Merry Christmas 2007!

Merry Christmas to all (even though this looks like a Hanukkah picture...)!
It's just the color of my cockpit cushion (I have no red or green cockpit cushions) that fools you.

We had a great day at our brother-in-law's house yesterday with the kids and family. We played some very competitive bingo - Meghan & Ryan both cleaned up!

Then our new family tradition of the "white elephant" game where we each get to pick an unopened gift or one someone has already opened. This was a LOT of fun and had us all laughing.

The food and conversation were great. We all did well with on second Christmas without our sweet sister, Donna (love of his life to John, daughter to Mom, Mom to the girls and sweet sister to the rest of us). And without Dear Old Dad (I don't think he would mind us calling him that).

Then for our little Christmas on our boat.
It has a theme - edible, consumable, drinkable.
No knick knacks for us! First some morning Champagne!
Then the edible consumables fill the boat!






This year we concentrated on filling the wine bilge (no cellar on a boat...)!
Happy Holidays to All!

Our Boat Cost $5 Less Than We Thought...

It pays to search hidden spots behind stoves and under cockpit floors on a boat...
Jim was installing "something" (not sure what as he has been installing a lot of things lately) on the boat and kept coming across pieces of wire, stray screws and bits of hardened caulk etc, and saw a folded piece of paper.

It was his lucky day!

He found this - a $5 bill from The Central Bank of The Bahamas!So our boat just cost us $5 less than we thought...

Now if we could just find about 33,000 more of these, we could break even.
Oh wait, we would need about 4,880 of them to pay for the shipping of the boat from Fort Lauderdale to Ensenada, and then we could break even.
But wait, there's more!
We would need another 5,000 or so to pay for what we have put into the boat since it got here.
And all the stuff that Jim is installing!!! Oh no, that another 2,000 of these bills...

Ok, gotta go - I'm going to search behind the stove now~~~

Parade of Lights

We can't believe how fast this year has gone by...
Already time for Ventura's Parade of Lights!
Which means two nights of dock parties, friends, beautifully decorated boats and fireworks! Mike, Bibiana, Stan, Nancy & Bob joined us for chili, guacamole, wine and chocolate on Friday night.









We stayed up WAY too late on Friday night but had a great time!

Margi and her dog, Sophie came for Saturday night, and Bob & Nancy joined us for the same menu and same amount of fun!



We had perfect weather both nights - not too cold and little wind!






The boaters and harbor did a wonderful job!

Five Day Trip to La Paz, BCS, Mexico!

The morning after...

The morning after Thanksgiving we got up very early and were actually still full.
We had a little leftover pie that we placed on Stan's deck as we had a plane to catch.

We flew to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico to visit Jim's brother, John and his son.

My cousin Julianne just happened to overlap our trip by about 4 hours, so our visit with her was in the airport! Off to the Los Arcos Cabanas, where we had stayed when we took Mom in February.

We spoiled our nephew, Johnny with toys and our leftover Halloween masks.











And his Christmas gift - a remote controlled 4WD Toyota FJ! Which he called his "grande regalo" and loved! He also caught on to the operating of it very quickly and then decorated it...

John took us out to the house that he is building with Brad. The house is in El Sargento (near La Ventana), with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and an awesome view of the Cerralvo Channel and Isla Cerralvo. It will be for sale when completed - anyone interested, let us know!

We visited with George, Melinda and Joshua from "Southern Belle" for a night.

We found a new great restaurant, "La Boheme", and of course hit the usual spots, "Bros Gonzales Shrimp Tacos" and "Rancho Viejo". A quick trip, but nice to be warm for a few days!

Thanksgiving with the Family at Linda's NEW HOUSE!

We had a great Thanksgiving at my sister's NEW HOUSE! Jim cooked the turkey and stuffing and everyone else brought snacks, pies, rolls, other stuffing, vegetables, sweet potatoes and MORE! Liz-beth & Keith came from the far, far and away town of Bakersfield, Jennifer, Jeremy & John came, Mom, and our next door neighbor, Stan too! Ate like pigs at didn't feel too well when we got home... too much good food!

Visit with Dave & Kellie "Sweet Lorraine"

Dave and Kellie of "Sweet Lorraine" came for a quick one night visit on "Motel Meerkat". Always great to catch up with them and enjoy their company! It was too short of a visit, but we enjoyed it anyway! And I was able to get Dave's sportcoat out of my storage locker (I brought it home from La Paz for him a year ago...)!
And since we saw them up here, we didn't have to deliver anything to them in La Paz (a few days later we flew to La Paz & delivered mail to "Southern Belle" and a washing machine to "Southern Belle" for "Lovely Reta")! We forgot to take any pictures...