I am equally excited and sad today. We leave for Antarctica by way of Santiago, Chile this evening which is exciting. I am a little sad because it is the first time in my entire life that I have not spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. My mom was born in Cuba, so our Christmas dinner was last night as "Noche Buena" is a Hispanic tradition of having the celebratory dinner the evening before. Today would be breakfast with the leftovers and the exchanging of gifts. Noche Buena (Christmas dinner) was at my brother's house last night. We were all supposed to come over in jammies and have a white elephant gift exchange for fun. I was in charge of bringing the main course which is lechon (roasted savory pork) and a side dish of yucca for 15 people. No, I didn't attempt to venture into the kitchen and decipher recipes, Google cooking terminology and You Tube how to use appliances. I placed an order at my favorite Cuban restaurant and earned 4x on the Amex RoseGold card instead (to keep this on topic sort of).
However, my niece was diagnosed with the flu and DH and I are just coming off our own set of non-flu colds and our immune systems aren't at 100% yet. The idea of possibly catching influenza and being sick out in the middle of a vast white continent of nothing but snow, penguins and whales with nary a speck of civilization to be had was something we had to think about. At best, the once in a lifetime trip would leave us quarantined to our cabin and $35,000 down the drain. At worst we could be looking at a medivac situation that could easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and I'm not sure how much of that would be covered by
trip insurance. So as a family the decision was made that DH and I would skip Christmas with the family this year. My mom and I were both in tears when I dropped off the pork, yucca and our White Elephant gifts at her house so she could bring it over to my brother's house. I know it's silly, especially when others have or are experiencing far worse things and for many this time of year can bring painful memories and not joy. So yeah, go ahead and break out the tiny violin for the background music of my itty bitty pity party.
Anyhow, our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tradition is something I've always taken for granted. I've never booked a trip that would keep me away from home Christmas Eve or morning. When we booked the Antarctica trip, I never thought that celebrating my 50th birthday (New Year's Day) would cost me celebrating Christmas with the family. I am still grateful for the fact that I am even able to go on this trip and that this hobby let us save a significant amount of money by not paying for airfare. I am grateful that this hobby gave us the opportunity to earn a travel together ticket on British Airways since we used that card to pay for it. I am grateful that my family is still around and that Facetime exists and we were able to participate in the White Elephant exchange yesterday. I am also grateful for this thread and for all of you. Wishing a Merry Christmas to all the DISchurner peeps who celebrate. Wishing a Happy and joyous December 25th to the Dischurner peeps who don't celebrate Christmas. Love all's y'alls!!
