Christmas in the Caribbean

What can I say - I missed home a lot this year being our second christmas away from home and in St Kitts, but we had a great holiday with the two of us and our pets and extra pets!

Season of Giving - Our karma here should be SO high, that we should be getting nothing but good.. I wonder when it will start happening?!  Anyways, it is not about Karma, it is about our love of giving.  This year we made a HUGE tray of cookies (ranger cookies, raspberry bars, oatmeal butterscotch cookies, banana muffins and hershey kiss peanut butter cookies) and gave them to those people who have been really important to us here!  We gave one batch to Sylvester - our loyal gardener and friend!  He has been great to us!  We will miss him!  We also gave a batch to Avan - our property manager who has also been extremely good to us!  Our final batch went to the neighbors and they too were here for Christmas with just the two of them and they had given us a small christmas gift as well!

As you all know - I am not the best baker, although I AM getting better!  Here is some evidence of our baking =)

Cookies!

Banana Muffins (with choc. chips of course!)

All the 'wrapped' platters in the fridge to prevent melting!

and the clean up! 

Christmas Eve - Since moving to St. Kitts, I am a Sushi FANATIC!  I  crave it!  We spent the day laying by the pool and relaxing in the sun.  Sylvester (our gardener) even came up and have some drinks with us to celebrate Christmas!  Brayton and I headed to Rituals Sushi for Christmas Eve Dinner - mmmmm, soooo goood!!!  When we got home, Brayton humored me and helped do a little christmas photo shoot with us and our animals!  It was great!  I am so grateful for my amazing husband and our awesome animals!  I would truly be lost without them!  As  you can see, we all had a rough day!!

Brinley the sun-bathing beauty <3

B and Sylvester enjoying a nice refreshing beer! 

Lazy bones! 

Its not a day by the pool without some jumping
and swimming done by the Nev! 

Precious girl!

Our little christmas tree! 

Joli

Duke!

Merry Christmas! 

Our little family (minus Koala..she's not so good at sitting still and taking photos!)

My pups <3

They are SUCH good posers!  Love them! 

The Duke man! 

Puppy Roommates! 

The 4 pups! 

Christmas Day - Up and at it early on, we headed over to the SNAPPER farm to fetch Brimmie(Hawksbills Sea Turtle) and Frodo(Green Sea Turtle) who were to be released into the wide open Caribbean Sea that morning after two years in captivity.  They were rescued as babies, bottle fed every two hours, and for the past two years have been raised with special care from the St Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network.  You can read more about them here! It was an amazing experience.  We were able to go to Ross with Dr. Stewart and assist in getting radiographs of the two turtles, we were the transporter of the turtles to the release location, and Brayton got to carry Frodo down to the sea and be the one to release him.  I was taking pictures throughout the whole process which you can see here on FB or some here!

Putting the turtles into the car to head to campus for radiographs

Arriving at the beach with the turtles - waiting to release! 

Brayton carrying Frodo down to the release spot

Brayton and Dr. Stewart with Frodo and Brimmie giving explanations to the crowd

The beautiful Brimmie! 

The gorgeous Frodo! 

Ready...Set...GO! 

After turtle releasing, we headed home and let the dogs open their Christmas presents - which they did exceptionally well!  They were great and loved all their new toys!

Brinley LOVED presents! 

What is inside?!!??  It squeaks...We must get it out!!!! 

Nevi with the toy...Brinley with the paper!! 

"WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!"

Not sure if he liked chewing on paper, or what was inside!  

In the Caribbean - who doesn't spend Christmas at the beach?  We headed over to ShipWreck with our bottle of Champagne, jug of orange juice, and BIG Fat Tuesday cups, and spent a few hours drinking Mimosa's and laying on the beach - what a Christmas Day!!

We also spent some QT with the pups and took them to the beach to run and play!  What fun we had!!

Surprise wave for Brayt and Brinley! 

LOOK!  A Palm Tree is growing out of this coconut! 

Jumping for water splashes! 

The things dogs will do for some water being flung in the air! 

As is ritual in St Kitts on Christmas Night, we Skyped with family, made dinner and were in bed by about 8 pm with a 3:30 am start time for J'Ouvert!  We joined a different troupe this year - Red Devils, and didn't start until 4:30 (instead of midnight like last year), and when we got there the group was already marching into town so we missed out on the 'pre-party' part, and joined in the marching.  The 'bar' was a moving truck which made it difficult to get drinks and when we got our first Rum Punch and took one sip, it was PURE rum!  I couldn't even drink it!  So, this year we spent J'ouvert with no drinks, enjoying the people watching and the fun of J'ouvert from the 'outside'.  It definitely was not as much fun, but we did enjoy the experience! I really wish I had taken my camera so I could share some of the people watching experiences I had with all of you - but I didn't. I will post some pictures when they are up on the local websites!

J'Ouvert bags ready to go! 

We ran into some friends in the Xtreme Tribe downtown! 

Upon returning from J'Ouvert, we headed home and back to bed!  We stayed in bed most the day, made a great dinner, and headed back to bed!

In the next few days, we will be making our 5th move to our 'new' apartment in St. Kitts .. oh how I wish it was back to the states...  Hopefully we will be there for the remainder of our time here.. I'm realllly getting sick of moving!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed time with their family, friends, or whoever you may have been with and were all able to count each and every one of your blessings and give time to think of those who were less fortunate.

Winter Break

As the end of the semester rolled around, vacation seemed to be so far into the distance, that it was unachievable.  Now that we are actually ON vacation, its hard to believe we are already 10 days into it with only 2 weeks left!  PLEASE SLOW DOWN TIME!!  The past semester (and all the other behind it) have been extremely stressful for Brayton - so we have done a LOT of relaxing in the past 10 days.  Our daily schedule is something like this:

2-4 am - Let dogs out then go back to bed
7 -730 am - Let dogs out then go back to bed
8-10 am - Wake up, and eat breakfast
10 - 3 - A variety of: Lay by the pool, get back in bed and watch movies, take naps..eat a snack.. A couple times we have run some errands or gone grocery shopping.. Brayton has done some organizing.. but THAT is about it!
3 - 7 - Take dogs to the beach, give dogs baths, shower, make and eat dinner, clean up
7 - 9 - Get in bed, watch movies, go to sleep..

Needless to say - we have done about nothing!  But it has been SO needed and so rejuvenating!

Last week on Wednesday we did go to The Pavilion for dinner.  The Pavilion is owned by Christophe Harbor    which is a very wealthy, high end real estate company on the island.  The Pavilion is generally only opened to those who work for or have purchased from Christophe Harbor, but on Wednesday nights they are now doing Customer Appreciation night, so we took a stab at going for dinner.  It was a small menu, with wonderful food!  The steak Brayton and I got was the best I've had in a LONG TIME!  The appetizers and desserts, scenery, everything - was spectacular.  Check out the Pavilion website for a picture - and here are some of my pictures!

This is the bathroom.

Hard to see because it is dark - but this is the first level of the
pool.  Chairs in the water, then it goes into a beautiful pool that
looks right over the sea! 

Us!  In the dark! 

Since there is not much to buy for christmas presents down here - last week on Thursday, I made an appointment for a couples massage at the Spa at the Marriott.  It was so nice and super relaxing for both of us!  Merry Christmas to us!  Dinner at the Pavilion and a couples massage!  

In the next few days, we should be getting our keys to apartment # 5 while living on St Kitts.  We have been here for 16 months and have lived: 4 months on campus, 4 months in Villa #1, 1 month in Centipede House, 6 months in Villa #2 and HOPEFULLY the rest of our time in our new apartment.  We are going down to a much smaller, much more affordable place that is right next door to campus.  Hopefully we can stay there for the rest of our time in St Kitts.. I am so over moving!  

Here are some visuals of the roughness we have had since vacation began: 

We are dog sitting the boxer on the right - Joli, and our roomates dog Duke! 

Obviously our dogs have a rough life! 

Pre-dinner at the Pavilion

Sure sign of vacation and homesickness!  

Sometimes when you lay in the sun, you get chilly and the sun goes away.. 

Joli!  

After a hard day of laying around! 

We are also cat sitting - the one at the top..  Koala is not sure what that
species of thing is we have brought into the house.  Pretty sure she thought she was a dog..
But - this - it looks like me, and isn't a dog?! 

Our Caribbean Christmas tree.. 

The boys napping!  

Brinley..  Lazy bones! 

On a more personal note.. today is December 23rd.. It is my second Christmas in a row away from home, with just me and my husband.  Don't get me wrong - there is NO ONE  I would rather spend Christmas with, but it is really tough to be away from family, for the second holiday in a row.  And its not just christmas we missed, we have missed every Holiday since we left..  I am finding it hard to get into  a Holiday Spirit and getting on Facebook (not sure why I turned it back on!) and seeing everyone in snow, with their families and friends, celebrating the Holidays, their festive houses, their children, cousins, nieces, nephews..  All the things I want to be doing..  I am not looking for pity - just expressing my sadness..  Although - I WILL be and AM grateful for my husband and my dogs and cats!  I will spend Christmas with them and be grateful for technology giving me the ability to skype and see my family..  And in my sadness, I feel grateful that my family is healthy and well, that we are not struck with loss - as the people in Conn. are.  My heart goes out to them this holiday season and anyone else who is going through the holidays dealing with the loss of a loved one.. <3

I hope each and every person has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with many more to come!

With love from the Caribbean - Brayton and Leann <3

The month of giving thanks

It has been a while since I have blogged..and I could blame being busy - I am busy... but not that busy.. It is pretty much because I don't really have anything exciting to blog about...

Our car's broke down, we spent a month apartment hunting, I work and come home and do things here, I don't really have a social life (neither does my husband unless you count studying in the union!), we don't get quality time together to do fun things, we live on a POS island.. and well, who wants to hear about that stuff!  To everyone outside of St Kitts- we live in paradise..  My question to you is - have you EVER LIVED here?  Try it.. then see if your idea of paradise changes!

So my real intent for this blog is to take a step outside of the negative aura we often fall into living here and be thankful for the good things that are in our lives!  Here it goes - I am sure I will miss things but I'll give it a shot..

1 - I am thankful for a loving, kind, SMART, and awesome husband who does so much to make our life easier even though he is in Vet School

2 - I am thankful for the experience of living in St. Kitts as it has changed my perspective on many things and helped me to learn a L O T about myself, my marriage and life

3 - I am thankful for my Mom who is ALWAYS there for me, no matter what!

4 - I am thankful for my family as a whole

5 - I am thankful for my in-laws

6 - I am thankful for the Cope's as they have been some of the best people I could have met down here!

7 - I am SO thankful for my dogs..they are so awesome..and we saved them <3

8 - I am thankful for my cat.. she rarely uses her litter box and that is the BEST kind of cat ever =)

9 - I am thankful for my sisters

10 - I am thankful for the friends I have at home, who I miss dearly

11 - I am thankful for a job in St Kitts

12 - I am thankful for great students at the prep school who have taught me SO much

13 - I am thankful for the amazing teacher blogs that I follow that have helped me as a teachers so much

14 - I am thankful for warmth everyday (even though sometimes I get reallly sick of sweating!)

15 - I am thankful for the beaches - when I get to use them!

16 - I am thankful for my co-workers who have been really great friends as well

17 - I am thankful my husband is getting to pursue his dreams and I get to be here with him

18 - I am thankful for Terminix and their ability to keep centipedes out of my house MOST of the time

19 - I am thankful for the Prep School 'lending' me a laptop while working there so I have a computer

20 - I am thankful for Skype and the ability to 'see' loved ones at home

21 - I am thankful that I wake up to a beautiful view every day

22 - I am super thankful for a working a/c in my bedroom and the ability to sleep with sweatpants on - because let's face it - I REALLY miss sweatpants!

23 - I am thankful for a cheap and nice movie theatre

24 - I am thankful for Rituals Sushi which has helped me to love and crave sushi

25 - I am thankful for having the ability to cook (most of the time when the grocery stores have what I need)

26 - I am thankful that my husband and I are both NEAT and CLEAN people.. I could never live any other way!!

27 - I am thankful to be moving to a smaller, MUCH cheaper apartment with JUST my hubby again!

28 - I am thankful that we only have one year left here in St Kitts

29 - I am thankful Brayton has worked so hard to pass all his semesters of vet school so far!

30 - I am thankful for the love my husband gives me

31 - I am thankful to wake up everyday next to my best friend, husband, and man of my dreams!

32 - I am thankful for the friends I have made here in St Kitts


From Brayton:
I am thankful for my wife, my marriage, my pets, the opportunity to be a vet.


SO, none the less, life is busy but boring (at least to all you people it'd be boring).