New Years Eve in Jamaica

After our fun, white Christmas, we hopped on a plane and headed to Jamaica!  We found a last minute deal and decided a couple weeks before Christmas to go on a trip.  It is my last big chunk of vacation time, and the last chance to go on a just us vacation before the baby, so we went for it.  We flew in to Montego Bay, Jamaica and took a short shuttle ride to Sandals Montego Bay.  The day we got there it was overcast and rainy, and we were very sad.  We got checked in and ate some food and checked out the resort and had a nice dinner that night.  The next morning we woke up to a beautiful, bright, sunny day and the rest of the trip the weather was perfect!  We had a great time.  We had been to Couples Swept Away in Negril for our honeymoon and it was fantastic.  Sandals Montego Bay was nice and we had a great time, but it wasn't as nice as Couples, so if you're heading to Jamaica check out Couples Swept Away first.  The nice part is that it was very close to the airport so we made the most of the time we had and didn't spend any time getting there.  The food was good.  They had about 5 different restaurants that you could choose from for dinner.  We liked the Stewfish restaurant.  It was a small open air pavillion with a thatch roof right on the the water.  We had a great dinner and enjoyed being at our picnic table right on the beach for the sunset:

During the day, we relaxed and enjoyed the warm weather.

We really liked the beds by the pool!  We had fun getting dressed up and trying all the different dinner spots.

We got upgraded to a room with a patio.  It was nice.  It was right on the lawn that you walked across to get to a pool with a swim up bar and the beach.  It was nice!

On New Year's Eve they had a big buffet outside with crab claws, grilled lobster, ham, prime rib, and lots of yummy desserts.  It was really good.  They had live music and a big countdown to New Year's.  We had fun, but had a hard time staying awake.  I think I'm officially getting old.  I had a lot of different smoothies and mocktails, but its not quite the same as a real cocktail!

Grilled lobster!

Desserts!!

And our cheesy Sandals New Years picture that we just had to buy because Brian's face is so funny.  That's his ohmygosh we're having a baby in 2011 face.

It was a perfect way to spend the New Year, and to get a tan in the middle of some seriously cold weather.  Now back to reality....

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas break filled with fun and snow and then sunshine!  We headed to Clarksville on the 23rd and had a nice Christmas with Brian's parents, then got up and headed to Chattanooga.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at church that I always love, then had a nice dinner with the family and hit the sack.  Around 6 am Christmas morning, I woke up (not sure why I woke up so early) to look and saw SNOW!!!

It was great to wake up and see all this Christmas snow, and it just got better!  We got out of bed and had Christmas breakfast, then opened up our presents.  Since we were little we've always sat at the top of the stairs and gotten a picture or video of us running down the stairs, and this year wasn't any different!  Now we've got a husband and fiance and a baby on the way added to the crew, plus a few Bloody Marys! 

We opened our presents, then mom and dad opened their presents.  Many years ago, we were shopping for Christmas presents for my mom and we (my dad and two sisters) decided to split up and each buy some smaller things, then get back together and see what we came up with.  Dad and Jennifer met back up with what they thought was a great present- the Miracle Thaw.  We weren't so sure, but we wrapped it and gave it to her.  And like every mom does, she smiled, said "Oh this is neat!" and continued on her way.  Her critical error was that the next year, we brought down our Christmas decorations and there it was, still in its original wrapper.  Soooo we decided we'd show her, and we wrapped it back up and gave it to her again.  She was not so excited the second time around.  And thus began our Miracle Thaw tradition.  Every year since then, we have found some new way to re-wrap and re-gift mom with the Miracle Thaw.  Sometimes in a big box, sometimes in a small box, each year something new.  She always tries to hide it, but we find it.  We had a house fire a couple years ago and we thought all was lost.  But, my sister's fiance, Geoff was now in on the secret and had a genius idea.  He ordered a new Miracle Thaw since the original Miracle Thaw was lost and last year he wrapped it up and presented it to mom himself.  Got her!!  This year, Brian and I happened to be at a thrift store in Memphis and came across ANOTHER Miracle Thaw.  We decided this year we would change things up and give the Miracle Thaw from us, thennnn give the second Miracle Thaw from us.  We gave mom our presents and she opened up the Miracle Thaw:

Then, in a different, larger box a few presents later the second one....

Got her!!  After opening presents, we decided to walk down to the golf course and go sledding!  First time I've ever been sledding on Christmas!  And even though its probably not the greatest pregnant thing to do, I couldn't miss it!

 

We came back to the house for Christmas lunch with the family, and I have to give mom some props for the beautiful Christmas decorations.  Everything was so pretty!  Especially with the snow!

Pretty Christmas table

All in all a great, pretty, white Christmas!!!