Merry Christmas everyone!

So much time has passed so quickly and Christmas is nearly upon us! Our first mail arrived, one sack from Stanley PO and I had two cards - hooray. One from Martin at Keswick YHA and one from Uncle John. Most of the packages were for Rachel and it was just as much fun seeing her open them and sharing in her Christmas wishes. We have more mail coming tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, so who knows what surprises there will be.

We have had a holiday! A wonderful day and night out on National Geographic Endeavour, the same ship that took us for a day earlier in the season. It's so thoughtful of them to realise that we don't have much opportunity to get out and about, and then do something about it. They took us to visit our neighbours - Vernadsky and Palmer stations - the former Ukranian (though British til 1995) and the latter American. We had a lovely tour round Vernadsky which ended in the bar where we were plied with vodka - memories of Mongolia! They have a bra tree behind the bar (it's an all male station!!) - Rachel was persuaded to leave hers, but I've only got a couple for the next three months, so managed to make myself scarce at the crucial moment.

And on to Palmer station for the evening where they threw a party for crew and staff. They really live in some comfort there! Massive cinema screen, a whole wall of DVDs, popcorn machine, broadband internet, free phone calls, unlimited power. You might not even notice that you are in Antarctica. They couldn't believe how we live, but I think I prefer it!

So home again and back to work. Still no chicks on our island, though they have been seen nearby. We maybe just haven't spotted them yet. The weather is varied, sunny and then snowy again. We have had our first yachts around, three visited the other day. The passengers were climbing, skiing and kayaking. We watched them on our nearby glacier - it looked wonderful. And it was hard not to wish we had a little boat as they paddled their way through the brash ice in the evening sun. We were up on the roof in our lovely red overalls with tins of bitumen paint. We haven't made much progress with painting the whole building this year yet because of all the snow and wind.

Three ships in yesterday, two today, FOUR tommorrow! we'll be a bit pooped by the 25th, but will try and have some fun regardless. I have a plan to make mulled wine for our passengers on Christmas day, as I have done for the past years for beach clean volunteers and Millom Christmas Fair-goers. Doubt I will manage the mince pies though. Thanks to all for the lovely Christmas emails I have had - it doesn't really feel very festive here, so it's nice to hear it is happening elsewhere!