Happy Holidays

VLC, 0100 Mon 25 Dec

As expected, and as usual with any holiday here in Spain, the neighborhood fireworks started a few minutes before midnight and are still going off an hour later, albeit now at least only sporadically. Regardless, there is no point yet in trying to sleep. So same as we did this time last year, we'll post a few pics. Can you tell which were taken with the 8 megapixel Canon digital-SLR, and with the VGA (.3 megapixel) Palm Treo 680 phone cam?

This from last night when some of Meg's friends ended up here at the house when the teen nightclub "Guru" was not able to open due to a power outage. That's our BMW ORACLE Racing teammate Grant Davidson (NZL) in back, he having provided the taxi service. Second from the right is, of course, Leslie. That's Grant's daughter, Olivia, on the right who, like Meg, also attends Caxton College.

Obviously, flaired pants (yes, what we all used to call bell-bottoms) are no longer in vogue -- to which we can only say "good riddance" for at least, one hopes, another 30 years.



Yesterday we found a decent live, short-needle pine tree in the local nursery and managed to jam it in the back of the BMW 1-series to get it home. Notice the rather simple means the gentleman is employing to bind the tree for hatch-back transport.



Today the markets were actually open for a few hours, which is most unusual in Spain on a Sunday. Meg and I went to pick up a few things for Leslie and for the stockings (to be later "hung by the chimney with care"). Along with half of Puzol, we ran into our good friends and neighbors Lars Boecking (GER, left), marketing director for the South African team, Shosholoza, and Meg's close friend Hayley Braun (USA) with her mother Kelley. JB Braun (not pictured) is a BMW ORACLE Racing colleague. He is our "aerodynamics coordinator," which means he is in charge of anything above that water (mast and sails, etc.) that could make the boat go fast -- or slow.



Tonight, after a spectacularly good turkey dinner that Leslie had spent much of the weekend preparing, we decorated the tree. It will go in the ground when the holidays are over. The homemade star has been at the top of our trees for more than, yikes, 30 years. And is that what you call a bad hair day or what? Photo by Meg.



The tree tonight in all its modest glory.

Amber couldn't care less about all the fuss with the tree, happy to settle down for a long winter's cat nap complete with a companion added by Meg, who took this photo as well.