Christmas Eve at TPC

I was trying to think recently about how many Christmases we’ve spent here on the island, and I believe I have officially lost count. Bah – I can figure it out, hold on a second… ok, here we go… some stats:

Of the 18 Christmases come and gone since moving here in September 2001, we’ve spent 13 of them here on the island. Currently we have a streak of 10 years in a row being in Bermuda over the holiday. Josh’s first two Christmases were spent in Canada, the rest have been here on the island, which of course means that Ryley has never spent a Christmas day anywhere but here! Of the 13, only once did we have rainy weather (2003); every other Christmas that we’ve been here has been sunny or mostly sunny weather and we have spent time on the beach. Of the 12 beach days, we have been to Elbow Beach 3 times, the other 9 have been spent at Horseshoe Bay (current streak at 5 years in a row). We built our first ‘sandman’ (sand snowman) on the beach in 2011, didn’t do one for two years, then started again in 2014 and have done one every year since (so 6 sandmans, all at Horseshoe Bay). There, wasn’t that fun?

Oh Christmas Tree

Our island Christmas routine is much the same each year. We started the holiday season with the Christmas parade in late November, followed shortly by our annual Christmas tree ‘hunt’ and subsequent decorating of the house. Our Elf on the Shelf, Eddie, came to visit us once again this year (another stat: he’s been visiting us every year since 2010!). We all had advent calendars this year, the kids’ had Lego calendars, I had an awesome homemade beer calendar, and Jenn found herself a Kiehl’s (skin care products) calendar. Jenn took the kids to Tucker’s Point for a swim as is now the norm on Christmas eve (I tagged along this year!). Christmas day was spent on the beach after opening gifts in the morning, followed by collection of our pre-cooked whole turkey dinner from the Southampton Princess. We made a puzzle or two over the holiday, too.

There were a few departures from the norm, however. Ryley’s choir sang at City Hall for the official tree lighting ceremony, which was pretty fun. The partners at my office decided to take the staff to Philadelphia for a quick weekend away which was great (though would have been more fun if Jenn was able to join me!). We went to the St. George’s Christmas walkabout, and the Christmas boat parade was held again this year after a few years’ hiatus. One thing we missed from the past few years was the fake ice skating in St. George’s, it wasn’t on this time around. One new thing that may become a yearly tradition is family PJs (including Cooper) – Jenn got a set for the family and it was pretty hilarious!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and here’s to an amazing 2019!