we made it through the bustling christmas season, and now it’s all over until next year – boo!  i really love the busy-ness and feelings that christmas brings, so i’m always sad to see it go.  i wish i could say it’s a quiet day around here, but we’re getting new floors, and it has been anything but quiet.  miller has been out back barking at the guys working inside (sorry neighbors!), and beckett got a short nap this morning, which he was less than thrilled about, not to mention the banging and scraping involved in the demo.  let’s just say i’ll be kind of happy when this week is over – we’ll have new floors, and we can finally relax!!  but i digress….

i certainly hope your christmas was the hap-hap-happiest since bing crosby danced with danny kaye (for those who have seen christmas vacation, you’ll know i left out a key word there, but i like to keep this place family friendly.  :) ).  our christmas was great.  my brother and his wife were in town (with a bun in the oven – yippee!), so our family was all together.  we were with my family christmas eve and christmas morning (we all stay at my parents’ house), and we headed north to jared’s family for christmas day happenings.  here are a few shots from our holidays…

{handmade stockings – a tradition started over 60 years ago}

{a moment of cuddling with uncle fun and aunt toys, as they like to be called}

{making the sign for the tree – so we can remember the year when we look back in 20}

{the one picture of the three of us where beckett isn’t a complete blur}

{a wee north face backpack – he’ll be the coolest kid in preschool}

{a tent from santa – yippee!}

i’ll preface these next few by saying that santa always brings us some silly stuff to wear.  this year entailed a lot of head gear.

{(most of ) the group in our get-ups}

{dancing with grammy}

{present opening with grandpa}

{one of about 5 pictures i’m in from the weekend}

{mugging with aunt heather}

{this may be my very favorite from the weekend – the patriarch of the brooner clan and the newest member, ryleigh}

it is rainy and in the 40s here in kansas city, and while that’s pretty warm for christmastime, i’m happily remembering our 7 sunny days in the cayman islands.  fair warning that you are about to experience an assault of pictures.

we rented a car one day, and headed east.  we wanted to get out of the more populated area of the island and see what there was to see.  the cayman islands are a british territory, so you drive on the left.  that said, i left the driving to jared.  that way, if something went wrong, i could just blame him.  just kidding, it would stress me out too much to be behind the wheel.

first stop, the queen elizabeth II botanic park.  it was really nice, though there weren’t as many flowers in bloom as we expected.  i think we were there in the off-season though.

this tree fell over during a hurricane, and just kept on growing.  it was giant.

also giant, were these plants.  jared is about 6 feet tall for a little perspective.

coming from a place where ‘deer crossing’ is the norm, this was pretty odd.  the blue iguana lives only in the cayman islands, and they have a habitat for them at the park.

next stop – rum point.  it’s a beach area with lots of chairs, a bar, a dock, and some hammocks.  that’s pretty much it, but it was a nice stop.  from 7 mile beach, where we were staying, to rum point is about 45 – 60 minutes depending on weather and traffic.  it’s not a huge island, and once you’re out of town, it’s a really easy drive.

we ate lunch at the only place at rum point, the wreck.

here i am enjoying a strongbow, something i discovered when i studied abroad in london.  it’s a cider beer and kind of sweet, so it became a fast favorite.  this is what you have to do when you drink one.

we spent the next day in george town.  to be perfectly honest, we weren’t that wowed by it, but if you’re shopping for fine jewelry or tchotchkes, george town is your place.  our last night, we took a sunset cruise, and it was the perfect ending to a lovely vacation.

thanks for hanging with me.  back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

first, i’ve got to tell you we loved the cayman islands.  it’s a different country, but doesn’t really feel like it.  there are so many americans and europeans, both vacationing and working there.  english is the language, and pretty much every place will take us dollars (but will give you change in cayman dollars), so no worries about exchanging money.  it’s super easy to get around – we took cabs, buses (which are minivans!), and even rented a car.  and we felt safe the entire time.  it’s not a destination where you have to stay on the hotel property or be scared for your life.  it gets two big thumbs up from us.

we arrived on grand cayman island on a thursday in the late afternoon.  we hit it off with our cabbie and got some recommendations – we always like to try something a little local yocal.  he brought us to the westin, where our room got upgraded – thank you very much front-desk-guy.  i think he thought jared was cute.  we didn’t care about the why – we were just happy to see this…

we spent the rest of that day getting our bearings and trying to plan what we wanted to do while we were there.  we woke up the next day bright and early and headed to the beach.  oh my goodness, that water.  seriously, how can it be so blue!?!

after a few hours by the ocean (even with loads of sunblock), we decided not to press our luck and to get out of the sun.  off we went to a brand new development called camana bay.  it’s a big outdoor shopping area with restaurants, a movie theatre, and retail shops.  there were only about 10 shops open, but it won’t be long before this is a booming area.  the restaurants along the water were really nice, and it sounds like there are more to come.  first stop was the observation tower.  beautiful shutters on the outside, and an unbelievable mosaic that ran up the entire five-story building.

there are a couple of hammocks in the area, of which we happily took advantage.

it was really windy – the petals on the top of my dress are going crazy here…

it appears we took advantage of all the seating there.  it was vacation after all!  i felt like a little kid in this gigantic chair.

we decided to kill some time so we wouldn’t eat dinner at 4.00 – hey, we had skipped lunch! – so we poked around a few of the shops.  bedside manor was a cute place with lots of linens and some unique little gifts.

next stop – books & books.  i don’t know what it is about a book store, but i could stay in one for hours.  this one didn’t disappoint, and we each left with a book – the help, which i mentioned earlier this week.  (i did forget to tell you that i saw the movie last weekend too.  it was really good, but the book (as usual) is better.  it’s just hard to squeeze all the details into a 2 hour movie.)

then it was off to michael’s genuine food & drink for our early dinner at 5.oo – oh boy, are we old.  we were the only ones in in the restaurant for like an hour.  they had these really cool light fixtures – like little planets that hung over each table.

the next few days were filled with the beach,

a birthday (thanks mom and dad for the late night birthday cake!),

and watching this guy run up and down the beach every day.  think he’s been out in the sun much?

are you still with me?  this is a long one, so kudos if you made it through.  more to come on the second half of our little vacay.