Holiday Time!
Winter has arrived! The days are shorter, the light is dimmer, and the temperatures have certainly fallen, but hopefully you’ve got a crackling fire to warm you, along with a good adult beverage and your first mate/skipper/partner/loved one by your side!
Between Thanksgiving and the New Year is an interesting time. In many ways our lives speed up and get more hectic, just so we can hopefully have a break, relax, and slow down. Odd, eh? If your work is more intense this time of year, my condolences, as the extra work of the Holidays is plenty of “extra,” all by itself. If your work slows down this time of year, as it generally does in the boat sales business, hallelujah! We can take a little more time in each conversation, think a bit more before uttering some impulsive comment or thought, and truly smell the coffee (ah, with a bit of additive in there to nudge things along.)
Many of us will be doing some traveling, especially between Christmas and New Year. Julie and I are headed to eastern Washington to see family, then down to central Oregon to visit friends there, and a stop in Vancouver, WA on the way home to see our friends there. Anyone flying south where it should be nice and warm?
While this is not generally a time in the year for doing a lot of boating, don’t forget there are some good boating opportunities available, such as chasing the Christmas Ship some evening! You can find the schedule online and it’s always a fun outing with a few club members getting together to putt-putt around Shilshole Bay, trailing the Christmas Ship with all her many lights and live music, with a little get-together at the dock afterwards.
Another idea is to just spend a night or two on the boat – at the marina dock! Why not? It gets a person out of the house, that’s for sure. You can check up on the boat, run the engine a bit, and spend a quiet evening away from the hubbub. Or, if “quiet” isn’t the main directive, invite some friends down to the boat for an evening drink or dinner aboard. We put a lot of time, money, and effort into our boats, let’s use them!
On the SBYC front, be sure to note AJ’s important update on the location of January’s Dinner Meeting. It will not be at Ivar’s, due to a scheduling issue with them. Rather, we’ll be at Razzi’s Pizza in Greenwood on January 21, with everyone ordering exactly what dinner they want off the full menu – a little change of pace. December’s Holiday Party, Thursday December 19th at Ivar’s, should be another fun one, with Jessie Lundin leading the Gift Exchange and my playing of Christmas tunes on the keyboard.
Ben Lobaugh reported at the recent Board Meeting there were 24 boats registered and I believe 21 or 22 showed up to race in the first Snowbird Race. Wow! And Cruise Chair, Patricia Shannon-Garvey, has a full slate of events already in the making for 2020. More Snowbird races coming up – get aboard the Committee Boat and enjoy a race that way!
Well, I guess it’s time to get back to that to-do list I’ve been avoiding as I share with you here some of my thoughts for the Holiday season. Presents to buy, errands to run, a Christmas tree to acquire and decorate still. Whatever your schedule, I hope this Season allows you to maximize your enjoyment of family, friends, and life itself. It is a time to be thankful for all that we have, and we certainly are blessed with our stations in life on this planet. I hope Santa gifts you with whatever present you’ve been most wanting, but that he also shares his cherubic smile and warmth of heart this Holiday Season!
All the best!