Travelin' Tuesday: Grand Turk & Dominican Republic

Hi there!!  It's been a while, hasn't it.  After the busy holiday season we were off on our last family vacation/babymoon before the baby gets here!

My family started planning this trip back in 2012, so the anticipation to finally get to Miami and on the cruise ship was mounting all through 2013.  We traveled on the Carnival Breeze (one of the newest ships) on an 8 day southern Caribbean cruise.  What really excited me about this cruise was that it had 4 ports that we have never sailed to before. At 25 weeks pregnant by the time we got back, this would be the last plane ride baby boy would take inside the womb (which surprisingly I have been on a plane 8 times since finding out I was pregnant).

We went back up to the balcony category for our room selection and it was completely worth it for the ability to walk outside every morning when we were in port and see the island from our room.  The only downside to the balcony was the annoying man in between our room and my brother & his girlfriend's room who must have had this chronic cough that was so loud and annoying when he sat on his balcony.  

Our first port was Grand Turk in Turks & Caicos and with the free beach right at the port area, we had no plans other than to soak up some sun and sand.

View from our balcony

We disembarked pretty early from the ship to wonder through the shops on our way to claim some good beach chairs close to the water but under some shade. 

The water was a little chilly, but from what I heard it warmed up through the day.

We spent some quality time relaxing under the trees, I was reading the 5th installment of Harry Potter (I know I'm a little behind the times as this is my first time reading it) when I started to see some droplets falling.  Those little droplets turned into a down pour so we packed it up and made a beeline for some cover.  We debated waiting it out as the rain did pass, but with the second downpour just moments later 4 out of 6 family members decided to head back to the ship.  My brother's girlfriend and my dad opted to wait it out and enjoyed some great beach time while Chris, mom and I did a round of mini golf on the ship and got some more reading in on the deck.

Our second stop was La Romana, Dominican Republic.  

View of the port from our balcony

There isn't too much to do in this port other than to head to a beach, so my brother Dennis did some research prior to the trip and found Altos de Chavon.  A $7 round trip ticket from the port made this one of the cheapest activities on our cruise!

We walked around, took pictures and checked out the little shops (Chris and I needed to pick up a magnet/ornament from each stop for our travel tree).

It did rain on and off, as they say in the Caribbean the rain only lasts for so long and then the sun was back out shining down on us.  We were able to make it to the amphitheater before working our way back through the shops and eateries to catch the bus back to the port. 

Coming up next will be pictures from our stops in Curacao and Aruba!

O Christmas Tree

In addition to the mini tree in our dining room, we also have a 9 foot tree in our living room!

Picture used in our Christmas card

Back when we first moved in, we noticed that the sellers left a 12 foot tree in the storage closet.  12 FEET??  I can only imagine what that would have looked like in that space, granted it is a vaulted ceiling so it would probably fit but we would be having to decorate with a really tall ladder or from the stairs (which probably isn't the safest).  Chris and I decided to just pick up a new tree at Michael's and opted for the 9 foot slim which turns out to fit perfectly in that little corner (once we moved the side table to the other side of fireplace).  We also picked up some lighted garland for the stairs from Bed Bath and Beyond.

I wanted to make a tree skirt, but with time flying by this holiday season I opted to just pick one up from Home Goods instead.

I love looking at the tree at night, and can't wait to build upon our current ornament collection, which is mostly filler ornaments bought during after Christmas sales at pier 1 and target.

My current favorite ornament - A handmade replica of our wedding cake

One of the traditions that I look forward to the most every holiday season is the annual Weddingbee ornament exchange!  I have been a participant for 4 seasons and hope to continue adding little elephants to our tree for years to come.

Top L: 2010 from Mrs. Thimble

Top R: 2011 from Mrs. Tulip

Bottom L: 2012 from Mrs. Seal

Bottom R: 2013 from Mrs. Candy Apple

In other holiday news I was able to find a sport for the holiday card display that I made last year.  It hangs on the closet door next to our gallery wall.  This way I can see it every time I walk from my office to the living room or kitchen.

And one last holiday bit of goodness around our home, preparing to host our first holiday family meal!

I'm trying not to stress as time is just slipping away but with cooking help from my mom, dad and Chris, I know we'll be able to make it through Christmas Eve dinner as well as Christmas brunch and dinner at our house.  I love the fact that we finally get to use the placemats, napkins, napkin rings and nice silverware from our 2011 wedding registry.   

My search for silver chargers at Bed Bath and Beyond returned a goose egg, so with little time left I picked up the gold and called it a day.  Once I started to set the table, I knew the gold just wasn't going to fly with everything else so thank you Amazon Prime for these silver beauties that arrived on Friday.

I doubt I'll be back online between now and Christmas, so I wish you all a very happy holiday!

The front of our 2013 holiday card

And one more bit of fun news...

It's a boy!!!  We can't wait to meet our son next year!!

My First Wreath

One of the things that I looked forward to after closing on our house was being able to make wreaths to decorate the front door.  I have Morgan over at The Handcrafted Life to thank for that, she has done some amazing seasonal wreaths for her house and I was excited to test my DIY skills again.

I started with a green wreath based and ribbon from Micheals, going around making loops and securing it with parts of the bendable branches.

I didn't really have a pattern in mind, just changing up the direction of the loops every now and then.

Once the loops were complete, I busted out the glue gun and got to work covering the L with some red, green and silver balls.

I wish the L stood out a little more (maybe I should have gone with another set of colors), but other than that I am pretty satisfied with our holiday wreath.

And one shot on the front door (we'll be painting that door at some point).  It's a little tilted because I decided to use some floral wire to attach the wreath to hanger to deter anyone from simply pulling it off and taking it with them (not that our neighborhood is unsafe in anyway but better to be safe than sorry).

Have you made any holiday decor items for your house?

Iced In

This past weekend the Dallas area was hit with some nasty ice.

Growing up in Pennsylvania I've lived with the cold and the snow, but this past weekend's weather was crazy - 1-4 inches of thick ice.  While it did lead to some interesting pictures in our backyard...

It also led to some pretty bad damage of the trees as well.  The trees that stand where the pool used to be probably took it the worse, they just couldn't handle the weight of the ice and several branches snapped off.

Thankfully that area is further away from the house so none it it touched the house.  We will have our landscaper come out after the thaw to remove what needs to be removed as well as some of the larger branches on the thicker trees that broke under the ice weight as well.

The scariest part would be the trees the closest to the house.  Thankfully we had the branches that touched the house removed back when we moved in.  But the ice did cause the branches still remaining to bend all the way to the house, with at least higher 4 branches breaking off (and now resting on top of the lower branches still attached to the tree).

(If you look towards the top you can see the snapped branch which is hanging down at an angle)

(our trees don't normally touch the ground)

Chris and I spent the entire weekend at home, going out to let Heisenberg use the bathroom and to try and remove the ice/branches that we could (mainly the ones that were leaning on the fences) and shovel out our front driveway.  Hopefully as the weather starts to warm up above freezing we'll be able to venture out today because I do have a case of cabin fever.

Travel Tree

In my last post, I mentioned that the table top tree in the center of our holiday buffet has a story behind it that deserved a post of it's own.

Back when we lived in our apartment, I filled the fridge with magnets from our various travels.  You can make out the beginning of the magnet covered fridge in this shot taken when we first moved into our apartment.

With the stainless steel refrigerator in our house, the magnets were packed away in a drawer until I could figure out something to do with them. As the holidays rolled around, I thought it was be a great idea to decorate the table top tree (that was once used as the only tree in my first apartment) in a travel theme

In the process of going from magnet to ornament

A little hot glue and floral wire later and the travel tree was complete!  I love that this is on display on our buffet and always take a trip down memory lane when walking by it.  Remembering our trips to Napa, San Francisco, San Antonio, past cruises to Cozumel, the Bahamas, Costa Maya, Belize, and our trip to see my dad's birth country Trinidad and Tobago...

...our Christmas spent in Ohio, our honeymoon in Mexico, birthday trips to New Mexico, New Orleans and Fredericksburg, and a couple of trips to Vegas...

And my favorite the larger picture magnet from our trip to Disney World that acts as the star on top!

I am so glad that we figured out a way to still display these travel mementos, even if it's only one time a year.

Holiday Buffet

Now that we have celebrated Thanksgiving, I'm so excited to share some of the Christmas decor around our house!!

Not going to lie, we began decorating the house for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I held off sharing on the blog until December.

The table top tree in the middle has a story behind it so I'll share that in another post.  All of the other decor items (with the exception of the Ikea lantern) were purchased at a great discount after the holidays last year.

The tree candles and ornaments in the lantern were picked up at Target.

Love the sparkle

On the right side of the tree is a sleigh basket from Pier 1 filled with mini ornaments from Target and another tree candle.

I love the change up of the seasonal buffet and will probably be a little sad when I have to pack it up after Christmas.

Do you decorate your house for the holidays?