Christmas in St. Thomas

Season's Greetings to our friends and family.

I write this entry taking a quick break from "assisting" Julian with building his gift from Santa. A nice gift - but did Santa seriously realize there are some 700 pieces to assemble this Lego Mars Mission set? Oh well - a fun thing to do together...or watch Mark do.

The Christmas season has not been without its excitement and busy schedule in St. Thomas. Starting off with school Christmas concerts and ending with a New Year's Day Party - we have had a packed calendar.

Just before all this craziness started, we were very happy to welcome our friends the Ellsay family to St. Thomas. Chris, Christine and their three children Andrea, Ryan and Cari (ages 4,6, and 8) are sailing around the world on a 42-foot catamaran. This adventurous family left Parry Sound, Ontario in June and made their way through Georgian Bay and the lakes of Ontario to New York and then headed south. Having completed the Caribbean 1500 cruising rally which began in Hampton, Virginia and ended in Tortola they met up with us. With our children all being close in ages - the pack of five got on like a house on fire. We had a few evenings with them including one at our house where we all decorated our Christmas tree and then another - far more eciting from our perspective - visiting their boat and eating freshly caught mahi. This boat seems far bigger than the average 42-footer. And at one point there were 10 adults and eight young children on board - and it still felt spacious. The Ellsays left a week before Christmas heading east to other islands with the hopes of being in St. Martin by Christmas.

On December 19th - Santa flew into the St. Thomas Yacht Club for a visit with all the children. It was a fun evening and always fun to watch the children sitting patiently waiting to have their name called to sit with Santa and receive a gift. Despite previous years experiences, Max marched up confidently to Santa and sat on his lap.

Christmas Eve was dinner at our house with friends. We sat outside and drank champagne before dinner and then it got a little too windy to stay out there. Christmas Day was fun and relaxing and then we spent the evening with our friends and neighbours for dinner.

A few more days to play then back to work on Monday. The boys are off school until January 8th and then Mark's parents will make their way to visit us for a couple of weeks.

Happy New Year.