2006 Christmas Cheer
2005 Christmas Cheer
2004 Christmas Cheer

2004:  “Ahoy, we have cookies!”
Carolina Salguero (aka Nemodeer) started this in 2004 when she couldn’t be with her family.  "It was a last minute idea and all the Santa hats were sold out, so the only red and white thing I could find was a Nemo hat, and clapped a pair of antlers on it and Nemodeer was born.  I found some friends who were also alone, and one was grieving the loss of a relative.  Spreading cheer took me out of the dumps.  It felt great to make others feel good, and we’ve done it every year since.”

Nemodeer and a crew of four elves went around the Erie Basin, Upper Bay and Kill Van Kull aboard MV Geraldina and gave newspapers and cookies to tugs and barges. 

The upper bay was flat as a duckpond, the sun shone, we danced jigs on our aft deck.  Our biggest man was positioned as bow elf for arm reach up to the barges and lung capacity for bellowing "ahoy, we have cookies!" 

We've received thanks from a number of vessels and have to say we had one whale of good time ourselves. The Christmas Cheer crew was not going to be with family this holiday, and instead of sitting in our apartments staring glumly at the four walls, we had fun sharing the Christmas spirit with all of you. We spent five hours on the water and came alongside thirty vessels. We asked about preparations in the galleys and got envious of your menus. The elves had never been alongside tugs and barges before and were very excited about the experience.  Several elves are lobbying to do this every holiday. The captain has to get the boat back in the water, so we'll see when this works out next. Below are some photos of us, of you, and some menu highlights.

Nemodeer Carolina Salguero, Elves Gary Baum, Patti Kelly, Amy Pasco, and bow elf Richard Brandt

our pic of K-Sea's Baltic Sea

and here's what we got back from the Baltic Sea:

Thank you, Jerry!

some sample tug menus (from what we can make out from Gary's handwriting; penmanship class was obviously long ago!)

Iron Eagle: ham and turkey, cherry and apple pie
Juliet Reinauer: Lobster and prime rib
Janice Reinauer: ham
Jill Reinauer: ham
Curtis Reinauer: turkey
Mary Turecamo: Pork roast, and Most Unusual Dessert Award for boysenberry pie
Rhea Bouchard: ham, turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie
Evening Tide: turkey, sweet potato pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes
K-Sea barge Wallabout Bay: rib roast, cookies (sweet of them to claim we brought dessert!)
Morgan Reinauer: leg of lamb, cookies and fudge
Taurus: Chock's famous gumbo AND a spiral ham, pumpkin and pecan pies, ice cream cookies
Odin: spiral ham, scalloped potatoes (the potatoes mentioned with a lot of excitement)
Empire State: turkey, cookies
a Roehrig tug (sorry we forgot her name, we must have been getting cold): roast beef, green beans, pumpkin pie
Vivian Roehrig: scallops
Dolphin: ham
Falcon: lasagna, apple pie with coconut ice cream