Normal start to the day – except that inclement weather forced breakfast to move to the World Cafe – which wasn’t all bad

After breakfast (during which the ship docked in Cozumel) we briefly returned to our stateroom to make final preparations for our day.

At about 9’ish – following a flurry of texts with daughter Kim – we headed out.

For those of you who have heard this story – many more than once – feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Last Christmas (2021) we were discussing the fact that Nana and Papa wouldn’t be around for this Christmas. We agreed to schedule an early celebration in Oklahoma (where Kim and family live) after which Cheryl and I would travel on to Ft. Lauderdale on the 21st. The kids got to talking and decided that as long as they were together, in mid-America, with no particular reason to rush back to their lives, that they also would take a cruise. They booked a 4 day cruise out of Galveston. They were showing us the itinerary when…That’s right, we were all scheduled to be in Cozumel on Christmas Eve. So we (all 10 of us) got on line and booked a ‘swim with the dolphins’ excursion.

So today was ‘Swim with the dolphins day’.

Leaving the ship we made our way thru the gauntlet of shops to the taxi stand and shortly were at Dolphin Discovery.

Some time later we were joined by the rest of the crew…

…and we, well, swam with our dolphin Ria. Sadly they don’t allow you to take pictures of the event. They’re happy to do that for you – provided you have the photo package, which we did. So in the fullness of time we will receive professional-quality photos of the event. When we do I’ll post some here.

We did manage to get a family photo to remember our day with.

Back at the ship we showered and I spent some time finishing yesterday’s post. (The interweb seems to be working better – probably because we’re in port.)

Being Christmas eve this evening was full of events so we opted for an early (6:00) dinner at the restaurant. While waiting in line for our table we struck up a conversation with Jerry and Nancy from Missouri. We invited them to join us and they were happy to share their celebration of their 52nd anniversary. We had a great time with fun conversation and ended up missing the 7:30 carol sing downstairs.

We did make it to the show – an entertainer named Yaniv Zarif. He claims to be conversant in 32 languages, and at various points in the show threw in comments in several of them. He even taught us, thru song, to ask for the ‘facilities’ in 7 languages. He was a wonderful entertainer and It as a great show.

Following the show we waited in place for the 10:30 Christmas Eve Service.

The service was conducted by our resident historian and focused on the completion of the advent wreath along with related scripture passages and a few of the best Christmas hymns.

Our dinner friend Jerry (an experienced barbershop baritone) joined us for the service. What a treat to join him on the harmonies while Cheryl held down the alto part on the other side.

Following the service it was time to sleep, perhaps to dream – sugar plums and all that.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. R