Christmas Day

We decided to go to St. John at Christmas since Paul had more than two weeks off from school, making it a great time to travel.  When you are a parent of a school age child your vacation choices are ruled by the school calendar.  

The trip was my idea; I felt it was time to do something as a family that was just fun.  We all love snorkeling, so going back to the Caribbean was a no brainer.   The question was whether we'd enjoy celebrating Christmas away from home, friends, and extended family, or whether it would be lonely and weird.   

Upon arriving in St. John we found plenty of decorations and lights to put us in a holiday mood.  

We joined in the festivities by decorating the fake palm tree in our apartment.

For the big day itself we scheduled a boat to take us out snorkeling from 8:30-4:30, thereby filling up the day with something we'd all enjoy.  The snorkeling was wonderful and I'll tell you more about it when I get the photos that Paul took with a GoPro and an underwater camera.

For now I'll just say that the first thing we saw was a lovely spotted eagle ray.

Photo by Guy Stevens for the Manta Trust

 We went to two spots and then it was time for lunch.  Captain Craig had promised to take us to a place with a real island vibe, and Water Island lived up to the promise.  It was a fun place to lunch, with many people hanging out enjoying the water, the music, the food, and the water toys.

Here I am standing near one of the three restaurants. looking relaxed and what we call "beachified."   Oh my, it was a beautiful Christmas day.  Temps in the low 80's, happy sunshine, the water lapping at your toes, the sand a soothing soft white sugar .....really nice.

Paul is sitting next to Joy, who for some reason just didn't cozy up to him or anyone else.  

After our day of fun we hung out in our apartment for a while, just kicking back and watching the harbor. 

Later Ben and I went out to a special restaurant for dinner leaving Paul at the apartment to happily catch up with his texting and game playing.  Too bad, because he missed seeing Santa Claus who was celebrating his successful sleigh ride around the world with a few drinks.  

So the answer to my question turned out to be that yes, you could have a delightful Christmas away from home, friends, and extended family.  

I might not want to do it every year --we've already promised Paul that we'd be home next year and will have a real tree to boot -- but it certainly was a treat this year.