{"id":740,"date":"2011-12-24T12:14:29","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T16:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2011-12-24T12:14:29","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T16:14:29","slug":"christmas-comes-tomorrow-st-thomas-12242011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=740","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Comes Tomorrow ! \u2013 St Thomas \u2013 [12\/24\/2011]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Trim you! Trim me!!<\/em><\/p>\n

Every who down in who-ville like Christmas a lot…<\/p>\n

Hang on, wrong story…<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Christmas was so much like another in those days beyond the sea-town corner now…\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait…that\u2019s the wrong story too…<\/p>\n

I kid, I jest, I make fun. Though in all honesty it\u2019s very difficult to believe that tonight is Christmas Eve. It\u2019s come so quickly. I suppose it\u2019s obvious that I\u2019ve been having some difficulty with Christmas this year; it\u2019s taken a long time for me to get into the spirit of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit that the eggnog they\u2019ve serving on the ship helps, even if it is foolishly expensive per glass. December is one of the few months of the year where I don\u2019t pinch my pennies. The other one being October, because of my birthday \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Normally Christmas Eve is a busy one on the ship, because normally we\u2019re at sea. But today we\u2019re in port. As\u00a0 I look out my window at the sparkling blue water and the sailboats drifting lazily alongside us in the harbor, it\u2019s still difficult to believe it\u2019s December. December to me usually means cold and rain, but the last two years it\u2019s been equatorial heat (last year I was in Brazil), and balmy ocean breezes.<\/p>\n

But December it is, and this evening I will redecorate my room (some of it had to come down so my cabin steward could clean everything for inspection), put on my Christmas carols and shimmy into my full length black formal. I\u2019ll spend half of the hour\u2019s prep time I have trying to do something with my hair, and end up rushing down the I-95 at double my normal speed so that I\u2019m on time for the crew Christmas concert. And as I stand up there with a hundred or so other people, most of whom will be singing off key or not singing at all, I\u2019ll be hearing the scratch of a King Singer\u2019s Christmas album in the back of my head…and I\u2019ll recite the sermon from the Bishop\u2019s Wife<\/em> before I go to sleep.<\/p>\n

If I go to sleep.<\/p>\n

More likely I\u2019ll spend an entire internet card\u2019s worth of time online, and a phone card\u2019s worth of time on calls, talking to everyone from home. Making sure everyone has their Christmas cards (or at least as close to a Christmas card as I can manage, and those of you that already have one \u2013 know that I really did put several hours worth of effort into designing it, even if it isn\u2019t on paper and sealed with a kiss).<\/p>\n

And, as Dylan Thomas says, \u201cI will whisper some words to the close and holy\u00a0 darkness\u201d…and I shall sleep.<\/p>\n

And it will come…without packages boxes or bags….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trim you! Trim me!! Every who down in who-ville like Christmas a lot… Hang on, wrong story… \u201cOne Christmas was so much like another in those days beyond the sea-town corner now…\u201d Wait…that\u2019s the wrong story too… I kid, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-holiday-cruises-2011","category-ports-of-call"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-bW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}