Christmas Adventures

 

The first year after Logan passed away, I wasn't sure I could be home and "celebrate" the holidays. It was just too painful. That started our first Christmas vacation over the actual holiday. We took off for the warm waters of Mexico on a cruise that year and returned to an all-inclusive resort the next year. When Tom was on his mission, we stayed home and remained home one additional Christmas because the Covid 19 pandemic pretty much halted travel around the world. Traveling began again last year and this time adding Brinlee. We went to Florida because there were still quite a few cancellations and restrictions due to Covid throughout the world. 

That brings us to this year. It will be our last Christmas together for four years. Ethan will leave this coming summer for a mission and, when he gets back, Dylan will leave. We aren't sure what our fiamily will look like in four years. Will we have grandkids? Will Ethan be married too? Will this really be our final family trip over Christmas? Just in case, we knew we wanted to go big. We made the reservations back in April for Grand Cayman and began counting down. 

We had a blast! Some of our favorite adventures were snorkeling almost daily right out the backdoor of our condo, swimming with stingrays, swimming at night in a bioluminescent bay where every movement made the water around you glow as the plankton were disturbed, going to church at the local branch for Christmas Sunday, snorkeling with sea turtles at a turtle preserve, visiting the town of Hell, and finding giant starfish in the waters surrounding Star Fish Point. 

The weather was wonderful. It was warm and sunny the first five days and, even when it was cloudy the last couple of days, the temperature was always right around 80 degrees. Before the storm moved in and made the ocean angry, the water was crystal clear. You could see straight to the bottom even on our excursions miles out from shore. We dove for conch shells. We watched all sorts of colorful fish swim throughout the coral making up the barrier reef. I've never enjoyed the water quite as much! Each night we came back to the condo exhausted and happy.

The food on the island seemed to be the same menu regardless of where you went to eat. There would be some sort of jerk chicken, curry, seafood, and pasta on every menu. For Christmas dinner, we decided to go fancy and ate next to the bay. Ethan ordered a GIANT 2 1/2 pound lobster. That kid loves his seafood! Brinlee and Dylan would rather eat anything than seafood so it was steak for them. Tom and I had surf and turf and Gary ordered giant prawns that looked like just small lobsters. Once we were finished eating, the waitress came and grabbed Gary's plate and then took the seafood shells and threw it into the bay straight from our table. It was crazy! There were small sharks called tarpins swimming in the bay that anticipated the nightly feedings. The kids were all able to throw in pieces of shell from our plates and watch the tarpin snatch them up. It was a favorite memory for sure.

I could go on and on about our trip but I want to end with a realization I had this year. We began traveling at Christmas out of our grief of losing Lo. Logan was all about the experience. He was all in. He lived life to the fullest and was the first to want a new adventure. What began as a time to heal has transformed into a time to make memories as a family and have those experiences out in this big wide world. I always feel him close to us during these adventures. I think he is happy we are building family bonds and making fun memories together. It will be hard to not travel the next few years at Christmas but I know we will find ways to make memories in other ways. There is a big world out there waiting for us to discover.