Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

---

Merry Christmas To All
For those of you that have been following our blog you know what we have been doing this year so will not repeat it here. We just wanted to send a quick note to everyone to wish you the best for this holiday season. We think of you often and want you to know that even if we can't be with you during this time we are with you in spirit!

As mentioned in our blog entries we have really enjoyed meeting great people all along the way. We keep running into the same people in numerous places so we get to catch up on what is happening which makes you feel part of a community.

We were very pleased this month in getting a chance to re-connect with some new friends that we had met in Annapolis (Jim and Joanne from S/V Heather) as well as long time friends from back in Ithaca (Peg & Dave). We really appreciate all of their effort in making the trip to Stuart to see us. We even had our first night off the boat since August 1st when we stayed at a hotel when Dave and Peg visited. It was one of those cold nights so it was a real treat! We greatly appreciate the Kehoes' driving us all over town to do errands that were so much easier with a car - thanks for that as well as the drive across the state of Florida to get here! As these visits happened in December it has made it more festive and feeling like a holiday. We also got a package from home yesterday which was filled with lots of great treats as well as some Christmas cards that were forwarded to my sister. We brought a few Christmas decorations with us to help make the boat look more festive so all in all we are getting into the spirit of the season even though we aren’t home with family and friends.

On December 21st we set our alarm and were able to be treated to a great view of the lunar eclipse. We heard that our friends back home were not as lucky. Fortunately we were able to get some decent photos of it with that great little camera that Bob got as a retirement gift -thanks again to the faculty at South Seneca for that!

We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! In the future email may not be consistent, but please try to stay in touch either through our blog (if you subscribe you will get an email message letting you know when we update it) or through emailing us at [e-mail]

Here is hoping that you all have a healthy, happy and safe 2011!

---

Photos

It is starting to look like Christmas
Thanks to the card we received and a few things we brought from home, it is looking more festive on Tsamaya

Our Christmas Tree
Any of you that have seen Bob's tree in his office at school will recognize this -it is small enough to move to wherever we are on the boat!

Our good friends
Thanks again to Dave & Peg for making the trip over to see us - it was great to catch up with you again

The lunar eclipse
Not the best shot, but not bad for a small digital camera of the lunar eclipse this December - it was quite a sight

Just another shot of many
Took lots of shots of the eclipse -wish they really showed the true beauty of the event

Food inventory time
Didn't want to think we weren't both working this December. Janice unpacked and repacked all the food on the boat to get a complete inventory so we figure out what we still need before leaving the US

Bob really is working
Bob is still working on projects all the time -just now the weather is better and the water is a nicer color of blue!