Our friend Kyle bought a gingerbread man cookie making kit advertising 8 cookies. Well, we opened it up and found only 4... Sign #1 this was going to be an interesting night.

Then we see that to create the decorative frosting you had to create needed butter, milk and water. Being crew members with no kitchen access, we decided to just go with water, same diff, right? And tick off sign #2.

So as Kyle is stirring the powder from the bag into a paper cup obtained in the staff bar with bottled water also obtained from the staff bar, we realize this is going to be tricky.

We let Claire make the first cookie and she created a very generic and sweet looking ginger bread man. Then Kyle moved in and decided to create a Canadian gingerbread man complete with Maple leaf on his chest. Jack then takes it upon himself to give rise to an English cookie (albeit his 3 lions were not exactly recognizable). So of course, being the one American in the room I had to represent and decorate the remaining man with the stars and stripes! He was strong and adorable. Kyle gave me grief for taking all the red candies for my stripes. I simply yelled back, "They're for freedom!!" This sparked a war where England's head was bitten off and America lost a leg. We decided to deem the neutral cookie Switzerland. Then we realized that the Canadian cookie had disappeared. Andi - our French Canadian friend - had rescued him and his him behind a bottle of English vodka. She made the argument that since England was Canada's head of state, he was meant to be hiding there. Typical...

The Canada cookie has not been seen since.

We laughed til we were out of breath that night. It was pretty awesome.

New Year's Eve was not nearly as eventful. Simple countdown came and went. Hugs and kisses and glasses of champagne were in abundance. Crew party downstairs where there was, yes, I'll admit it... dancing.

Now I'm starting 2011 in the same place I was this time in 2010. Well, not exactly the same. Manager now. Cabin at the front of the ship. All new friends. New and very different crew here.

Looking back 2010 was full of more surprises and experiences than I ever imagined. 2011's got a lot to live up to. Big shoes to fill. Come on 2011, I'll be rooting for you. :)