Christmas Eve! The timing of this holiday was very disorienting, I have to say. After rushing to get all of the presents bought and shipped, Christmas cards mailed, and all our stuff packed, it seemed like we should have been right at Christmas upon our arrival in Belize. But in reality we had a week to go, so finally, finally Christmas Eve arrived.
I had to laugh at Ezra, upon opening the last day of his Trader Joe’s chocolate advent calendar, it became clear that he had saved all of the days’ chocolates. As I’ve said before, that boy would definitely pass the marshmallow test.
He proceeded to eat them all in one sitting.
After breakfast we embarked on our snorkeling trip. We had a general plan but were leaving the specifics up in the air because it was windy and the sea was pretty choppy. We weren’t sure how we’d all do in the boat (mostly Finn and I, the long suffering motion sickies) or if the sea would be too stirred up for good snorkeling. We had a new boat captain, Sergio, who took us north looking for a good spot. He found a pretty good one but the ride had taken a while and Finn and I weren’t feeling so good. Finn was worse and I knew from personal experience that we just needed to get him off the boat. At this point the boat was just sitting in the water bobbing up and down, the worst possible scenario after the ride.
Finally, we all got out. Bruce, Ezra and I snorkeled around with Sergio. Finn hung onto the circle and got towed around. As I thought, he felt much better once he was in the water.
Because I actually participate in the snorkeling, I end up with few pictures. I have a few from when we got back on the boat.
After the first stop, we went for a break and lunch at Tranquility Bay Resort.
We had a little time to kill before they opened for lunch, so we took a walk up the beach.
There were some free coconuts, which is kind of funny because the whole island is filled with free coconuts.
And there was this boat on a deserted property that had apparently been there so long that a tree had grown in it.
After lunch we decided to try another snorkeling spot and headed to Mexico Rocks. I wasn’t very encouraged because the first spot had been just OK due to the water being so murky. But in the end I was very glad we tried the second time — the water was much clearer, there was more of the reef to see, and we finally convinced Finn to put on his mask and snorkel. Even Jamma got in the water. We all had a great time!
And Finn got to drive the boat.
Once back from snorkeling, our task was to make Coconut Bannings. We were missing our Christmas Eve celebration with the Bannings, and in the grand tradition of Paperplate Bruce, we had decided that we needed some stand-ins. The boys collected coconuts and all sorts of decorative items from the property, and we all made our counterpart. Here’s Ezra with his Ruby.
And here’s all four of them: Rob and Cari on top, Ruby and Chapin on the bottom.
Later, just as we were getting ready to cook dinner, the power went out. And stayed out. For about four hours, and then off and on all night. So, our non-traditional Christmas Eve continued with chips and salsa for dinner and reading by iPad light.
In the morning the boys were understandably anxious to head up stairs and see if “Santa” made it to Belize. They not-so-patiently waited on the stairs for all of the adults to get out of bed.
When they did get upstairs, they didn’t really know where to look for their presents and ended up missing them completely. Finally, they found the iPad (Ezra) and the computer (Finn) sitting neatly on the table and they were pretty excited. They didn’t have much to open as we’d only brought a few presents with us — games from Jamma, new Google t-shirts, and stockings. Here’s everyone having a look at their stocking stuffers.
The boys spent most of the day enjoying unlimited screen time on their new electronics, with intermittent breaks for swimming with the neighbor kids.
In the late afternoon we enjoyed Christmas dinner — turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, coleslaw, and pumpkin pie.
After a few rousing games of Exploding Kittens and King of Tokyo we went out to the dock to check out the Christmas full moon.
The next day we had to go to town to return the golf cart, so we stopped at Estel’s for breakfast on the beach. Here’s Ezra showing off his giant fry jacks.
And Finn making quick work of his pancakes.
One last bit of goofing around in the golf cart …
… a few souvenirs purchased, and we were on the water taxi headed back to Jamma’s so we could pack for our departure the next day.