Wrote the following blog on the Sunday before Christmas on the boat and then was going to go over to the hotel and log on and post it. Shortly after finishing it, found out that the internet at the hotel was down and had been down since early in the week and wouldn't be back up until the day after Christmas. Which actually it wasn't until yesterday, Thursday. But Jim and I went to Zacatacaluca yesterday to pick up the 4 packages that my mom mailed out back on the 7th. This was stuff that we had to leave back home due to lack of space, it was like another Christmas all over again, only most of this was our own things, but most especially was our new compost toilet for our head, ( bathroom in non ship terms). I have never been so glad to see a toilet- well, maybe only in my younger days when there's been a bit too much celebrating! (Oops, did I say that?) Anyway, this will be a big improvement to the one on the boat, which will not be allowed in the Great Lakes because it is a typical salt water vessel toilet which dumps everything overboard. The impellar should be arriving any day now and we expect it will come right to the hotel since it's in a small envelope, only bigger packages get held in Zacata.
Please accept the enclosed photo as our Merry Christmas greeting to you all. I realized a couple weeks ago as I went to mail out actual Christmas cards with this photo on the cover, that in my extreme lack of sleep in the days before leaving that even though I intended to leave my planner back home- since this trip is about being relaxed and having fun right? why would I need my planner? I had no intention of needing it, but I should of at least grabbed the address section in the back, but I didn't. And it was too late by then to email all of you and ask you to send me your address, so maybe if you have a printer, you can print it out and have a momento if you like!
I probably won't post again until after the 1st, the hotel gets quite busy on the weekends and Holidays. Happy New Year! Feliz Neuvos Ano!

Think Christmas Song, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"...."All I Want for Christmas Is a Working Motor, A Working Motor, A Working Motor. All I Want for Christmas Is a Working Motor, So We Can Move Along the Water!" After all this, over a month of frustration and no more leads to use, our impellar from the States is on it's way. My mom shipped it out on Saturday (22nd), we spent a few extra dollars to have it shipped express and it should be here by the end of this coming week. Although with the Christmas Holiday a day of no mail, maybe not 'til Monday, I guess it is to take 3-5 days.
'Nuf said there.
Friday Jim & I went to San Salvador. We rode the bus in and was to change buses at the Arco again and head to the bus terminal to meet our driver, Melvin, whom we got his name from another cruiser here who uses Melvin exclusively and highly recommended him. We changed buses as we were suppose to...but, Big Problema, got on the wrong bus. Even though we asked 2-3 times, "terminale South", each different person said, "Si, Si". Only it wasn't. We ended up near the center of town where the market is that we had been to last time. So Scott who also went with us and speaks better Spanish than we do, called Melvin and he was able to communicate to him enough where we were. Thankfully that huge Church makes a really good landmark and we stood on the steps and waited for Melvin. I soooooooooo wish I had my camera this time. The Church was open and it is absolutely beautiful! I can't even begin to describe and do it justice, nor do I have enough room. We didn't take our camera since this was power shopping for Christmas and we also needed to extend our visas. When we got to immigration at the airport on our way down, we had 2 immigration officials taking care of us to speed things up. One took care of the kids' passports and gave them a 90 day stamp, the one that did Jim's and mine gave us only 30. We had been trying to get to San Sal the previous 2 days before Friday, but each night before, the driver we had set up (different than Melvin), fell through. It HAD to get done Friday since that was our 30 days. We will definitely take the camera from now on, although don't anticipate going to San Sal as often as had been leading up to now. But we still do want to go and do some sightseeing before we leave the area. There are some archeological sites, historical centers and art museums around San Sal, probably won't make it to all of them, but want to get to some and look around the area. And definitely back to this Church and as I think I mentioned in another post the "Romero" Church.

All the kids are doing well. Bridget and Sarah are practically inseparable. Bridget is doing great with her school work. She wishes we had better internet service than going to the hotel once in a while. She'd like to be able to keep better in touch with her friends back home. So girls, if any of you are reading this, don't forget her! Keep sending her emails and hopefully soon, she'll be able to "talk" to you more often. Micah is struggling with doing his schoolwork. It's still the same work he was doing back home, and would do page after page each morning, but he's upgraded to a more advanced math book and there are so many distractions . He has to run up the companionway and see every panga that goes by, say "Hola" to some and tell us how fast they were, how big the waves are, which side they are coming from and/or how big the motor is. But this past week we tried a different approach to it, and for the few days we tried it, it was easier for him to stay focused. Jenaya is doing well too. She and Micah play a lot together. The two of them especially are a magnet to the locals in the sense that the El Salvadorians really enjoy seeing such young blue-eyed blonde cuties that many of them have, I'm sure never seen before. They always get stares, smiles and giggles, especially from the other children. But even the adults really take a good look at them. Can't blame them, they are pretty cute!! Micah even got to go to a local boys 5th Birthday party earlier in the week and had a lot of fun. He was pretty excited to come back with 50 pieces of candy from the pinata!

Oh yeah, as I write this, speaking of getting looks, there are tour boats from some of the resorts around here, that frequently pass as close to the boat as possible. One just went by right now. I think the drivers have realized how much of a draw our multi-hulled boat with the blonde children aboard have become and make a point to bring their passengers this way. Many of them, cameras clicking and smiling and waving. It's amusing but also a bit annoying sometimes. We're a bit tired of being a big attraction.
We put our Christmas decorations up this a.m. The kids made some pictures, and there was a mini decorated Christmas tree and blue lights on the boat. We hung the lights up around the galley. We bought a mini nativity in San Sal Friday, and we brought down our stockings. It's not much, but it adds a festive flare to Sunshine. The kids are very excited, but they keep asking, "when's it gonna snow?!"

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and may the Reason for the Season ring in your hearts all through the coming year!

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad!