If you would have asked me a year ago where I would be for my next Christmas, the middle of the Panama canal would not have been one of my guesses. Not even if you gave me an entire year to guess random places. But life is funny, and here I find myself.
Christmas started the night before, or rather the morning, with a midnight mass. This was a really special time because for the first time, the crew and the guests sat together and partook in the same thing. And this thing happened to be the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus. It was pretty special.
Midnight Mass.
(We still sat in the back, but it's okay.)
Everything about a ship changes for a Christmas cruise. One of those little things are the doors to our cabins. Crew Welfare sponsors a door decorating contest. I bought a 3D place mat of some kittens in Honfleur, France and tapped that to my door and put a wreath over it. But somehow, that just wasn't enough to beat the Filipino who shaved beer cans into a Christmas tree, built a manger, and then carved out the entire nativity scene out of bars of soap.
I think the judging was rigged.
Amanda gets into the Christmas spirit at the piano.
Jeff gets into the costume.
The Panama Canal is considered to be one of the wonders of the world. The engineering technology is over 100 years old, and is still being used today. Over 1 million ships have crossed through the Panama Canal. There is a series of locks where the water level is raised and lowered. It's quite a thing to experience. So, I made a video:
The cast decides to play secret Santa, only for some reason they call it "dirty Santa," because you can steal gifts. To me that just means white elephant gifts, but oh well, it's Christmas, so "dirty Santa." The price limit was $25, I think.
I bought Ashley a ring. Not on purpose.
I hope Courtney likes Glee.
I got a really cool mask, but I didn't get to keep it.
So, what did I end up with? Well, let's just say that Amanda misunderstood why the game was called"dirty Santa."
Thanks Amanda.
Hey, let's take another look outside!
Panama City
I made friends with the Boutique team, so we decided to have a secret santa game as well. Only this time, we weren't stealing gifts from each other.
Katie loves to draw so she got a new toy.
I got Neil hours of fun in a box.
Mercia got me a bookmark for my kindle, and then she thought it would be funny to include some white powder from Colombia.
Thanks, Mercia.
At last, after over six months, I'm back in the Pacific Ocean. Just about another week or so and I'm back in the states.
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