Well, here we are back on Windrush after a fantastic Christmas home to Nova Scotia. Our journey home on December 16th was interesting! We were picked up from our boat very early in the morning by Bob from Cavelli House and taken over to Georgtown (stopping on the way at another boat to pick up another passenger) to meet the taxi taking us all to the airport. We arrived there in plenty of time and sat waiting patiently for our flight which was due to depart around 9am. At almost boarding time one of the Bahamasair reps. came and told us that there weren’t enough planes so our plane was going to be arriving at 1120h! This of course meant we would miss our connection in both Nassau and Florida. What could we do but sit and wait some more! Once we finally arrived in Nassau though, another airline rep. fixed us up with alternate flights and the rest of our trip was uneventful. It was lovely to see Kirsty and Shawn waiting for us at Halifax international.
The day after our arrival home, George arrived for a visit and so did Geoff & Emily and Kirsty & Shawn. George stayed at the house while the rest of us piled into the truck and went Christmas tree hunting! Great fun!! We found 3 lovely trees - one for each couple - and managed to successfully transport them home on the back of the truck. We then had a lobster supper - yummy! Christmas was under way! The next few days were spent catching up with Christmas shopping in both the city and Bridgewater. Also getting my hair cut and my eyebrows done - important stuff!!
Christmas was a little different for us this year. Our first time for decorating the tree without the kids and waking up Christmas morning on our own. We managed just fine though helped along with “Christmas cheer” at the right moments! On Christmas day we went and visited with Emily’s Mum and Dad - Michael and Lynda - where Geoff and Emily had spent Christmas Eve and were spending Christmas Day. Also there were Peyton and Jeff, Emily’s sister and brother in law whom we hadn’t seen since the previous Christmas season. It was a lovely visit and it was great to see them all. After leaving Michael and Lynda’s home we went on to Gold River to visit with Shawn and his Mum and Dad - our first time meeting Nancy and Jeff. Very nice, friendly people - we see how Shawn has turned out to be such a lovely guy! They have a friendly little dog ‘Lily’ and a cat called Oreo who could be a sister to Geoff and Emily’s cat Cleo, they look so much alike. We all had a great visit, then on the way home we stopped of at the hospital to wish Kirsty (working a 12 hour day) a Merry Christmas and to take her a hot chocolate. Then it was home for another lobster supper with our homemade L’Acadie Blanc wine. I’m a little disappointed with my first effort with the L’Acadie - hopefully it will improve with age! Later on that evening all the kids arrived and our Christmas began. Kirsty had insisted that we ‘delayed’ Christmas Day until Boxing Day, so we had Christmas Eve again on the 25th. We had drinks and snacks and filled up the stockings before going to bed to wait for ‘Christmas morning II’ to arrive. We had a lovely Christmas Day! Santa was good to us all wether we had been naughty or nice. Bruce and I had talked with Mum and Dad, Gill, Malcolm, Helen and Matt and Tim, Honey and Mike, George, Adam, Lisa and the children on the 25th.,but we spoke with them all again on Boxing/Christmas Day so that the kids could talk to them too and also so they could ‘meet’ Shawn. We had a very filling turkey dinner, the remains of which we managed to divide between Geoff and Emily’s fridge and Kirsty and Shawn’s. All in all Christmas turned out well!
A couple more days at home were spent getting things together to take back to the boat. We had hoped to visit friends, but we really weren’t very successful with that at all - the time went so fast. Very sorry everyone! I will be in touch online. (Jan!) An early morning drive to the airport on the 30th - thanks again Geoff - a few problems with our flights (as seems to be the usual) and then we were safe and sound back aboard Windrush missing everyone greatly, but looking forward to moving on down island.
Happy New Year everyone!