Bless the Rains: We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As we've all noticed, Christmas has recently come and gone. We celebrate it on the ship in grand style. There are things leading up to it, and then the holiday itself.

Decorations in the midships area, during Winder Wonderland

There was Winter Wonderland, which was basically a ship wide craft show. People had booths and sold candy or food or crafts. It was cool.

Kendall manning her Winter Wonderland stand

There was story telling night, where people told Christmas related stories but made it more than just stories. They acted them out, or had us make crafts, or other things like that.

The ship shop decorations

The academy did their Christmas play, "Bethlehem Express." It was great, and everyone from preschool to high school had a part.

These are all the decorated dining hall

On Christmas Eve, one of my small group girls, Aimee, made us all a fantastic brunch. There were hash browns (courtesy of Chelsea), eggs (Kendall), and exotic pancakes made by Aimee herself. It was fantastic! That afternoon we had Christmas Eve service. I got to sing in the worship team, which was really fun. The whole crew dressed up, and we all ate together. The dining room was enchantingly decorated, and the food was fantastic. That evening we set out our shoes, for the tradition is that little Christmas elves will fill our shoes with gifts in the night.

The shoe elves came!

The 4418 Christmas tree

The current 4418 girls: Bethany, Rachel, Lyndsay, me, and Annie Lou

On Christmas day, I checked my shoe (the elves came!) and ate brunch with some friends, and then opened presents with them. It was a group of people all roughly in their 20s who are, obviously, all away from home. It was a lot of fun. After that, I hung out for a while, went over to the 8 berth to give them their presents, and then ate. I opened presents with my roommates after that, which was nice. The evening's activity was a massive free concert put on by the Tenerife Port and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. It was so close we could walk there, and it was AMAZING! I was so happy and excited, and it was worth it.