SayWhatClub Online Voices December 2009
All at sea at Christmas
Maurice Wilson
Copyright 2009
When I was a child, one of our traditions was to be the first one to call, "Christmas Day Gifts to everybody". I never heard my siblings call this.
Christmas Day had always been a day of gifts, eating, and being with family. And cooking. This was one of the reasons I decided to leave the U.S.A. for Christmas. Jazzy and I had breakfast in our room, and we had invited Caswell and Teresa to join us that afternoon for the champagne the captain had sent us.
We were at sea. Jazzy and I read, strolled the ship, ate lunch, and then realized we had gifts for each other. It was not a sad Christmas, just a different Christmas. Caswell and Teresa came for champagne and we had a nice time. They are such nice, fun people.
Our navigator told us that we could see up to 4,000 stars with a naked eye on a good night when there is no moon and the air is clear. I saw stars, but never realized which was the Southern Cross.
Holland America tried to provide for all of the religions. They wished us a Merry Christmas in Dutch-Prettige, "Kerstdagen", Tagalog (Filipino), "Maligayang Paska", and Indonesian-Selamat, "Hari Natal". That night, the crew members sang Christmas carols in the dining room.
We were at sea, the shops were open, and the casino was open. We were in the Pacific Ocean. We would dock in Christchurch at approximately 8:00 AM, and so I went to bed early.