Game Night #1

After eating dinner and driving around looking at Christmas lights . . . . .

we came back to our house and played games ~ Pit and Masterpiece.  Oh, my what fun we had.  That's the first we played games since we moved here.  Usually we're just so busy and don't take the time to do it.

Christmas Caroling On Wheels

After we had ate dinner at Burger King on the Sea with our friends, we had went driving around looking at lights and happened to see a group from another Church out doing their annual Christmas caroling.  We were excited as they usually come by our house to spread the holiday cheer.  Well, we had come back to our house to play games for the rest of the evening.  As we were sitting at our dining room table a while later, I heard the music outside in the distance.  We all jumped up and ran outside to await the carolers.  Soon they were in our sights!!  They even had their own police escort  ~ one leading them and one at the end of the long line!

Their rigged up contraption is quite unique to say the least!

Not sure how many people were on this, but it was loaded!

As you can see they have it beautifully decorated with lights

So pretty and the music and singing really added to the Christmas spirit.  They always stop out front for several minutes and sing for us.  And believe me, their music is cranked up loud :o)

Red Bay Church of God Holiness

Yes, we knew several of the people on here.  There are quite a few families from this Church that send their children to our school.

They go up the road a little ways and turn around.  Here they are coming back! 

Merry Christmas From Grand Cayman and the Sea :o)

This morning, a friend who is our music teacher here at our school, and I got up very early.  We had made plans a few days ago and went to the Sea to see the sun rise, but it was very cloudy.  I wanted to go swimming and start my Christmas Day off to a wonderful start ~ so we did.  Actually, I fell in the Sea as I was walking on the loose sand.  Oh, my goodness that water was rather cool!!!  But once I was in it was awesome.  Yes, I had a "WHITE CHRISTMAS" in Grand Cayman as the beach is very, very white.

I got some really good pictures 

This helped me to put my mind elsewhere as I was really struggling not being with any of our family for the first time in my life for Christmas Day!!  Last night I lost it and was crying because it was very painful to think about being alone!

I decided that I wanted to enjoy God's beautiful nature and that's just what I did! 

Some very dear friends invited us to their home for Christmas dinner after Church this morning.  We had a wonderful time.  Then we played games for several hours.  It was fun and again distracted me.

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Here is the array of food choices that was set in front of us to choose from!

These are codfish fritters and there was a dipping sauce to go with them.  They were actually pretty good!

Bread fruit!  This is a Caymanian fruit that grows on trees.  I'm not too fond of it. 

Take a guess what this is?

Turtle!!  Oh, my!  This is only the 2nd or 3rd time for me to eat it.  Thankfully it was cooked with spices to flavor it :o)  It is an expensive delicacy!!

After dinner, Lorna had a craft time for us :o)

Travis showing off his finished project while his sister Kirsten looks on. 

Everyone feverishly working away on their tree ornaments 

Dennis and DeAnn showing off their ornaments they made.  It was so good to see her again as she goes to College in Florida and is home for the holidays. 

I love Lorna's carolers.  I'm going to see if I can get some like these when the stores reopen on Wednesday maybe for 1/2 price.  We'll see!!

My finished project 

This is Lorna's nephew, Chevaughn, who is from Jamaica.  We've known he and his Mother for several years from going to Youth Camp with them in PA.  He is pretty quiet, but is a riot when playing games!!

Chevaughn with his Mother Claudette.  She just got to Cayman on Thursday and will be here until January 3rd.  I hoping her, Lorna and I will get the time to go out to lunch together before she leaves. 

Something sure had Dennis tickled here . . . . .

and here!  I was afraid he was going to spit Diet Coke out of his mouth because he was laughing so hard :o)

After playing games and eating and snacking all afternoon, everyone sat down for a few minutes to watch a little basketball before we left to come home.

Another view of the crowd or at least part of it :o)

Me with my two wonderful friends, Lorna and Claudette.

They are sister's and we were at Lorna's house.

I forgot to get a picture of the dessert table but there was quite a spread there, too!!

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Party

We had two Christmas parties in the last week!  Talk about a lot of work in the kitchen!!  Oh, my!!  I cooked and baked and then cooked and baked somemore.  But it's so rewarding when your guests show up and really seem to enjoy themselves and the food.  I didn't get any pictures at the first party unfortunately.

For my family who've been here and met Laten, here he is on the left in the blue shirt.  He is doing so well!!

The first party was for the Church Board and their spouses.  We had invited the Premier (our President here in Cayman) and his wife to join us as they did last year.  They had planned to come, but it's their first Christmas since their daughter passed away and they've been having a really hard time.  So, they decided to just stay home as they really didn't feel like socializing which we certainly understood!  But they were in Church this Christmas morning.  It was good to see them again!

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In the next several posts I put just a few of the recipes I used for our parties.  A lot of the recipes were new ones, but I also have my old faithful ones :o)  Enjoy!!

Heavy Cake? Cassava Cake? Red Wine Cake? Fruit Cake?

Not sure which of the different cakes this is as we had four of them given to us.  I finally had to put them out at our parties to serve them.  Way tooooooo many for us :o)

Cookies and Bars

Oh, my how good they are (were)!!  Too many different varieties here for all the recipes.  If you want one particular one, let me know!

Homemade Italian Meatballs

I love these meatballs!!  I'm not into some of the frozen kind as they don't taste that great.  This recipe is from the Better Homes and Garden's New Cookbook.  It's not to "NEW" anymore as I think it was given to us for a wedding gift:o)  But it's still the best!!

Homemade Italian Meatballs

Soak 4 slices of bread in 1/2 cup water for 2 ~ 3 minutes; add 2 eggs and mix well.  Mix with 1 pound ground beef, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons snipped parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed, and dash pepper.

With wet hands, form meat mixture into small balls (about 24).  Brown slowly in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.  Add meatballs to sauce, simmer, loosely covered, for 30 minutes.

NOTE:  After browning the meatballs, I laid them on a plate with a paper towel to drain off any grease.  Then I placed them in a crockpot and added the desired amount of spaghetti sauce.  I turned the temperature up on high until they started cooking good and then turned it down on low to simmer for several hours before serving.  They are really good!!