Cheryl's Notes:

It is hard to believe that another two weeks have passed. We celebrated our first major holiday on the boat. Our first Thanksgiving will be one that we will never forget. I was determined that we would have a turkey dinner with as many of the trimmings as I could manage. Now, you have to understand that we have a two burner stove with an oven that has one shelf and half the depth of a normal oven. (For example, we cannot fit a full pizza in the oven. We have to cut it in half and bake one half at a time.) My first challenge was finding a turkey that would fit in the oven. I was able to find a young turkey that weighed about 7 ½ pounds. My first observation is that a seven pound turkey does not hold a lot of stuffing. The next problem was that once the turkey was in the oven, there wasn't room for anything else. I made my stuffing and sweet potatoes the night before. Remember that we now seem to live in the sweet potato capital of the world. No canned sweet potatoes for us. I peeled and cut them up fresh and partially cooked them. I put them in a casserole that we could microwave the next day. I rounded out the meal with the basics, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn. The green bean casserole was eliminated (see note on no extra room in the oven).

We happened to have a cold snap that week, so our cockpit, complete with coolers, served as our extra refrigerator. I decided that it was senseless to try to bake pies, so we bought two small ones at the grocery store. A pumpkin for John and I, and an apple for Maddey. I even bought a can of whipped cream and ice cream for the pies. While the meal turned out edible, I have learned several things during the process. First and foremost; a seven pound turkey is not the greatest. It was very lean and stringy. John said that it looked like it spent too much time on the treadmill. One of our dock neighbors admitted that he learned the same lesson years ago. He now buys a couple of the fattest chickens that he can find. Second observation; ice cream, even when packed in ice in a cooler, with temperatures in the 30's, does not stay frozen. Plus, it should not be tipped on it's side. Combine the ice cream melted together with the ice, and everything in the cooler was floating in skim milk. We ended up pouring it out into the river.

In the week since Thanksgiving, we have participated in two events. One of our neighbors placed a lighted palm tree on the bow of his boat. Game on. We now have lights on all of our life lines, and a three foot tree on the bow sprit. We ran out of lights before John could run them up the mast and both the forestay and backstay. I may have to make a run into town. The second event was a field trip to the North Carolina Aquarium and the outer banks. The ride was longer than we thought by looking at the map, but it was a beautiful day for a drive. On the way we saw signs for deer crossings, bear crossings and red wolf crossings. The aquarium was not very big, but was very nicely laid out. My favorite exhibit was the river otters. They are so cute. I hung around watching them play while John and Maddey made the rounds. We drove on to the outer banks and made our way from Nags Head up the shore. As everywhere else in the US, the outer banks has become very commercial. This is the off season, so a lot of the businesses were closed. We did stop at a beach access in Kill Devil Hills to walk on the beach. Note: I was the only one brave enough (or stupid enough) to walk in the water. As expected, it was very cold.

We are checking into two local events this weekend. Maddey has never been to the Nutcracker, and they are doing the ballet at the New Bern Civic Center. We are also thinking of attending a Christmas Concert by the Marine Corp band. They are performing a free concert this Saturday night in Havelock, which is next to the Cherry Point Marine Corp Air Station. I don't know if we have mentioned what a heavy military presence there is around here. I was crossing the Neuse River Bridge the other day and was able to watch a V2 Osprey out on maneuvers. It was really impressive. We have F18's flying over almost daily, and the helicopter pilots use our area for "touch and go" practice.

On a final note. We have decided to drive home for Christmas. I am trying my hardest to get all of my shopping done before we start the long drive. We haven't decided what day we are leaving, we are watching the weather back home. It will be really great to see my girls and spend some time with family and friends.

John's Notes:

Where did the last two weeks go? Well, if you are us, it's all about school. Unless we try to raise Maddey's grade in Geography (currently a C), the semester is complete. Whew. Not quite sure how we all made it. The operation was a success and the patient seems to be alive and not much worse for wear. With the exception of Geography, Maddey received B's in everything. Quite an accomplishment from where we began. We hope that Maddey feels the same way and will continue to do good work. She still needs to develop better study habits.

We had a field trip to the Outer Banks last Thursday. We went to the aquarium and up around Kitty Hawk and Nags Head. It's a lot longer drive than we thought. Took us over 2 hours just to get there. The weather was nice so we all had a good time. Did a little shopping along the way. These girls can always squeeze in a little shopping.

I'm still wearing shorts but you couldn't tell it by looking at our electric bill. I checked the meter on the dock over the weekend. What a surprise. Our current bill will be well over $80 for this month. That doesn't include the amount we have spent on diesel for our Espar heater. Next winter we are definitely heading south. I can't imagine what it would cost to air condition the boat in summer. People say that we will die without A/C. I think I can live without it but I have some real concerns about Cheryl and the heat. The thing is, if we are anchored out someplace we wouldn't be using A/C anyway. You definitely need an onboard generator for that.

We are thinking about returning to Minnesota for Christmas. We can take Maddey and return her safely to Rebecca. She misses her mom. Being with Grandpa and Cheryl is fun (well, when we are not studying) but it's not the same. I just saw the weather report and it looks like the overnight low in the Twin Cities will be about 2 degrees. That would definitely force me to wear long pants. Now we will have to dig out our winter clothes. Glad we saved some of them. Really not looking forward to the drive though.

We have a Christmas tree in our lounge here in the marina. All the decorations, and there are a bundle of them, are from boaters who are either here or have been here in the past. We will have to add a decoration on the tree this year. I'll look for a Leprechaun ornament one of these days.

Note: Whenever we buy a can of Redi-whip, Cheryl has to make sure that it works properly before use. This usually involves a couple of short close to mouth squirts. According to her, the cans are ready to use...............

Maddey's Notes:

I FINISHED SCHOOL!

The Christmas Lights War has officially started. It all started when our neighbor Paul put up a fabric palm tree with a bunch of lights (it looks great by the way). Then another neighbor put up these pretty blinking icicle lights in his cockpit enclosure. So now we have a Christmas tree and pretty blue lights on our boat. The tree is on the very end of the bow, and the lights are wrapped around the lifelines. The lights are also wrapped up in the tree.

I've finally seen the movie Wall-E. They tied me to the chair and made me watch it! Not really. I actually really liked that movie. Wall-E is so cute! I recommend it as a Christmas present.

We had pie, with whipped cream. The whipped cream went really fast though. I think someone (grandma Cheryl) was "testing" the can to see if it worked. Its kind of funny actually.

And on a final note: Pi are square.... Wait no they're not, pie are round, cornbread are square.

(Note from Grandpa.............see, Maddey really learned a lot about math this semester.)