We had a nice laid back Thanksgiving at my parents house. We all just relaxed, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, decorated the tree and ate lots of delicious food.
Ready to decorate the tree! Not too sure what's going on with my hair here.
Sweet hubs admiring his favorite ornament.
Sweet hubs' favorite ornament.
My first Christmas ornament.
4 ornament casualties this year.
The finished product.
Part of the reason I love holidays - I get to use the beautiful china my grandmother left to me.
Tom cat sleeping under the tree.
Today we actually ventured out to run some errands at the stores, even though it was "black Friday". Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. One of my errands was to go to my weekly weigh-in for Weight Watchers... I lost 3.6 lbs! I was shocked, especially since it was the day after Thanksgiving. So far that puts me at 10.2 lbs. lost. Yay!
Anyhow, tomorrow we are taking a roadtrip to Richmond, VA. I'm excited to go someplace new.
I'm sad our little vacation is drawing to a close. It's been a great trip so far. Oh well, still one more day before we head back to the real world.
This is my first attempt at baking a pumpkin pie and I'm making it "weight watchers" friendly. So far, it smells amazing. Hopefully it will taste just as good.
Wow! Pardon the crappy, out of focus iPhone photo! Yikes!
It was super easy to make, so if anyone else wants to give it a whirl, here's the recipe, courtesy of Hungry Girl.
Ingredients:
For Crust
2 cups Fiber One bran cereal (original)
1/4 cup light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
3 tbsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1 tsp. cinnamon
For Filling
One 15-oz. can pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)
One 12-oz. can evaporated fat-free milk
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/4 cup sugar-free pancake syrup
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
Optional Topping: Fat Free Reddi-wip or Cool Whip Free
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine butter with 2 tbsp. water. Microwave until just melted, and set aside. In a blender or food processor, grind Fiber One to a breadcrumb-like consistency.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter mixture and crumbs with remaining ingredients for crust. Stir until mixed well.
Spray an oven-safe 9-inch pie dish lightly with nonstick spray. Evenly distribute crust mixture, using your hands or a flat utensil to firmly press and form the crust. Press it into the edges and up along the sides of the dish. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for the filling. Mix well. Pour mixture into pie crust. The filling may be taller than the crust -- trust us, this is okay!
Bake pie in the oven for 45 minutes. Allow pie to cool slightly. Refrigerate for several hours (overnight is best). Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Cut into 8 slices and, if you like, top with Reddi-wip or Cool Whip before serving!
Tomorrow, I will sleep in, spend time with my family, pets and sweet hubs, eat lot of wonderful food (including my pie from my previous entry), decorate my parents' Christmas tree and enjoy the day.
I'm so thankful for my amazing family and friends, as I am every year. I'm a lucky gal.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Now, for one of my favorite pictures (and my life motto)...
Well, congrats, Christina - you have had a long battle with the border and definitely won. Welcome (officially) to the USA. Now you and Nick can live happily ever after!
Speaking of, the happy couple, Nick and Christina - they're such rockstars!
Sweet hubs and I have been back in NYC for over a week now and I've just finished going through our 8 Gb of photos from our vacation last week.
We decided in August that since we never take vacations that are simply relaxing, we'd give that type of vacation a try. After some thinking, we figured what better way to force yourself to relax then to go on a cruise! We also figured this would be a perfect two-year wedding anniversary trip. After lots of research on different cruise lines, we decided to go with Celebrity Cruises, due to its excellent reputation.
Fast forward to Saturday, November 6th: We drove to my parents house in Virginia, left our kitties and our car there and flew out to Miami the next day, which was the day before our cruise departed.
We managed to find an AWESOME deal on a gorgeous hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami, which had an amazing view of the cruise terminal. It was nice to stay the night in Miami the night before our cruise and to not have to rush from the airport directly to board the ship. The hotel's location was great because of its proximity to the terminal, which ended up being a meager $10 cab fare the morning of our departure. Very convenient.
The hotel was beautiful - the lobby was all marble, the room was huge and the bed was super comfortable. Oh and there was a great bar in the lobby called The Indigo that we enjoyed in the night before.
We awoke to a very overcast, icky morning. Our ship didn't depart till 5pm, and boarding didn't begin till 2pm, but I was awake and bright eyed and bushy tailed by 8am, obviously quite excited to begin our adventure. I got REALLY excited when I looked out the window and could see our ship, the Celebrity Century, (click the link for a virtual tour) docked.
I was a little nervous though, since I hadn't ever had to go through immigration before aside from a road trip to Canada back in 2002, but I was more excited with the fact that I'd FINALLY get my passport stamped. Much to my dismay, no stamping occurred, and my passport remains blank, even though I did travel to Honduras and Mexico.
But I digress...
We headed over the the Port of Miami around 1:30, dropped off our luggage and headed in to start the boarding process. It was a lot easier than I had initially thought it would be. They had it set up really well. After about an hour of standing in line, we reached the check-in where they swiped our passports and told us to have a jolly good time (well, not exactly those words because we had a girl who was obviously quite unhappy to be doing what she was doing, but you get the idea) upon which we traveled up the gangway and onto the ship.
We were pleasantly greeted with two glasses of champagne and everyone on the crew we passed saying "Hello! Welcome to the Celebrity Century! Enjoy your cruise!" I kid you not when I say that for the next five days, every time we passed a crew member, be it a bartender, housekeeper, or a captain, they had a big smile and said "Hello!". It was awesome!
First stop was our cabin, which aside from being small (which was to be expected), was as elegant as a luxury hotel room. Lots of nice touches, including a bucket of ice and a pitcher of ice water and a newsletter of what was happening that day. We came to find out that that was delivered to us each evening for the next day, which was nice so you were able to partake in activities offered.
After settling in to our home for the next five days, we wandered around exploring the ship. It was BEAUTIFUL. It seriously was like a luxury hotel floating on the ocean. Even though the Century is the oldest and smallest ship in the Celebrity fleet, it was immaculately maintained. We eventually found our way to the upper deck and stopped by one of the many bars to pick up a drink for our bon voyage party. A little after 5pm our ship set sail.
Once we hit the open seas, we headed back to our cabin where we got dressed for our first dinner in the Grand Restaurant. It was definitely grand. The food was delicious and the dining room looked like you had just stepped into a fancy 1920's art deco restaurant.
Once our tummies were full, we headed over to take in the first big on-board activity, which was the ship's variety show. It was surprisingly good. The only part I could have done without was the very fringe filled broadway style portion. Aside from that, there was a whole lot of talent and it was very enjoyable.
After the show ended, we made a nightly ritual of going to a bar on board called Michael's Club. It was decorated like a men's club room with lots of wood, a fireplace and big comfy leather chairs. Each night, a guy named Will sang and played piano. He was PHENOMENAL. Absolutely amazing. I developed a little music talent crush on him I believe.
Day 2 was our first full sea day. We had a blast just relaxing in the sun, drinking lots of fruity drinks (for me), and whiskey drinks (for sweet hubs), participating in the on-board activities and continuing to explore the ship. Speaking of participating in the on-board activities, at the pool, they were having "Pool Olympics" which were hosted by a fellow from Argentina named Alejandro. The fact that Alejandro's English was a little less than perfect made his commentary of the olympics absolutely hilarious. Oh yeah, there was also a European fellow who Alejandro dubbed "Tarzan" because of his big belly, skinny legs and itty bitty teeny tiny plaid man-kini. Priceless. Why not have a look at Tarzan in action? (Warning: Tarzan's butt is hanging out in the majority of the video, so view with caution - I assure you it's pretty hilarious though.)
That night was our Formal Night for dinner. Sweet hubs bought himself a stylin' new suit to wear and I got all gussied up. We looked pretty dashing if I do say so myself.
Our third day was our first shore day, which took place in Roatán, Honduras. We were greeted by some local dancing when we pulled into port.
Once we docked, sweet hubs and I headed off for our excursion of the day: snorkeling! Our tour guide was a really nice young fellow who gave a great tour of the island as we putt putted on our "Tropical Bus" to our snorkeling location, which occurred at the Fantasy Island Beach Resort in the village of French Harbor. The day was a little chilly and quite overcast when we started out, but as the day went on, it heated up quickly and the sky cleared and we realized we were in paradise. It was beautiful.
Our snorkel was fantastic. We saw lots of beautiful fish, coral and a shipwreck! It wasn't a REAL shipwreck, but it was really neat regardless. The ship was actually purposely sunk there for several reasons -
1. to give the fish a more interesting environment in which to explore
2. to give a destination for divers to explore (pretty much the same as the fish)
3. to see how the metal from the ship would react to the water over time.
It was really cool to say the least. I'll DEFINITELY be snorkeling again next time we vacation some place tropical and warm. Before we headed back to Coxen Hole, our tour guide gave us a tour of the rest of the resort after we'd relaxed for a bit on the beach after our snorkel. He showed us some of the local wildlife, which included a monkey (which we got to feed!), several huge iguanas and a peacock!
I can't really say too much about the actual island because we really didn't explore too much. It's quite a poverty ridden area (as most places like that are), but the landscape is absolutely beautiful. We wandered around the village of Coxen Hole, which was where our ship was docked, for a little while after we returned from our snorkel, but it wasn't the most enjoyable portion of our trip. The people who we came into contact with there were quite aggressive and a teenage boy followed us around the entire time trying to get us to visit his family's shops and restaurants, which put a damper on us really getting to enjoy exploring, but oh well. We got to do what we went there to do.
Sweet hubs with our teenage follower.
Sunset as we left Roatán.
The next day was our second (and last) shore day, which was in Cozumel, Mexico. Our excursion here was to an all inclusive beach resort called Nachi Cocom, which was about a 20 minute drive from the ship port. Cozumel was a totally different experience than Roatán. It was incredibly clean and the people were very friendly.
The resort was beautiful - blue water, clear skies and white sandy beaches. It was definitely a relaxing day, which was exactly what we were looking for. The fact that it was all-inclusive was great - we drank, ate, swam and lounged.
Day 5 was our last full day at sea. We spent it doing more of the whole relaxing / eating / lounging thing as well as partaking in some of the final entertainment on-board, which included more pool olympics, a VERY funny newlywed/not so newlywed game and an entertaining, but kind of cheesy broadway style show. We also took some photos of our favorite places on the ship.
Hallway for The Boulevard / Cova Cafe / other shopping, etc.
One of the larger stateroom hallways on the ship.
The Rendez Vous Lounge
The Rendez Vous Lounge
Fortune's Casino
Martini Bar
Michael's Club
Michael's Club
The Crystal Room
This is my "I don't want to vacation to end" face.
The next morning we docked back in Miami and I must admit, I was sad to leave. I really enjoyed cruising and will absolutely do it again. In fact, sweet hubs and I have already started talking about our next cruise - to Alaska in 2014!
So in closing, we had a wonderful vacation. Celebrity Cruises rocks.
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