Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad!

Wishing that this Christmas and every day of your life, you'll find these presents under your tree...

Let's us enjoy this season and focus on honoring God and the good feelings inside ourselves, because without that, all those other presents are shallow and empty.

Best Wishes this Christmas to you and your family!!!

Fruitcake

 Dear Santa;

I don't want much for Christmas....I just want the person reading this to be happy. 

Friends are the fruitcake of life. Some are nutty, some are sweet and some are even soaked in alcohol!. But mix them together and they add flavor to my life. 

*********************

To those reading this, all I can say is thanks letting me reach to you and share my random thoughts, comments, photos and anything that I can come up with everyday or just any day you come around...

In this era of technology I am so happy to say I feel like I have my own blogger family and my interaction with each and one of you is very important in my life.

So, for you and your loved ones I only wish that you enjoy this time with the best possible feeling in your heart; feelings of love, joy, peace, compassion and willingness to share with others that have less than us.

God is the most important part of the Holidays and every day of our lives, nowadays it's all about the presents, the parties, the drinks and we sometimes forget what's vital in all of this, so God Bless you today and everyday!!!

Merry Christmas!

Tree Thursday

The last tree I am featuring is not a tree on the island but one in my home country, Costa Rica.

The picture was sent to me by a friend that lives in California but was visiting CR for a few days, the girl in the picture is my friend's daughter Samantha.

 

Have a wonderful day!!!

double celebration

It's already Dec. 22nd, for me it's kind of hard to believe it, we are super close to Christmas.

This year my Christmas is an extra special one. For the first time since I've been on the islands, I get to spend Christmas Day with some family (besides my husband and dogs).

Now that my brother Mau and his wife Gaylene live here, we are getting together on Christmas day for a double celebration, as it's also my brother's birthday!!! We are doing a Christmas Brunch at my house, with a special dish from my home country (Gallo Pinto), French Toast, Fruit, Mimosas (OJ and Champagne) and  chocolate cake to sing "Happy Birthday" to him and Jesus!

Besides that, as I work at a gallery that also has a retail store, we have been pretty busy this past few days. Although getting closer to the holidays unfortunately doesn't mean people are in a nice Christmas Spirit. In fact, I am convinced that for some people, this time of year brings the worst out of them (sadly!).

Well, that's about all that's going on in my world today... Happy Hump Day and be good, naughty, or both!

it's the season to give

Our dogs (like many other pets) are very blessed animals. The have a nice house, people that love and care for them, food & water, medical care (if needed), they go on walks when needed and even get treats every now and then.

On the other hand there are many, many domesticated animals that do not have the same privileges as our dogs do. Some are born to live in the streets, having to constantly look for food and shelter to survive. Whenever I hear about terrible snow storms, hurricanes and any other bad weather situations, I think about those animals that have no place to be safe.

Now, there are others animals that thanks to the love and care of certain people and organizations, have the opportunity to be in a shelter area where they are safe and can get fed. Maybe they would even have the opportunity to one day be part of a family that will love and care for them the way it should be.

So this being the season to give, let's try to focus on not only getting things for people that  sometimes don't even need anything at all, let's not forget about others and specially those lovely animals in need of so much.

And that's why this year I decided to donate more than just money to the Cayman Islands Humane Society, because sometimes money can end up in the wrong hands or used for the wrong things.

This year I am buying a 52 lbs bag of food for the shelter dogs and a 30 lbs bag for the kitties, so they can have a few set meals to finish and start the year with a full belly.

As I can't adopt them all (even though I wish I could) I am also including a new resolution on my list for 2011 and it's to give them a bag every 3 months (if my budget allows it)... Have a wonderful day!!!

i heart visitors

We are starting the week in a great way, today we are expecting family that will be visiting the island on a cruise ship, so exciting!

My husband's cousins; John, Carol and their son Grant from New Vienna, Ohio are coming on a Carnival Cruise.

from left: Me, Mark, Jim, Janet (my mother in law), Grant (w/ New Vienna t-shirt), Carol, John and Laura (Jim's wife)

Last time we saw them (and the first time I met them) was back in Ohio in 2007.

Unfortunately this time they will only be here for a few hours, but hey, I love visitors and specially if it's family so I'll take a few hours over no visits at all.... I have the day off so we will bring them to the house and spend as much time with them as possible.

Oh, by the way, did I mention I heart visitors? [hint!, hint!]. So, why don't you add a New Year's resolution to start saving up for the flight down here and come visit??? We will take care of the accommodation for ya'...

Have a great week!

It's a wonderful time...

...to have soup!

Yesterday was the first day in a few days that it wasn't very cold at night. Lately it's been around late 60's and that for us here in the Caribbean is quite cold. Of course I know that temperatures are all relative, I do not mean to say it's really cold if I compare it to places like Minnesota, but still, for us that we live in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops that is quite chilly.

Anyway, last night I came home I decided to prepare my favorite soup which is "Cream of Mushroom Soup" so today I am going to share this super easy, wonderful recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb (16oz) fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3 tbsp of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of half and half
1 can (14oz) chicken broth
1 tbsp dry sherry, if desired
Freshly ground pepper

1. Slice enough mushrooms to measure 1 cup. Chop remaining mushrooms.

2. In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook sliced and chopped mushrooms in butter about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are golden brown. Sprinkle with flour and salt. Cook, stirring constantly until thickened.

3. Gradually stir in half and half and broth; heat until hot. If using sherry add now. Sprinkle with pepper. Enjoy!

When I make this soup I also like to make grilled cheese sandwiches to complement it, works out great!

Tomorrow is finally Saturday but I have to work and instead I am getting Monday off as my husband's cousins from Ohio are visiting the island on a cruise ship for a few hours, I am very excited to see them and spend a little time with them.

Wishing everybody a wonderful weekend and if anybody decides to give my recipe a try, please let me know about the results!!!

Tree Thursday

Today's local Christmas tree is at the Kirk Freeport Jewelry Store, pretty posh place so it's got to be a fine looking tree, right?

Have a wonderful day!!!

Santa Claws

Since everything and everywhere is about Christmas right now, today I am posting a very fun Christmas video; for those who love cats, those who don't and those who wish to get a cat for Christmas...

As this is a shared video from You Tube it has a very annoying ad on the bottom, just click the X on the side to close it and you'll enjoy the video much better.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Disconnect to connect

Today I dedicate the following video to anybody and everybody that ever felt that technology is taking over your conversation or quality time with the person next to you.

I am sure my husband will give faith that this is a constant issue for me, watch the following video and you'll be amazed of how common this is nowadays... I am not saying I am excluded but I do make a point of not let this happen to me when I am with people I care for.

The most amazing part of the video is that it is an actually commercial made by a telephone company and the end what is says is "use the phone appropriately"!
What do you think? Sad but true in many cases, right?

So the main message of the video to me is, for every day let's give priority to the people and the things that really matter, communication is better one on one.

I think I just added one more thing to my Christmas List (well, not that I really have one, but I guess a "virtual" one): I would like the opportunity for all to disconnect from the craziness of the world and connect with God, family, friends, nature and with ourselves.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

List of Fours

I was tagged by Jessi at The Juici Life and although I don't do many of this lists, I decided to give this one a try.

List of Fours

1. Four shows that you watch: (I don't watch much TV but I like these shows)

~ Family Guy
~ The Simpsons
~ Bones
~ any CSI

2. Four things you are passionate about:

~ Living my life grateful to God

~ My family (including my husband and dogs) & Friends

~ Animals

~ Photography

3. Four words/phrases you say a lot:

~ Okely dokely neighbor

~ Eeeexcellent!

~ Cool!

~

4. Four things you've learned from the past:
~ Don't sweat the small things.
~The past is history, the future is a mystery so we need to live in the present
~ What goes around comes around.
~ Don't take things personally.


5. Four places you would like to go:
~ Hawaii
~ Iceland
~ Australia
~ Madagascar

6. Four things you did yesterday:

~ Had breakfast

~Made this list

~Went to the beach

~ Started a new crochet amigurumi

7. Four things you are looking forward to:
~ time off during the Holidays
~ New Year's Party at our house
~ More sales at work
~ Not gaining much weight during the Holidays!

8. Four things you love about Winter:

~ Warm drinks

~ A blanket

~ That we don't get snow in the Caribbean

~ The smell of Christmas Tree

~ Sunny beautiful days with a chilly breeze

9. Tag 4 people to play along:

Debbie at "Happy Days".
Mark at "First Time".
Joey at "Joey's Cafe".
Jess at "This Life is Mine".

Have a wonderful Week!!!

lalalalala, lala, la, la...

It's already Friday Dec. 10th so if by now, the lights, decorated trees, ornaments, the smells and even the music are not helping you get into Christmas Spirit, I am sure this wonderful song will do the trick.

Isn't it amazing how people can make such great videos? I wish I had the imagination to come up with stuff like that and get about a million hits on you tube.

In case anybody noticed I changed a little widget (I think that's what it's called) on my blog that says "your comments feed my blog". Well, after I changed it then I started thinking that if I really want a lot of comments, maybe I should go for a stronger approach and make another widget instead, one that says "your comments feed my DOG"!!! I bet I would get a whole lot of people into the "comment spirit" that way, LOL... just kidding, my dogs have a big 'ol bag of dog food and treats right here, whether you guys comment or not!!!

Tomorrow Sat. we have a little get together at home with the girls from work and their spouses, it should be a fun little reunion, I will try to take some pictures and then share the love...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the little video I just posted, I am sure somebody spent a lot of hours of their precious day to put it together for our enjoyment, so to them I say Thank You, I really enjoyed it!

Hope everybody have a wonderful

Tree Thursday

Today's featured Christmas tree is the one we have at the gallery, isn't it nice?

Here's also a detail of one of the ornaments...

Have a wonderful day!!!

weekend project

I've been meaning to post about a little weekend project I had about 2 weekends ago.

A few months ago I bought a cheap outdoors plastic thermometer, but one day the rain or the wind knocked it down and broke the plastic part around the actual thermometer.

So, my husband that likes to take on some carpenter project made a new "holder" for the thermometer, he did a wonderful job making it new...

Then my part of the project was to paint it nicely... Finally I got around to do my part about 2 weekends ago, I think it came out alright... what do you think?

Have a great day!!!

comfy sleep? yes please!

I love to sleep, to me sleeping is a wonderful state, one in which we can rest, we can dream and even gives us a moment of sanity within ourselves.

For my husband on the other hand, sleep is a waste of time and if he could go without sleeping he would, although lately he is being going to bed waaay to early (around 8pm) and then wakes up around 3am and he's wide awake...

If I am good at something, but like "really good", I am good at sleeping. I am one of those that insomnia visit but once every few months if not maybe about 3 times a year. To me going to sleep is easy and very rarely problems bother me enough to loose some sleep, dunno how I do it, but I know it just comes natural.

Now, my problem right now is not so much about lack of sleep, but lack of comfortable sleep. We moved to our new house in April 2008 and when we moved we bought a brand new mattress, unfortunately it was a very bad quality one because in less than 3 years it looks and feels as if a rhinoceros have been sleeping on it while we go on with our day. Both sides (mine and my husbands) have a huge dent the size of the Grand Canyon.

So, besides the terrible mattress situation I still have a bulge disk on my back which makes my sleeping and specially the waking up after hours laying down, just unbearable.

And that's why we have decided to look for a good FIRM mattress like my physiotherapist recommended. So, of course we look on the maybe 5 or 6 furniture stores on the islands, and guess what? A nice, simple, firm mattress is not less than $1,800KYD which is more than 2K US... Inconceivable and crazey!!!!

So, it's either the break your back mattress of the break your wallet new mattresses. I know I really need it, but I also need those 2K for many other things...

Finally after some research we decided to buy a 5inch Firm mattress topper (that have some very good reviews) and give it a try before we decide to break our piggy bank for good.

I order it on amazon.com last night and it should be here in about a week, plus I order a mattress cover big enough for the bed and the topper, the best part was that the total order was less than $200 USD with Free 2 day shipping...

I can't wait to get it and finally get a very nice sleep and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this topper is good and will improve our sleeping quality and eventually quantity!!!

Have a great day!!!

Deep Monday

The weekend was nice but as always too short!

On Saturday we watch the movie "Revolutionary Road" and I was deeply moved by the whole concept as well as the outcome of the whole story.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, (she being one of my favorite actresses), once again both actors did a fabulous job on their own character, although at some point I was kind of missing Kate's British accent.

This movie is a drama about a young couple that meets, gets married and down the road in their marriage when they are living the "perfect suburban life" (movie is based in USA, 1955) they start having all sorts of questions about if they are happy, then they start questioning themselves about having a better life where they can still pursuit the dreams they once had and thinking that maybe they still have the time to do it...

To me this is a very compelling story that makes you check the reality of your goals, dreams and the life you are living. Many people live their daily life not satisfying with what they got or what they've accomplished; their job, relationships, daily routine, etc...

Life is only one and needs to be lived to the fullest, when a dream is only directly affected by the monetary part, I believe it is the kind of dream that needs to be pursuit even harder, don't you agree? But the most important part is to be true to yourself and not to go around living a lie or life unfulfilled.

The book that I am reading right now has a very interesting quote from The Bhagavad Gita (and ancient India Yogic Text) that says: "It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live and imitation of somebody else's life life with perfection". And that's exactly was happened to April's character in the movie, she was living a life that was not her, one that she did not intended to have and then she was too frustrated to stay in it...

I really recommend this movie, it might give you a warm fuzzy feeling of happiness when you finish watching it, but it's one that gets inside of you and makes you think and remember that we are here to live life to the fullest, that it's important to pursuit our happiness and dreams no matter what (well, as long as that doesn't involve hurting yourself or any other living being), and if we have found somebody to live those dreams with, them we need to always respect their own dreams and choose our right sacrifices to walk this paths of live together in happiness.

Pretty deep post for a Monday, uh? Well... just some food for thought, have a wonderful week!!!

riding in cars with dogs

Our dogs love going on car rides, if I ever call them to go out of the house and they see me carrying my car keys they get so excited that something they even cry a little of the anticipation.

I really enjoy it when I ride with them in the car, but it also makes me so happy every time I see other people with their dogs in the car.

To me, once a dog gets to ride in a car whether is just a joy ride or even going to the vet, it is like we give them a certain status and a place as part of our family.

But, when people have animals tide up in their yard, it's is like they give them a "life sentence" verdict and make them pay for a crime that they didn't commit. I think even some human inmates that have committed so horrible crime have better life situations that some abused animals.

Anyway, on a lighter much happier note, it's Friday and the weekend in finally here, this week feels so long, I've been super busy at work so can't wait to some nice quiet time for Saturday and Sunday.

Oh, almost forgot, today I am thinking and dedicating this post to a wonderful puppy (Cooper) arriving today to his brand new family and home, may they all have a wonderful life together and Debbie the proud mother enjoys every minute of this new doggy chapter. Happy riding :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tree Thursday...

I'm an early bird this year, it's only December 2nd but as of last night the mini Christmas tree that we have is all light up and ready to rotate for a whole month (at least).

Last year on every Thursday I posted a picture of a local Christmas tree to share with you all, the way Christmas is "decorated" around this little Caribbean Island. Well, this year I am starting with a little video of my very own tree...

Being that I am far away from family to me it's kind of hard to get into the whole Christmas spirit.

One thing I do love about this season is the smell of a real Christmas tree, but living in the Caribbean buying one of those is just out of the question (although they sell them around and lots of people buy them each year, fly them from the US and pay BIG $$$ for it!).

So this year I found myself the closest thing to a Christmas tree smell, a Frasier Fir scent oil diffuser and it smell just wonderful, as soon as you enter the room you are already looking around to spot the Christmas tree. We bought one for the gallery and after a day of having it I had to run to store and get one for me.

to order one online click here

If you see one around I highly recommend it for the season, you would love it!

In other news, high season for tourism is picking up, sales are going up as well and I already made some very good ones this week. People are finally walking around with a better "shopping attitude" so I am excited about that...

Happy Tree- Thursday to all!!!

you are what you craft

Here is one my latest amigurumi creations, I made this one for my brother and his wife, they are both dive instructors so they love "all things underwater"

Manta Ray-mond!!!

Not much else to post about today. Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

you can do magic...

Last night we went to the movies to watch the latest Harry Potter flick, "Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1".

So again my question is: Why is it after reading 7 books, watching 7 movies + 1 more due out next year, I still cannot do magic??? What's the catch here? Maybe I should ask the guys from America?

Now, seriously back to HP7, it was a good movie, but the plot on that very last book is so dense that putting it on film must be hard. As I mentioned before I read the whole series and even though I am almost convinced my husband read the last book, he said he didn't.

Last night I had this idea, if I go and get the last book, me and husband could read it (me again- he for the first time!) before the next movie even makes out to the theater, I am seriously consider doing that to give the Harry Potter saga a proper goodbye.

P.S. The best part of the movie, was my hot date, I heart u baby!!!

Have a magical day!!!