Merry Christmas.
This morning was sad…we woke early. Finished packing a bit. Watched the kids sleep while mom and dad got breakfast. Of course, they chose to sleep in on this final day – the day we woke up early. Eventually they woke and we went to the buffet for breakfast. Yum. Grabbed some snacks for the road, too. When we returned to the room we just chilled out with my parents watching Christmas Story on the TV and figuring out when to get off the boat. We were just going to hand carry our stuff, instead of having it tagged and being portered off. This meant we could leave as soon as we were docked at 815. Everyone needed to be out of their rooms by 9 and off the boat by 10. Well, since we were all ready we decided to just get off.
Bethany, Stefan, Tyler and Rosalie would meet up with mom and dad at the dock later. We easily got off the boat, went through customs, and walked across the street to our car. Bittersweet. Said our goodbyes to mom who waited at the dock. We drove Dad to the airport to pick up their rental car (the airport is the only rental agency open Christmas morning). He then returned to the dock for the rest of the gang. They all had more vacation ahead. Tyler and Rosalie were spending another day in Tampa. Mom and Dad, Bethany and Stefan were heading for Orlando for anther 3-5 days.
We drove home. It was a quick trip, actually. The roads were pretty empty. I got a call about an hour away from our neighbor. She was going to pickup any boxes that were delivered while we were gone….I had the mail on hole until yesterday. Well, they were out visiting family yesterday. When they got the boxes today one was broken into. hmmm…. all is not well at home.
When we got home I went to the neighbors for the boxes and Bryan went inside. We had pre-planted all the gifts from Santa. You know, the ones he dropped off during our Christmas morning the first day of the cruise. He came over to the neighbors and told me the house had been broken into ughhh……. Merry Christmas Crappy Valdosta.
In the end it wasn’t too much stuff gone, just a laptop, a camera, a watch, some jewelry. BUT. the house was a wreck. The gifts were all slashed open, our bedroom was trashed – the bed turned over and everything thrown around. Avi’s room was also rummaged. We called the police. They have been helpful. Seems the bad guys were looking for guns…targeting military homes lately. And, MAYBE they were scared away as we arrived. We called our insurance. They will pay for it. It just made for a sad, disturbing present opening time. We’ll get a new back door secured and install a security system. Wish I was back out to sea.