early Christmas

Well, it's 4am and another cargo is in the books as we sail for our mooring buoy. I'm well and truly back in the rhythm of things now. The last week of my last hitch threw me- different style barge, VERY spartan accommodations, different port, different shipmates- certainly enough to put me off my tea for a bit.
 Then I got to go home. And there was much rejoicing.

 Seriously, there was rejoicing. My wife threw a family Christmas party. Most of the clan B and my Brazilian in laws &co showed up. I had a good time, and we did an early 1/2 Christmas so I could open presents with the fam. Christmas 2.0 happens while I'm away- at midnight on the 25th, as per Brazilian tradition.

 And I got the greatest Christmas present ever. oops. I mean EVAH!  I had told my wife I wanted a good pair of slippers. I tend to live in workboots at home or at sea, and I wanted something comfortable- something that says "I'm home," something that is well and truly 'me' in footwear. And my wife, God love her, came through.

Don't act like you're not impressed.

 Other stuff happened, too. We went to a party thrown by my wife's cousin, and, it being a Brazilian party, there was drinking and dancing. Not sharing those pictures, though. My wife would make me rinse my mouth out with a glock.

The tree, now... well, this was the first year we had a real Christmas tree. And of all the hopefully many trees in our future, I will always remember it fondly, because my wife bought the wrong base for the tree, as yours truly was buying the tree, and being stubborn, I just had to make it work... and to its credit, it worked well... for about 3 days. About 1 minute- literally, before the first guests walk through my door for the Christmas party, over it goes with a tinkle and the ringing of little bells! I propped it up in the corner and there it spent the night before I lashed it to a nearby wall with some festive yarn the next day. It pays to have a sailor in the house. The tree has a modest starboard list but is stable now.

 Anyhow, it was a completely successful week at home- one of the best I've had this year. I'm actually OK with going to work, even if I do miss the actual Holidays. I won't be home until mid-January.