Christmas has been and gone on Logos Hope.
It is somewhat shorter than what we are used to. The Christmas holiday starts at 3pm on Christmas Eve and finishes at the end of Christmas Day. Most people were working on Boxing Day.
Of course, for those of us who come from countries and cultures where we normally have at least 4 days at Christmas, and often a week to 10 days off work, it is a bit of a shock.
Still we made the best of it and tried to enjoy Christmas as best we could.
One of our recent family traditions over the past few years has been to watch the film "Polar Express" on Christmas Eve. So we showed the film in our theatre in the afternoon but Heather had to help set up for Dinner so missed it.
The main Christmas meal was on Christmas Eve. The leaders all serve, so I had a rushed dinner along with a group of 15 others, and then we served the whole community while they enjoyed a Salmon starter, turkey and mashed potato for main course and a kind of mouse cake for desert.
Then we had a carol service followed by some refreshments.
On Christmas morning, the children slept in later than we expected - it was after 8.30 when they came through to open their presents. We had been concerned that this year we would not have
much for them, but we were so happy when they got very excited about their presents and Liam declared that this year his presents were even better than last year.
On Logos Hope, one of the highlights of Christmas Day is the Brunch - a feast of breakfast delights served most of the morning and a great way to start the day.
At noon we had our Christmas Day service which was very special as the children performed their Nativity play with Liam as a wise man and Kara as a sheep. They both did very well.
Then the highlight of Christmas Day for me was Liam singing solo the first verse of the carol "Once in Royal David's City" At the same age, I had given the same performance for my schools carol service in Peterborough Cathedral some 35 years ago. As you can see below, Liam was brilliant.
With all our family at home enjoying a white Christmas and telling us all about the snow, we had to go swimming in the sea on Christmas Day. So we all swam round to the bow and got a picture to remember this very unusual Christmas.
Curacao is a beautiful island and we have been blessed with an incredible berth where we can swim and snorkel right off the quayside. The crystal clear waters are like an aquarium full of exotic tropical fish just metres away from the ship. What a fantastic place to spend Christmas and New Year.
