Christmas at Sea!

Sat. Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, 2011

We had a lovely day today, and I got to do what I love best…BAKING!!  Especially for the holidays, I just love it! The Club Crucero’s  have a wonderful pot luck appetizer, dessert party for Christmas Eve, and so I needed to get busy for that.  I made pecan pralines, fudge, and my friend Teri donated some English toffee too.  Neil made some very yummy stuffed mushrooms.  He stuffed them with cheddar and chorizo, and they were delicious!

We arrived at the party, with goodies in tow, and we all got right to work on that delicious buffet.  It was really nice.  That was pretty much it for today....getting ready for the fat man on the sleigh now…night night!

Caroll from "Esrellita" (on the left) and Dave from "Kievit"

(from left to right) Carolyn and Cathy from "Shannon"

Neil and I

Teri and Ed from "SeaMoore"

Sun. Dec. 25, Christmas Day, 2011

We woke early, so we wouldn’t miss calling the kids on Skype, Travis and his family first, as they’re earlier risers, then Amanda and her family.  Believe it or not…we actually had to wake up our son and his family??  Crazy!  Felt kinda bad for that, but then again, not really…haha!

We had a lovely time with them, via the wonderful world of cyberspace!  It’s a beautiful thing when you can be thousands of miles away, and still spend quality, virtual face to face, time with your family.  It was so fun watching the kids get so excited over this and that, and just being with them.  We miss our family so much, and especially during the Holidays, it’s hard to be away…but, once again, the internet is a LIFE SAVER!!

After Christmas with our son’s family, we got to spend time with Amanda and her family, and even our youngest, Karli Bug!!  She had stayed overnight at Amanda’s to celebrate Christmas with them, so that was a nice bonus!  Once again, it was so nice being able to be part of the joy of Christmas, while being miles and miles from home.  It’s pretty hard too though, I’m not going to lie, there were many teary eyed moments, but all in all, it was such an amazing experience!

Once we had said our goodbye’s, we pretty much just lounged for a bit, then I got to baking my famous crescent rolls (thank you Elsie Howard for that recipe, many years ago!) for the Christmas day pot luck at the Shack, a local burger/pizza joint here in town, owned by a man from the states.  Every Christmas he roasts a whole pig for the cruisers, and then we cruisers just bring all the sides to share. 

Once our vittles were ready, we headed over to the shack, along with our cruising buddies…”SeaMoore”, “Shannon”, “Esrellita”, and “Eagle.”  This was mine and Neil’s first time at the Shack, although we had heard much praise about it from many of the cruisers.  What a cute and fun place!  LOTS of personality! The owner, Travis from Texas and his wife Rosie, a local girl, put so much love into this place.  They had provided live entertainment, as well as a fun, relaxed, “touch of home” kind of feeling for us.  This was just what the doctor ordered, at least for me, because I was having a pretty hard time of being away from my kids and grandchildren.  This is the first time that we had ever been away from them during Christmas…and yes…I know they’re all grown up now, and on their own, but it was still hard. lol

At any rate, dinner at the Shack was great, and the company even greater!  They have this fun tradition at the Shack too.  All the cruisers get to write on the walls!  Yep…modern décor…haha.  Really though, you write a little something, then leave the name of your boat and year…pretty fun huh?! 

After dinner, and hanging out, we decided it was time to head back to the boat, and get some much needed shut eye.  We hope you all had a wonderful, and very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

the beginnings of my crescent rolls

enough goodies??

MMmmm!!!

at "The Shack"  a great little place

many of the gang

everything's "manana" in Mexico...LOL

Good stuff!

This kid was a fabulous classical guitarist!  Really good!

Mon. Dec. 26, 2011

Didn’t do much today, just vegged.  At two o’clock we got together with some of the other cruisers to play “Farkle” it’s a fun dice game, and to make it more challenging…Tom and Jeanne, on “Eagle” throw in a red and green dice, that either adds to, or subtracts your points, depending on how they land….let’s just say I did a lot of “subtracting” ….boo!!  It was really fun though, and I’m totally NOT a sore loser!  Ha ha!

Tues. Dec. 27, 2011

Today, Neil and I went for a walk around town with the gals from “Shannon” (Cathy, and Carolyn) We were on a quest to find the BEST SHRIMP AND FISH TACOS IN LA PAZ!  Some friends of ours had told us where to find them, so we were on a mission to do so! 

Find them, we did, too!  And yes, they were delicious!  And very, very inexpensive, which totally makes them even better.  Only 70 pesos total, for 2 shrimp tacos, 2 fish tacos, and a soda pop! That’s only like $5 U.S. dollars!  Score!!!

After our wonderful lunch, we strolled around town a bit, and came upon this awesome hotel.  It’s called the “Hotel de Arte” (Hotel of Art)  And well…you just have to see it to believe it…so here are some fun photos we thought you might enjoy.

F.Y.I. : All the art is available for you to take, at your leisure…the only rule is…if you take something, you must leave something in it’s place.  Too funny huh?

Thurs. Dec. 29, 2011

We’re getting ready to be heading out to the island “Espiritu Santo” on Saturday.  We plan to stay out there for about 2-3 weeks and do some exploring.  Just doing routine maintenance, checking water, and fuel levels, cleaning, provisioning, etc.  

We won’t be back into “internet land” until we get back, so this will be the last post until we return, but we’ll have plenty to share with you all, when we do.  We are planning on swimming with the whale sharks, doing a lot of snorkeling, hiking and relaxing.  Apparently the water out there at the island is a beautiful blue, akin to the Caribbean….we shall see!!

Stay tuned…..