Merry Christmas to All!

 December 25, 2023


It's Christmas Day here on the Tasman Sea - our third day (and final) day at sea as we prepare to make landfall in New Zealand tomorrow.

I thought I would use this post to share pictures of all the pretty Christmas Trees we've seen while we've been traveling. Despite all the holiday trappings, this doesn't really feel like Christmas for Carl and I.  For one thing, it's much too warm, and for another, we're celebrating it on a ship!

We exchanged Christmas stockings this morning.  I would have liked it more if I wasn't running a temperature of 102 degrees F! I'm still suffering from whatever this viral respiratory infection is - and I don't like it! But it was still a nice Christmas.  We watched the Christmas Eve morning service (4th Sunday of Advent) from Messiah Methodist Church (it's still only Christmas Eve back in the States).  Lots of good music! The TV screens in our room have the holiday yule log on display so we watched that while we opened our gifts.  

Carl gave me a certificate that he did on the computer, calling me "the world's best travel agent" for putting this trip together!  I'll treasure that!  Then he gave me three "gift certificates" - one for up to $100 worth of crafting items of my choice; one for up to three jewelry shopping (not necessarily buying) sprees on this trip (ha! ha!); and one certificate for at least one other gift (up to $100) that he hasn't thought of/bought yet!  Very creative! He also bought me a cow! - A donation to ELCA Good Gifts (that he wants to thank Pastor Barb at Trinity for, for the idea.  The card announcing this gift said "Moo you hear what I hear?"  Again - very clever! Oh - and I bought some Paua shell jewelry at the airport earlier in our trip and he "gave" that to me as a Christmas gift.

Well, without any further ado, here are the Christmas Tree photos!

Amora Jamison Hotel - Sydney


Darwin Hilton Hotel - Darwin

Double Tree Inn - Alice Springs

Aboard ship - Majestic Princess

Royal Flying Doctor Service - Darwin

Sails in the Desert Hotel - Uluru/Ayers Rock

Alice Springs Airport

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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