It was a great first Christmas on our boat. We had a bunch of family aboard, the kids opened presents, we played Christmas tunes on the MP3 rig and we had great food.

Having 9 people for Christmas dinner on a boat is a serious endeavor. Jessica, Garret, Pops, Hideko and I all had to really hustle to get everything ready, even Brayden and Logan helped. In the end we had used every cooking appliance and almost all of the pots and pans. We had a Butternut Squash soup going on the stove top (and used the overn to roast the squash prior), Broccoli going on the stove top, a birthday cake (Logan was born on Christmas day six years ago) and a pumpkin pie in the oven, mashed potatoes heating in the convection oven, B�arnaise sauce on the stove top and a Chateau Briand grilling on the barbeque. Throw in an Agua Dulce Cabernet from our engagement and you have a pretty good meal. The weather cooperated so we ate outside which was a nice bonus.

You really need to plan the logistics out for this type of thing on a boat. At home on the dirt you can just whip up whatever with counter space and pots and pans to spare. On the boat you have to carefully sequence things to avoid running out of cookers or pots and pans or counter. Hideko was finding bowls and whatnot all over the boat the next day.