December

I have spent the last few weeks ignoring the early warning signs of Christmas by swiftly changing the radio station when anything resembling a Christmas carol is being played and ignoring any Christmas displays in the stores. I did, however, have a good laugh at the inflatable snowman displayed outside our local Home Depot, partly deflated and looking like he was melting in the heat. Some things really don’t translate well across borders.

For obvious reasons, it hasn’t felt like December. The month of November went by very quickly with my parents visiting St. Thomas. They arrived November 1st after a five week cruise that took them down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, up the Amazon and through the Caribbean. Quite the adventure. Needless to say, there was a sharp contract from their highly catered trip with chocolates on their pillows each night to visiting with us. They may have found offerings on their pillows left by little lizards – but believe me, they weren’t chocolates. Mum and Dad’s visit resulted in beach trips, visits to the yacht club and ferry trips to St. John. Julian and Max truly enjoyed all the extra attention and had two additional people to wake up each morning.






In addition to having a busy family visit, November was steady with work, school and sailing. And now it’s the week before Christmas.

Of course, with procrastination, there are consequences. The Christmas season has hit us like a hurricane. One friend warned me a few weeks ago, “When the Christmas trees arrive, you have to go right away or they’ll all be gone.” And she wasn’t kidding. Fortunately our local Cost-U-Less was also selling something that resembled a freshly cut Christmas tree, tied up so tightly there was no knowing what was hiding within the branches – the few branches there were. Charlie Brown would be proud. The tree is happily displayed in our living room with all of our decorations carefully shipped from Vancouver. It’s a weird and new concept to have your tree in a room where the breeze blows the branches and decorations.

And then there is the work assisting Santa’s big day. All I can say is I am a new fan of on-line shopping. Who knew it was so easy and that shipping would be so fast? The best part is I didn't have to set foot into a single shop and battle crowds. The line-ups at the post office are another story but I am learning to go with my phone, a book and other things to do while I wait.

This week Julian has a Holiday Breakfast and concert hosted by his class and Max’s class has another event finishing up the week and term. On Friday night we are heading down to the Yacht Club for a family dinner as rumour has it Santa is dropping into the club for a quick visit. Santa apparently quite likes St. Thomas as there have been multiple sightings over the past couple of weeks. Julian went to one event attended by all schools on the island and reported to us that evening that “Santa didn’t have a beard and he looked different.” Oh I wish I had been there to see that. However, all the children of the island came back from this event hosted by the Governor of the island with a lovely book and stories about talking to Santa.

The weather has cooled and the winds have picked up. I have quite a few more stories and photos to post but want to get this posted quickly first as our laptop has finally returned. More later.