so, i’ve been slacking in the ‘foto friday’ department, and pretty much on the blog itself.
hopefully this photo heavy post will make up for it.
ah well. we’ve been busy:
picking and eating carambola (starfruit).
dancing with mocko jumbies at jump-up (sorry, crap photo, they move too fast).
dinghy riding around the anchorages in puerto rico.
bathing in the cockpit with cookie monster in ensenada honda in culebra.
carrying mom’s water bottle with a goggles strap.
playing with the best toy from auntie kiki.
practicing “sticking up his dukes” for when he meets uncle john and his grumpa again. and has also acquired several muscle tees after mom cut the sleeves off most of his t-shirts. 
drilling at our mooring in pela.
acting like cookie monster – and growing teeth (9 total now, including two top molars!).
eating snacks at flamenco beach.
swimming with dad at flamenco beach.
checking out the tanks at flamenco beach with mom.
reading lots of books with dad and shaggy (rudder’s favorite thing to do, especially when teething).
going snorkeling with the turtles and barracuda at culebrita.
hiking to the culebrita lighthouse and geocaching.
trying to get a good family self-portrait up at the culebrita lighthouse since it has amazing lighting.
getting back rides from dad.
making tortillas from scratch with our new (6 months ago) press.
rudder eating black olives from his fingers like his mom used to – okay, she still does.
making our christmas tree out of a hanging fruit basket we were about to throw away. like that storage on the inside?? 
buying new $40 kicks from journey in fajardo since we haven’t gotten our boxes with our tennis shoes from tucson yet.
running around in his new t-shirt-turned-muscle tee. he thinks it’s pretty funny. mostly because he loves ketchup, and knows there is ketchup on his shirt.
so yeah, we’ve been busy.
internet is always spotty when we are here (in salt river in st. croix, not in culebra – 3G is amazing in culebra)and if there is no wind, the batteries don’t get charged…..when the batteries don’t get charged, no computer!
we have been in puerto rico since early december and the christmas winds have been around, meaning there has not been a lack of wind this month. which i am mostly grateful for since we get to run the fridge.
yes, we have a fridge. and it’s awesome. it makes ice. and freezes otter pops for teething toddlers. 
and you can put magnets on it! i was giddy about this discovery.
there were a few days where i was wishing for the wind to at least mellow out since it makes for really wet and crazy dinghy rides.
oh yeah, the title of the blog.
rudder has not seen santa yet this year. i’m bummed.
we are in ensenada honda (an anchorage near isla de culebra) near the town of dewey. there is a christmas gift thing for the kids today at 2pm, so i’m hoping some form of santa claus will be there. i had a few opportunities when we were in st. croix, but one i forgot about because we were doing this:
and the other was at the botanical gardens, and i didn’t see santa anywhere. 
so that’s what we have been up to the past three weeks. pretty fun stuff. we plan to be back in st.croix before january 7th to watch the crucian christmas adult parade.
though i could stay here forever.
it will be a nice laid back christmas. i have plans to make some sushi tonight and possibly a pumpkin spice cake (because s/v willow has an oven!) today or tomorrow.
oh, and bacon wrapped water chestnuts! these were a favorite of my brother john at christmas and one of the things that he would make. i felt i needed something to remind me of home other than the canned smoked salmon (which we do not eat at holidays).
no pierogis this year….the dough has never held up in this weather, and with only three of us eating them, seems like too much work!
merry christmas.
’til then.
