Tis the season to communicate with friends and family, and although we had been blogging our sailing progress this fall, we dropped the ball so to speak when we moved ashore in St. Augustine for Thanksgiving with Jay and Pegg and then drove north with Andiamo's John and Betty for a month in the bitter cold of PA! Two events were already on the schedule as we headed north, first - the CCYC Christmas party in Annapolis which was a great success with 22 boats represented and much levity and a spirited gift exchange - just who did end up with those decorative sailboat plates?!?
Second was Blissmas which we scheduled to coincide with Martha's entry into Medicare. What Martha didn't know was Dan had organized a surprise gathering at our favorite Italian Restaurant to save me from having to cook on my birthday. The surprise was hard to pull off as Dan couldn't figure out how to keep me from planning dinner for our family of 22, so I got to be involved with the final preparations for the gala event. One of the highlight of evening was the "vonBlissmas" singers (6 grandchildren and 1 grandnephew) performing "Happy Birthday!"
We have taken care of haircuts, doctor and car care appointments, and are visiting with each of our East Coast families before we head south on the 28-29th to put Brunelle back in shape for the rest of our southern trek. (The water system is currently apart in preparation for a new faucet set-up in the galley - I'm sure there will be more to report on that when we get back!) We wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
^ ^
^ ^ ^ ^
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
! ~~~_/)~~~ ! M&D
We missed sending a Christmas greeting in 2008 because we took our first trip south to the Bahamas on Brunelle and although we came home for a month at Christmas time, Martha had both knees replaced for her birthday and didn't get around to writing. 
Here comes another good excuse! December 2009 the Bliss family, Grandma Peddie, Jay & Pegg, Dan & Martha and Barb all went to Chile for three weeks. We visited with our Chilean "son" Mauricio (lower right) and his family in Santiago. Mauricio had spent his senior year with us in 1992. We also visited the Clemo family in Concepcion. Patrick (who was Dan's best friend 55 years ago) made sure we saw all the wonders of Chile. He is pictured with us at his country home in Renaico (upper left). Jay, Dan, and Barb pose outside their old home on Pedro de Valdivia. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. Peddie (at 91) was thrilled to be back and kept remembering people and places. We hated to tell her that most of those people were probably gone! Luckily Patrick's mother, Joan, was alive a well and she and Peddie had a wonderful time together. We all enjoyed being welcomed so lovingly by all the Clemo families, Patrick, Beverly, Maureen and Jackie and their spouses.
By missing 2008 and 2009, we missed reporting that Danny (DB) married Natasha during Camp PaHaGaCo 2009. This picture is from Camp 2010, but it does show the whole fam damily. I'll try to group by families: Jess & Sam holding Ben(2), Oliver (2 mos.) is being held by Julie), John & Brandi, Popov & Grand Mar with Grace (5) on her lap, her twin sister, Alice (5) is in Katherine's lap. Behind Katherine is her husband Ryan with Kinsey (2) on his shoulders and Zoe sitting next to Kath. Julie's husband, Michael is balancing the twins' sister, Clare on the back of Zoe's chair. Newlyweds, DB and Natasha are on the right.
