Christmas Eve in Kuna Yala

(First, a house keeping note. Please bear with us, we do not have internet access. Anything sent to the contact@sailastarte.com, the blog or our aol account can't be checked till we get somewhere with internet. We want to apologize early, if you haven't gotten a personal response lately. We still receive the sailmail.com and winlink.org addresses on the boat.)

Merry Christmas to all our readers. It is a different Christmas for us this year. Last year we were in chilly New England with Barbara's mom and enjoying family time with her sister and family. That included some Polish Christmas eve traditions; eating lots of cookies and seeing all the beautiful decorations.

This year, we're anchored in the Eastern Holandes, in the area known as the "swimming pool." It's hot and sunny - not very Christmas like. At night, we see many of the boats here all decorated with their Christmas lights - its one of the only ways you can tell it's the holidays. Richard and Rene's visit brought Christmas cheer as they gifted us with holiday stockings and ornaments now hanging on the boat.

Today will be cookie baking time onboard Astarte. With a tiny oven (and one cookie sheet) - this will be a bit more time consuming than normal. Tonight, we'll have some folks over (our old friends Lil and Otto from Vagabond that we just reconnected with, after spending time with them in Curacao).

Tomorrow, there is a potluck feast on the island that we'll partake in and a gift exchange with things from the boat. We've made a copy of the CD that Kathryn sent us as our gift and Barbara's trying to make rope trivets as another gift (not so easy and they're not made yet!) The Kuna's that come by the boat joke that Michael (with his now pretty white beard) is Santa Claus - he's getting good at the "Ho Ho Ho" to get a laugh. He's scared a few as well!

It's a different Christmas. We miss celebrating with family and friends. And, with Michael's dad's recent death, it has some additional sadness. But we are in a beautiful place, doing what we are truly enjoying. We are meeting interesting and wonderful folks from all over the world. Holidays are difficult - but it also makes you really remember what they are all about. This year we weren't at all caught up in the commercialization of Christmas - and making homemade gifts reminds us of college days.

We wish you all a very special holiday and may your dreams be fulfilled.
Merry Christmas from both of us - Michael and Barbara.

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