Feliz Navidad #it'sthemostwonderfultimeoftheyear

So here it is, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

And if last week was all about the rain, then this week was all about the incredible light. Which seemed rather fitting for Christmas. 

We'll start with this:

Taken on Christmas Day itself. But Christmas Eve also blessed us with these:

 

And that's it! That's ALL the photos I took of Christmas this year! A week in and out the sauna must have worked wonders...

Boxing Day is my little niece Ema's birthday and my phone was in my jacket pocket, so I didn't lose out on these precious moments (or amazing salted chocolate cake).

So from mine and ours to you and yours, we wish you a wonderfully Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the joy, love, peace and light of Christmas be yours, this day and every day. 

Rockin' around the Christmas tree #happyholidays

Before we actually got to Christmas, we got to the Holiday Property Bond's Manoir de Hilguy site, in the south of Finistère in Brittany...so not far from home, which was kind of the point. It was just a week to relax, do what we wanted (which involved the pool every day), and getting out the cottage between rain showers.

My choice was to visit Haliotika, basically a fish museum (gets me every time), about half an hour away on the coast. It was such a perfect day for it: blowing a gale but sunny and bright. The port of Le Gulvinec is the most important ports in France for artisanal fishing, and as a might storm was brewing, all the boats were coming back to the port for shelter. That meant we got to watch some great unloading as well as the end of the morning fish auction. 

Going up to the museum entrance:

Unloading the boats:

Inside the museum: the entrance

Fingerling as the captain of her ship. Ain't that the truth.

Fingerling down in the hold, shovelling ice.

And overlooking the (real) fish market:

All in all, a fantastic museum (although maybe I would say that). 

I've just realised it's not raining in any of these pictures but basically it felt like it rained the WHOLE week. We just took the opportunity to dash out as soon as we saw blue sky. This was Pont l'Abbé...really not much to see here as the lovely Old Boat museum in the old port was closed, so we walked around and visited the gift shop...before heading back to the pool again.

Although we tried a couple of Christmas markets, this one was the best in the small village of Locronan. Not so much Christmas market as village illuminations, but we got on the big wheel, had a crepe (it's Brittany) and saw the native nativity in the local Church (spot the traditional head gear).

And we even met Santa! Fingerling doubled back later to "tell him what I want for Christmas" but even Santa has office hours and by 8pm he was gone and she missed her chance.

On our almost final day we visited the lighthouse at the Pointe de Raz, within sighting (but not spitting) distance of Locmaria. It is almost almost the very westernmost point of France and the lighthouse warned sailors of the dangerous stretch of water around the tip. A beautiful statue to Our Lady of the Shipwrecked reminds us of how bad it could be. Our Lady of the Moaning Children would have been more appropriate on the day we visited given that we had to walk a full 800m from the carpark to the lighthouse in a blowing gale.

The Holiday Property Bond puts on a range of activities and we sampled only a few of them - watching the football on the big screen, a quiz, board game night, local produce tasting, and on the final night, a local breton celtic band, who performed ancient English Christmas carols and Breton tunes, including on a traditional hurdy-gurdy.

The Manoir itself has quite a distinguished history and has only been owned by HPB since the 1980s. When we got a chance to look round we found the old library with a mirror that had been shot at 3 times by departing German troops.

And we finished off our hugely relaxing week with the Kelling-side presents. Next stop, the Gonzales side and their presents...

Santa Claus is coming to town #onceschoolisout

December...the month when EVERYBODY got ill. Except me. Which I'm not gloating about - I remember how sick I was this time last year. As El Puma put it, maybe I hadn't been home enough to actually catch anything! Saying that, December was the month when El Puma made up for lost time and went up to Paris 3 times, while I stayed at home guarding the sick children (he's done it before too so it's evened out).

Buuuut it's also the month of Christmas shows and plays and meet ups and fetes are all the rest of it. Here is Fingerling being the best ballerina in the room.

And crevette doing what she loves doing, whether ill or otherwise: cuddling the kitten-who-is-now-a-cat.

Merry Christmas! ho ho ho

At the Board level #co-Chair

It's a funny story how I came to co-Chair a Board of a 100+ collaborative pre-competitive platform. My boss was originally invited to join the Board but didn't have the time and volunteered me, and I was happy to contribute in this way. I attended my first Board meeting virtually as it was held in Boston at the end of the Seafood Show. The sound was terrible and I was only half-following what was going on. Suddenly I heard my name and saw everyone put their hands up, so I did too. Next thing I know, I'm the co-Chair.

The advantage of being a co-Chair is that I get to shadow and learn from my hugely experienced co-Chair. Now that I'm doing it, I think it is a hugely underutilised way of training up future leaders and learning by watching and trying. 

The Board meeting this year took place in the west of Spain at the invitation of Pescanova, a partner and member of the Board, over 2 days at the end of November. So far, co-Chairing the Board is beyond my skill-set, but I am learning, and enjoying the intense but valuable experience. Plus, great food in Spain, especially by a fishing company such as Pescanova. The last time I ate so much seafood in such a short period of time was in Chile back in 2022 on a European Parliament visit to the fishery.