{"id":725,"date":"2011-12-22T00:22:57","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T05:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2011-12-22T00:22:57","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T05:22:57","slug":"where-are-you-christmas-or-regarding-the-dolly-in-the-corner-fort-lauderdale-12202011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"Where Are You Christmas….? (or \u201cRegarding the Dolly in the Corner\u201d) \u2013 Fort Lauderdale \u2013 [12\/20\/2011]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> The sun is shining, the grass is green
\nThe orange and palm trees sway
\nThere\u2019s never been such a day
\nIn Beverly Hills, LA
\nBut it\u2019s December the 24th<\/sup>
\nAnd I am longing to be up north…<\/em><\/p>\n

And so it starts.<\/p>\n

This morning, tired hands grope blindly to the backs of closets and office mail boxes to pull out faux velvet Santa hats, hair is curled, and clear lip-gloss painted on over top red lipstick so that we all look like some version of uniformed elves.\u00a0 All in preparation for approximately 200 children and their families to rush up our gangway to spend the holidays with us.<\/p>\n

The ship will erupt with noise and lights and yes…snow. Snow thrown by hand by us<\/em> but snow none the less.<\/p>\n

The ship has already been loaded with the essentials, I\u2019m sure the storage units below decks have several gallons of eggnog, extra chocolate, and if we\u2019re lucky they\u2019ll bring in mandarin oranges this year. Last week every public area sprouted a Christmas tree, there\u2019s a small snow-trimmed forest in the Atrium, and yesterday they put up the giant gingerbread house in the lobby.<\/p>\n

It truly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beautiful, it really is. But it isn\u2019t home. All of that, and it still doesn\u2019t feel like Christmas. Not really. I know it\u2019s there<\/em> somewhere under all the glitter and garlands Christmas is there<\/em>, but it\u2019s like something you can sense, or see out of the corner of your eye, but not quite catch on to. \u00a0I can even feel it deep down inside me, but I can\u2019t seem to summon up the energy to bring it to the surface and that upsets me a very great deal.<\/p>\n

Christmas on ships is a very unusual thing, because you\u2019re so busy making sure that everyone else<\/em> feels in the holiday spirit that you very seldom have time to indulge in any of your own traditions, and by the time things finally slow down it\u2019s Jan 1st<\/sup> and you\u2019ve got a whole other year in front of you and you\u2019re wondering where on earth the holidays went!<\/p>\n

I think what it really comes down to is (and this is going to sound very strange), oranges…<\/p>\n

Let me explain before you start looking at me like I\u2019m crazy. In the 1970s musical film Scrooge<\/em>, there\u2019s a scene where Bob Cratchitt\u2019s children are peering into the toy shop window, Tiny Tim of course, has something much wiser than his years to say, while his sister only has eyes for the glamorous doll standing in the corner.\u00a0 Later on, as they stand watching their father buy fruit for their Christmas dinner, they have the following conversation:<\/p>\n

Fruit Seller: You\u2019re quite right Mr Cratchitt, with the size of your family these apples are the best bet<\/em><\/p>\n

Sister: I\u2019d rather have the dolly in the corner<\/em><\/p>\n

Tim: I\u2019d rather have the oranges<\/em><\/p>\n

As children, we all long for the \u201cDolly In the Corner\u201d that great glimmering what-ever-it-is that all our friends seem to have that we don\u2019t. We press our noses up against the glass and cross our fingers and whisper a wish under our breath that Santa will bring it to us.<\/p>\n

I was no different. I was also lucky, I usually got<\/em> the Dolly in the Corner \u2013 with the exception of the time I asked for My Little Pony Paradise Estates Playhouse<\/em>, which even back then was exorbitantly expensive. Looking back I have no idea how my parents managed it, looking back I realize that money was tight, and that there were times when I got everything I wanted but my mother got a cheese grater. You don\u2019t see that kind of thing when you\u2019re little. So many things went off-kilter in my childhood, that I think my parents were determined to make Christmas one thing that would always go right<\/em>, no matter what it cost them. All children are selfish in their own way, and I feel bad now that I never noticed.<\/p>\n

Anyway…when we\u2019re little, it\u2019s all about the \u201cDolly in the Corner\u201d<\/p>\n

In a very real way life on ships gives you that. You\u2019re presented with everything you think you could ever want: fantastic decorations, great entertainment, amazing places to see, amazing food, a relatively care-free life style. In a very real way, the ship gives<\/em> you the Dolly in the Corner…and oddly enough, that\u2019s when you realize how little all that means.<\/p>\n

When the trappings of Christmas have shrunk from a massive nut-cracker scale fairy-tale tree, and a house that looks like it came right out of a Christmas card – to one tiny little feather tree decorated with doll-house ornaments and Christmas glass-markers\u00a0 and one strand of smuggled mini-lights…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s then that you realize just how much you\u2019d rather have the oranges. Rather have a smile from your mom, a hug from your best friend, turning over the Christmas carol record on your father\u2019s player…or even a phone call from someone you love on Christmas morning…<\/p>\n

All those shining gifts that make peace on earth…<\/p>\n

Like I said…just at the moment…among all the glamour and glitter and red-painted smiles…I\u2019m silently craving \u2018oranges\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun is shining, the grass is green The orange and palm trees sway There\u2019s never been such a day In Beverly Hills, LA But it\u2019s December the 24th And I am longing to be up north… And so it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-holiday-cruises-2011"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-bH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}