{"id":7099,"date":"2013-12-31T04:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T04:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7099"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","slug":"christmas-inside-out-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7099","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTMAS INSIDE OUT – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have had trouble figuring out the correct approach to this blog post because I run the risk of sounding ungrateful about our Christmas Eve and\u00a0holier-than-thou about our Christmas Day.\u00a0 I would like to avoid both (if possible!)\u00a0and focus on the way the tension between the two days has been putting a rather uncomfortable squeeze on my heart.I’ve got tons of pictures, so this will have to be a two-parter.\u00a0 We’ll start with Christmas Eve, which was “Inside”.Inside<\/u><\/strong> the grounds of Labadee Beach.\u00a0 This is the private playground of Royal Caribbean cruise lines.\u00a0 We have seen if many times from the other side of the fence. We had access to Labadee on Christmas Eve only through the graciousness of the father of one of Melissa’s students, a man who works in management there.\u00a0 A few weeks ago, several tickets were offered to our principal, Angie Bundy, and she was sweet enough to share them with our family.\u00a0 So on the morning of the 24th, we loaded up and followed the Bundys, along with their family visiting from the States, to Labadee.\u00a0 After a brief stop at the security gate, we drove inside the gates and it was like we were in a different country.\u00a0 Or perhaps it would be more apt to compare it to an American amusement park.\u00a0 One called “Haiti World”.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As our group walked into Labadee, Hannah and Brianna held hands, like Haitian friends do.\u00a0 So sweet!<\/p>\n\n\n

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What a beautiful beach!\u00a0 The ship “Freedom of the Seas” always seemed to loom in the background (as you will notice in the following pictures).\u00a0 We were surrounded by hundreds of tourists and it felt good to just blend into the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Exploring together: Kristina Bundy, Sarah and Melissa.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I really wanted to see the inside of that ship, but I couldn’t get much closer than this.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Bundy kids’ little cousin, Simon, was often the center of attention as he experienced his first beach outing. He’s a cutie!<\/p>\n\n\n

Lots of time in the water.\u00a0 Another perfect Caribbean day.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our host, Givens, tracked us down to make sure we had all we needed.\u00a0 We did – and then some!<\/p>\n\n\n

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There was a little splash park for the young ones, that even some of the older ones enjoyed!<\/p>\n\n\n

And then there was MY favorite part of the day:\u00a0 the lunch buffet<\/strong>!\u00a0 Oh my goodness.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0 Melissa seemed to enjoy the corn on the cob.<\/p>\n\n\n

So many foods we haven’t seen for several months: Greek salad, potato salad, grapes, corn on the cob, and BARBEQUED SPARE RIBS.\u00a0 I have no way of knowing objectively if those ribs were as awesome as they struck me that day.<\/p>\n\n\n

Simon was the only one not impressed with the buffet.\u00a0 He crashed in his father’s arms.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Bundy kids and Gross kids stuck close together all day.<\/p>\n\n\n

This is one attraction of Labadee we did not get to enjoy this time around: a zipline that begins on the hillside, sweeps over the water and ends on the beach.\u00a0 There’s also a rollercoaster that snakes its way down that same hill.\u00a0 Maybe next time!<\/p>\n\n\n

Samuel made friends with some kids from the boat in the course of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0Not only was it Christmas Eve, it was also Brianna Bundy’s birthday.\u00a0 Our kids had made little cards and gifts for her to open on the beach.\u00a0 Here she is opening the gift from Sarah: $1.04 in assorted coins and a fake gemstone!<\/p>\n\n\n

At the tail end of the day, Givens made sure we got to enjoy the floating inflatables.\u00a0\u00a0It was only\u00a0a half\u00a0hour before “closing time”, but that was plenty of time\u00a0to exhaust ourselves!<\/p>\n\n\n

As we drove outside the gates at the end of our day in Labadee, there were\u00a0people selling leftover food from the cruise.\u00a0 We scored a couple of boxes of frozen hamburgers and some\u00a0American cheese slices.\u00a0 Woohoo!<\/p>\n\n\n

And as we made our way along the coast, back towards Cap Haitien,\u00a0the ship seemed to be following us\u00a0as it sailed on to its next port of call.\u00a0 Back home, we enjoyed a special Christmas Eve dinner together as a family and then, without a Christmas Eve service to stay up late for … and exhausted from the day’s activities, the kids were all in bed and asleep by 9:00 pm.What a day!\u00a0 Luxury, relaxation, and no care in the world.\u00a0 But our Christmas Day\u00a0proved to be\u00a0the polar opposite of our Christmas Eve.\u00a0 I will tell you about it in the next post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have had trouble figuring out the correct approach to this blog post because I run the risk of sounding ungrateful about our Christmas Eve and\u00a0holier-than-thou about our Christmas Day.\u00a0 I would like to avoid both (if possible!)\u00a0and focus on the way the tension between the two days has been putting a rather uncomfortable squeeze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7127,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099\/revisions\/7127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}