Christmas in St. Thomas

Whelp, this might as well be a #TBT post because it has taken me a whole damn month to finally blog about it.  But cut me some slack, I mean I did go on another vacation 2 weeks later. 

I've mentioned before that I love the holidays especially the traditions.  If you're new feel free to catch up here.  Though it was hard to be away from home and my family it was a Christmas I will never forget.  I cannot thank Phil's family enough for everything they did for us.  

Phil and I flew down to St. Thomas on the 19th and his parents and sister were at the airport waiting for us.  Obviously, our first stop was to hit up a local bar for beers and burgers.  Actually, I think I had some sort of grapefruit and vodka drink but beers and burgers just sounded better.  

The young folks decided to stay out and celebrate since we were in flipping St. Thomas and everyone back home was freezing and bundled up. Mary, Phil's sister took us to Duffy's Love Shack and just straight up broke it down.  We of course just had to get the touristy cups and I don't even want to know how much those things cost us.  I chose the Whale and Phil chose the Parrot. And because we are such pup parents we thought that they looked like our dogs.  Mouse is Parrot because of those eyes and Dragon is Whale because she likes to open her mouth and smile.  I'm sure this is where you are shaking your head.  Go ahead.  I am too.  

 

There's no better way to start day two of your vacation than with a Bloody Mary.  I don't even like Bloody Mary's but the bf's Mom makes the best ones.  She puts pickle juice in them and I swear it makes all the difference. I had a few of those and went snorkeling.   Not sure who decided that those two things go together but I went with it.   I've actually never gone snorkeling, other than in a pool and the only thing I saw there was scum on the bottom of the pool.  So this was way cooler.  

After a few more Grapefruit Vodka and Tonic drinks we  headed out to Joust, which is part of the British Virgin Islands.  I got my passport stamped and everything.  Joust is known for the The Soggy Dollar Bar, home to the Original Painkiller, aka the best Caribbean rum drink ever.  I had one or two or three of those before the Photo Shoot happened. I think I one point I might of even had two drinks in my hand at one time.  We grilled out on the boat and I'm pretty sure I passed out soon after. 

Jane (Philip's Mom) and I went over to Megan's Bay to pick up Mary (Phil's Sister) and we went into town to do some shopping. Before we stopped at Mary's the rental car was having some issues so we went to get it looked at.  They said it was not safe to drive so we got a different one.  Oh great.  I mention this because this was not the only time we switched cars. Anyways, her view from her apartment is unbelievable.   I can't even imagine waking up every morning and having a cup of coffee to this.

The bf's family really close friends arrived to join us for Christmas.  This was my first time meeting them and just fell in love with the family.  To celebrate everyone being together we went out to eat.  The place was really up high on the island and was partially exposed to the outside.  It was basically one big deck.  They had a serve yourself bar.  I've never heard of such a thing but you can bet I made my drinks stroannggggg.

The kids were hyped up on sugar and thought they were zombies.  It was cute, so of course I took a picture of it.

Explored the beach.  Found a coconut but it ended up being rotten. I was sad because I really wanted to try a fresh coconut from the beach. I know #firstworldproblems

Phil and I ended up going into Red Hook (closet town) because we needed to do some Christmas shopping.  We went to a few places but a majority of them were closed because it was Sunday.  Luckily, we found this outdoor restaurant and bar, Fishtails, was open.  The best part was that they had bottomless pit mimosas.  Jackpot. We stayed there for a few hours. Ate and drank even more. I mean this is what vacation is about right?  We came home with zero gifts.  Fail.

The ladies made hooo-made veggie roll-ups.  I have consumed 8 of these in one sitting before.  That's how much I like these.  So I was of course really excited to eat these for dinner.  After dinner, we went to Jack Pots to get some ice cream.  I have to stay the store was strange.  It had 8 flavors of hard ice cream, coffee, and slot machines.  I'm serious.  It was strange.  

Afterwards the bf and I decided to stay out and have a few drinks.  It is vacation after all.  Nobody wanted to join us so the two of us ventured off by ourselves.  It was nice to spend some time with just the two us. We met a few different people at the bar and by the 3rd of 4th vodka drink it was time for me to go.  It was a nice evening though out and I always love getting to chat with new people and just hearing about there stories. 

I woke up feeling a tad bit on the hungover side.  I had promised lil T (the boy zombie) that I would go for a run with him and search for coconuts.  This was before the 4 vodka drinks I had of course.  He dragged me out of bed and totally made me feel guilty.  I'm pretty sure the adults were telling him things to say to try to get me to feel bad.  Guess what, it worked.  Thankfully, I didn't hack up anything on the run.  It was a success in my book.  But we didn't find any coconuts.  That was a bummer for the both of us. 

The rest of the day Phil and I spent with Jane.  We went to all the touristy shops because this time we actually needed to buy some gifts.  Then we walked around Yacht Haven Marina where all the huge mo'fo mega yachts are.  It's just insane how big some of those ships boats are.  We stopped for a drink at the Fat Turtle.  It over looked the marina.  I took 2 sips of my beer and then realized that it just wasn't going to happen. Girl, can't hang.  We did successfully find gifts for everyone.  Phew.

Christmas Eve.  I'm still not used to all the decorations and the palms tree.  Just something about it seems off.  But I'm 100 percent okay with it.  I'll keep it short here and let the pictures do the talking.

A Caribbean Christmas eve is not complete without leaving Santa letters, cookies, ginger snaps, olives, and vodka.  The kids totally came up with this.  I swear it wasn't me. :)

Merry Christmas!  Woke up, had some Turkish coffee, which if you never had, its like bomb.com but make sure not to drink the last sip, its just pure coffee grounds, opened presents and headed off to the beach. 

One of my favorite parts of vacation was laying on the beach and seeing everyone in bathing suits and santa hats. Of course I didn't manage to get any pictures of it.  Buy the way, I bought a hat.  Another item to cross off my list.  It's not my favorite but it's a huge step for me to even buy one in the first place. We did the norms on the beach of building sandcastles, swimming, tanning, reading and writing our names in the sand.  Cheese fest.  :)

When we went back to the boat everyone decided that we wanted to take the boat out since it was finally calm. It had been pretty wavy the previous days.  We went over to St. John and found Mary and her bf.  They both charter the boat Take it Easy, previously owned by Kenny Chesney and had to work so they weren't able to come with us.  We found another spot to snorkel. 

I sat out on the bow of the bout with Jane, we chatted away and watched the sun go down. Parker (the dog) even came to enjoy it too. For the rest of the night we played the board game Ticket To Ride.  It's seriously one of my favorite games of all time.  I discovered it two years ago when I was and Outdoor Educator. I won.  That's expected though, because I mean it is my favorite game.  A game isn't fun unless you win.  

This had to have been one of my favorite times.  We ended up sleeping out in the middle of the ocean.  No joke, I had the best sleep of my entire life.  I woke up so rested.  That rarely happens especially with my thyroid condition.  There is literally something about the boat rocking you to sleep.  It was peaceful.    

This was our last full day on the island.  We woke up, played two more rounds of Ticket to Ride, which I lost because everyone figured out my strategy.  I hate this game now.  I'm a sore loser.  I don't really hate it, just joshin around.  We spent the rest of the day taking the dingy out to this lil private beach. We were the only ones there.  Yup.  Phil and I made chairs out of noodles in the water and  floated for hours, drinking beers and talking about the future.  It was perfect.  It was a moment I never want to forget.  

It also happened to be Jane and Greg's 32nd Anniversary.  I caught them smooching.  It was cute.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to the marina to get ready for dinner.  Not going to lie I was a lil love drunk and drunk off cider beer.  Dinner was at this place called, Room with a View. Solid, Italian Restaurant.  Actually, it was really flipping good.  I ate my weight in food, I think.  I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to do that. 

Our last day in paradise.  I soaked every last moment cheese smiling.  Who's the super tourist?  Oh hey, it's just me.  Before our flight we had lunch at Duffy's Love shack.  As you can see I got laid. Also, the menus were on bamboo sticks and it was a must to get a picture of them. 

It was at this moment that I am pretty sure I had some tears rolling down my eyes.  It was such an amazing trip and I always enjoy spending time with Phil's family.  Honestly, I cant thank them enough for everything.   How do you thank someone for an unforgettable trip?  

The worst part about vacations is how fast they go by.  I swear you blink and all of a sudden you are on a plane home.  The only good thing was we were going to spend the night in Cincinnati and spend the morning in Ikea. Our Christmas gift's to one another was to get things for the home.  Yea I feel old.  But walking into Ikea is equivalent to a kid having a bouncy house on their birthday. 

If you are still reading this, bless you.  I know it was a lot and heck i'm exhausted after writing this post. I just didn't want to leave out any parts.  I'll be glad I did this so one day I can look back on it.   And now i'm even more depressed because it's in the negative temps and I just wanna go back.