It’s hard to believe that the holidays have come and gone and the new year is upon us. It hardly feels like Christmas, with all of the focus on the island’s recovery after the hurricanes that destroyed so much of the territory. Many of the island’s traditional holiday celebrations were cancelled this year, like the gala at the botanical garden and the Christmas boat parade. Hopefully the recovery efforts will bring back some normalcy in the new year. 

There’s still a long road to recovery on the island, but we were fortunate enough to have power restored to our apartment shortly before Thanksgiving. That was truly something to be thankful for. A large portion of the territory remains without power. We paid it forward by hosting Thanksgiving dinner for a few of our friends who didn’t have power or a place to go.

Since we were living without power, we never felt the need to get furniture. At the time, our living situation was just temporary. Once power was restored to our apartment, we decided we would stay here for a while, which meant we needed furniture. Plus, we couldn’t very well have friends over for dinner without furniture, so we talked to our landlord and upgraded to a fully furnished apartment. Our new furniture was delivered the next day! I’m so happy to have a couch and a real mattress! It sure beats the leaky air mattress we were sleeping on. But, since you can never have anything nice with dogs, our sweet little puppies destroyed our brand new bed post a mere few hours after we got it. They somehow chewed it through the cage that we keep them in. Put it on my tab…

Keeping with our island tradition, Christmas morning began with a family trip to the beach. It’s not as pristine and beautiful as it was this time last year, but the trees have all rebloomed, the water is clearing up, and beach is starting to come back. The dogs don’t know the difference. They love it all the same.

Christmas feast was at our place again, but unlike last year when we celebrated alone, this year we invited friends to join us. I planned dinner for 9 people, but ended up with only 6. Three guests cancelled 30 minutes before they were supposed to arrive. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they had a good reason, besides just drinking too much the night before and being lazy. Didn’t they know they were hung over when they woke up? That and the fact that we purchased and prepared way more food then we needed. A little notice would’ve been nice. Anyway, we had a wonderful time with our friends who did show up. We had so much delicious food (and leftovers for days!) And it was nice to celebrate the holiday with others who are away from their family and friends back in the States. The dogs had a good Christmas too. All of their gifts were thoroughly destroyed by the end of the day.