Tis the season…and we’ve been more than just a little excited about it! We failed at Christmas last year – no decorations, no surprises, nothing. Epic holiday failure. We vowed to do better this year, and we have succeeded! Neither of us has ever owned a house, and since leaving our parents’ homes as teenagers, we’ve both lived in small, city apartments. Being that our first home is The Red Thread, we were excited to decorate and to fill our floating abode with holiday cheer.

Together, we hung stockings, found a little tree, and strung lights and tinsel all about. A few dozen boats in our marina are lit up for the holidays, and we have done our best to be the Griswolds on the dock. Neil went up the bosun’s chair to add a shooting star, and we borrowed yard decorations from his parents. We had our snafus along the way…our lights don’t quite reach to the top of our 63-foot mast, one of our halyard light strands has an entire section that doesn’t work, and the head of our Christmas moose doesn’t exactly light up. But by hell, we are in the holiday spirit!

Although we didn’t win a prize in the annual lighting contest, we did our best to bribe the judges with homemade cookies, and we enjoyed sipping on Neil’s traditional mulled wine with his mom, sister, and brother-in-law.

Our first Christmas as liveaboards.
Our first Christmas as a married couple.
Our last Christmas in the US before we set sail.

Cheers to all!!

May the holidays be filled with memories as sweet as a sugary holiday treat!