We don’t have snow, but there’s nothing wrong with a sand angel on Christmas day instead!

The weeks coming up to Christmas this year were a flurry of packages, Christmas cards and Skyping with family. As our first year on the boat and the first away from family, it was important to us to make Christmas special and establish a bit of our own flair. I had the idea that I would have a fabulous menu planned with all of our presents perfectly wrapped and under our “tree” on Christmas morning ready to go. It turns out I was a little over ambitious on the menu side for my first try (I’m sure I’m not the first person to find that out!), but we still had a great time complete with a visit to the beach!

Our table was piled high on Christmas Eve!

One of the bigger challenges for us this year was trying to coordinate presents for Carter from the extended family. Because his birthday and Christmas are only about a month apart, finding enough gift ideas has always been an issue but this year it was especially so. Unfortunately, most gifts for his age range are space hogs featuring near life-size vehicles, sports equipment, and monstrous play sets. Seeing as how we are a little short on garage space, we had to a little more creative for him and us.

My sister Melissa got Carter a set of Ninja Turtle books. Now I just have to find time to read them.

Luckily for us, his friends on Viatori introduced Carter to the wonderful world of Lego only a few weeks before his birthday. Legos are perfect for boat life since they can be endlessly rearranged in new ways and store into a fairly compact space. Five separate sets of Lego Junior later and a general bucket from Grandma means we are now a fully stocked Lego vessel. Carter also scored some new books, a few superhero costumes, and some new DVDs to add to the collection.

We got Carter a custom book called “The Little Boy Who Lost His Name”. This is us reading it just before he finds out it is about him.

Here is his face when he finally figured it out!

Dan and I actually had quite the list ourselves of things that were luxuries for the boat/entertainment but perfect ideas for Christmas gifts. Here was the list we sent to the family:

• Explorer Charts of the Bahamas
• an Omnia stove-top oven
• waterproof Bluetooth speakers for days on the beach
• Handheld depth finder for our dinghy
• collapsible strainer set
• Underwater camera
• Kick-stand case for the tablet
• Bahamas courtesy flag and yellow Quarantine flag
• The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew by Lin Pardey

Planning for our trip in the full sized charts is much easier than on a screen!

While we missed the family, we still had a great day together and are already enjoying our new gifts. Another Christmas success!