When we returned from Barbados, a few of the boats were already decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. “Oh crap, it’s December!” I thought to myself as we brainstormed how we would decorate our new home.
We already owned a few decorations from the year prior when we decorated the rental home… but where would all that go? More importantly would the nice white Christmas tree fit inside the boat?
Decorating the Boat
Hmmm… maybe if we only put half of the branches on and left the backside flat we could put the tree along the wall where we already had some empty space. I was determined that the tree would fit, even though Will was hoping it wouldn’t.
As we unpacked the decorations and assembled the tree, it fit! Although, there wasn’t any room for the star on top, that didn’t stop me. I just taped it to the ceiling indent and tried to rig it up as best as possible.
We splurged and purchased a real tree skirt, nautical themed of course, to match our ornaments from last year. Having a 51+ foot boat also required a few more strands of lights than our previous town home’s small fence did, and a couple more red bows as well.
I needed somewhere safe for the awesome wood-carved Nativity my mom gave us last year, so we opted for the window behind the dinette (i.e the one place the cats didn’t bother much).
Will raided Home Goods for a few decorative pillows, and something large to display in the windshield (aka. the cat tanning bed.) Ryback approved of our choice, and enjoyed rubbing his face on the garland, and laying on top of it, just because.
He also enjoyed swatting at the stockings I hung over their food bowls… which only lasted a few weeks before I decided to just leave them down.
We burned pine tree scented candle wax, baked cookies and played Christmas music to get into the spirit, despite the fact that it was still 75℉ outside and we were running window fans to keep the boat cool.
Christmas Boat Parade
We certainly had holiday spirit, and couldn’t wait to go see the Fort Myers Beach Christmas Boat Parade at Salty Sam’s Marina. Our fellow liveaboard neighbor’s Kim and Randy were taking their boat to the marina to watch and blog about the parade (click here to see Kim’s blog), and another couple from our marina was actually entering their boat into the parade.
Will really wanted to enter Wiffersnapper into the parade, but I finally convinced him that we should wait until next year when we have a little more time to prepare the boat and ourselves. I’m secretly hoping by the time this December rolls around he has changed his mind, and we can just go, drink egg nog, and enjoy watching the parade from the docks again.
Christmas Dock Party
Another week or two passed and we hadn’t heard of any upcoming Christmas dock parties… So, we decided to host one ourselves! Since we were somewhat new to the whole dock party thing, we enlisted the help of Randy to spread the word and invite the other marina folk to the party.
Now the question was, do we have it on the dock or on the boat? We decided to at least set the food and drinks on the top deck and it turned out that’s where everyone sat and mingled.
Photo Courtesy of Kim
Wow, I thought to myself, our boat can hold a lot of people! At one point I counted 20+ people seated comfortably up top, and a few floaters like Will and I who were trying to socialize while finding room for the numerous dishes of food people brought.
Overall, the party was a success. We got to know the marina folks a little better, and everyone had a good time. We even received a few compliments on the tree, which of course made my night! 😃
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