Christmas Day 2010
25 December 2010 | Key West
John
The Jolly Mon is here with us.
Christmas Day 2010
I sincerely hope that Santa made it to your house as he has been spending quite a bit of time here with us here in the Keys resting up from toy making and list keeping. I really don't think he checked it twice this year; too many Coronas. It is clear where he got that belly.
Our wish of a peaceful warm Christmas Day has been granted. It is sunny with a gentle breeze and 78 already. We have had a filling breakfast and we are enjoying the Christmas music on Sirius Pops.
Yesterday was a non traditional Christmas Eve however. It began with a morning of boat clean up as the boat becomes a mess quickly when we work on projects and because our floating house is so small it won 't tolerate the disheveling. After debate about whether the seas were one foot or six feet it was grudgingly agreed that we would all go to shore in the dinghy. We have rented an electric car; bigger than a golf cart but with a top speed of only 25mph. First stop was the laundry but it seems that it is a Christmas Eve tradition in Key West for everyone to do their washing that day so we had to hunt around town for a laundry with open washers. While the wash was going we strolled down Truman Ave to go people watching. Two large Carnival prison ships, I mean cruise ships, are in town so the town had to absorb some 6,000 tourists.
We followed up our wash day with a trip to West Marine. Maritime law requires us to tithe at the store. A new mop head in our cart and we were off to the barber shop. I cannot go two months without a hair cut (Ghislaine) so I looked a fright. It amazed me that Konch Kuts was still open at 1400 on Christmas Eve but she was waiting for one last customer and I was him. I am a buzz cut now.
After my grooming we headed for our new favorite hangout, the Schooner Warf Bar for Christmas Eve dinner. It was an interesting mix of locals and cruise ship prisoners but when the bell tolled they hopped up and like lemmings headed back to the ship so the place thinned out nicely. Dinner was great and the music in a typical laid back Buffett style.
One problem of living on a boat at anchor is that you don't want to be caught at the dinghy dock after dark. Dinghies don't have headlights and the anchorage is large and very dark so we had to make like Cinderella and get home before the dinghy turned into a wet pumpkin.
The traditional part of our Christmas Eve came after we go back on board. We lit up our small tree and listened to Carols until bed time. I always hit the sack early on Christmas Eve so Santa can get to me early on before he is too tired. He told me that he gets to all of the live aboards by putting floats on the sleigh runners and using a team of sea horses. What a great guy.
We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas. Remember the spirit of the day and pay it forward with kindness. That is the true meaning of Christmas.