A Caribbean Christmas

Well, as noted previously, we had a weird Christmas. Poor Brad has no idea what a normal Cramer Christmas is like, cause we have not had one since we have been married. The first christmas spent with my family, my aunt had recently had a baby so the whole family took a red-eye flight to CT on Christmas. Needless to say, that Christmas was a little rushed and then we were in Connecticut and NYC.

Then, last year, we were all down in So Cal at my grandparents for Christmas. So a very full house. And why did we go to So Cal? Because grandma ordered a real tree...which looked like a bush.

Finally, this year my grandparents paid to take the whole family on a cruise, for Christmas of course. I've always wanted to go the caribbean. It was pretty, and warm, and humid. I can't say it was my favorite Christmas though because it didn't feel like christmas.

Everyone mailed presents to each other, so we didn't have to take them with us. So Brad and I opened all our presents before christmas. Then we flew to Florida on the 22-23rd of December. Spent a day in Ft. Lauderdale. On Christmas Eve we boarded the boat, ate, wandered the boat, and finally left the dock at 6pm.

Christmas day, we rescued Cubans. How do I know they were Cubans? Well, we were a lot closer to Cuba then to America, and who else crams 12 people onto a little dingy, that is taking on water, and floating in the middle of the ocean? Oh yeah, Cubans! Needless to say, it is international law that boats must rescue stranded people. So we got to wait for hours for the US Coast Guard to come and pick up these Cubans, as we could not go to Grand Cayman with them.

My family panicked that we would miss our excursion as we would get to Grand Cayman 4 hours later than we originally were supposed to. We went to a Christmas on Ice show (yes, there was an ice skating rink on the boat). Other than that, we all sat on a deck (some laid out in the sun and got fried, the rest of us hid in the shade) and read books. Christmas dinner, all 18 of us sat at two different tables right next to each other (cause there is no table big enough for 18 people) . My mom did make stocking things for each room, so we did find gifts/candy in these stockings each day.

Monday, we were in Grand Cayman. We went to string ray city, and I now find sting rays to be freaky animals. We also went snorkeling by the reef, which was cool.

Tuesday, we were in Jamaica. We went ziplining in the rain. Then we hiked Dunns Falls. I liked zip linning, I hated climbing the water fall. A) It was boxing day, which is a big holiday to anyone related to England, so it was crazy b) I don't like big crowds, especially when you are trying to fight through all these people to climb up a water fall and not lose your group, fall in the water, or slip and C) I was wearing my pump (cause i didn't trust leaving it) and I have had a pump break in the water before. But Jamaica was pretty, while also a little scary. We did see a sign for city saying the cops were not allowed.

Wednesday we were in Labadee, Haiti, which is Royal Caribbean's private area. It was nice, we snorkeled, went on the alpine coaster, and introduced my family to the joys of street vendors.

Thursday we sailed back to America. Friday we got off the boat and flew back. I was really ready to come home. The caribbean is nice, but I just want to be home for christmas. Have a normal christmas at home with family, and hopefully enjoy a holiday without someone in the family yelling/lecturing, etc. So we had fun, but I can't say I ever want to do it again.

Granted, at this point in time I never want to fly again. One day, Brad will have a christmas with my family where we are at my parents home, can walk the street and see all the lights, and relax. One day, maybe in 20 years.

Slow and Steady Wins!

Well, with Christmas around the corner, all our bags packed for this christmas cruise, all our presents opened (totally weird to open everything before christmas) I just had to talk about my favorite thing as of late.

Sherlock Holmes!

So I saw the first movie, and I love it. So when this second one was coming out, I told Brad that I hoped it would be a good sequel and not like all other sequels that tend to be worse. Brad told me not to worry. I had a hard time waiting until Saturday, dec 17, to see it, but Brad had work on Friday and we went to a party Friday night. So early Saturday morning we treked out to the theatre.

Needless to say, I have never laughed so hard and long during a movie. Brad told me that everyone who could hear me probably thought we were watching a comedy. It was hilarious to say the least. Saturday night christmas dinner with Brad's Stevens side of the family. His grandma at one point had us all ready sections from a conference talk. I had such a hard time not laughing, because I kept thinking about Sherlock Holmes. Now I just have to think about the movie and I start laughing. Helps with the stress at work

So basically, everyone should see this movie. I almost went and watched it again last night, but it would have been a 9pm movie, it was snowing, and Brad had to work today. Oh well, I will see it again soon!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Catch-up Time

So, I haven't posted anything for a while. Oops. I keep looking at other people's blogs and being like, wow, they haven't done anything new for a month! Ha ha, neither have I. Well, I will quickly recap what I deem noteworthy.

Brad had a birthday. Kind of a lame one too, poor guy, cause it was on a Wednesday, so I came home from work exhausted. I did my best to make up for it with fun on Friday though and so we went to Red Lobster and he ate lots of shrimp and then we watched Captain America. Only a few more years and he will be the big 3-0!

We had our 4th anniversary, which also happened to be Thanksgiving. So we celebrated with lots of family, ate yummy food, and had everyone shocked it had already been 4 years. Crazy how time flies. We also got a threat that we better have a kid before Brad is 30. Fun times.

Brad got a best buy gift card for his b-day and wanted to make the best use of it, so we went to best buy on black friday. We didn't camp out, but we did show up at 10:30pm on Thanksgiving. I wore snowboarding pants, gloves, and a beanie. It was still cold. I read while in line, Brad played on his smart phone. Crazy people tried to sell us their tickets for tvs and computers. It did work out good thought cause Brad got 2 games for the price of one, we got an 8gb SD card for cheap, I got movies on my xmas list for cheap, and a few xmas presents for family. Then we went home to bed at 2am.

On December 3rd we had the option to go to our ward christmas party, or my work party. We picked my work party, because we didn't have to wear church clothes and it was at Rodizio Grill. Brad drank a yummy passion fruit limeaid and I had a strawberry limeaid (I missed the fact it was limeaid until I drank it). We had fun, and ran errands while down in good ol Utah Valley.

I have made a few christmas/winter decorations. I fell our space is very monotone because I have a white snowflake banner and a few white snowmen. The few gold stars and red ornaments don't add too much color. Oh well.

Next week we get to fly to Florida and go on a christmas family cruise with my mom's whole side of her family. Yay for family craziness. I'm excited to get out of fridged utah for a week. But I can't wait until we finally have a NORMAL christmas. Oh well, one day...

Merry Christmas too everyone!

How Do you Like your eggs?

I love breakfast! Probably because of my Dad, cause he loves breakfast and makes delicious breakfast goodness. So whenever I go out to eat breakfast at a restaurant I get pretty excited. However, I have learned that not all things restaurant are what I'm used to.

My Dad makes killer scrambled eggs. I love them. When I go to a restaurant I always order scrambled eggs, but they are not the same. My dad loads his eggs with milk, cheese, bacon, and seasoning. Delicious! Restaurants don't do this. They are just scrambled eggs.

When we surprise visited my parents and went to Awful Annie's, I explained my dilemma to my parents. I have never tried any other kind of egg. So they recommended over easy, which is what they always order. I tried this. It was good.

Well this cold morning, I decided to make my own eggs. I didn't have any meat to put in them, but I got everything else. And they were delish! I might be a scrambled egg snob, but what can I say, I know a good scrambled egg when I see one.

Freezing already

Well October is almost over. Crazy how fast time flys. And with October ending, the freeze has come. For the past few weeks, I have taken our big warm t-shirt blanket to Brad's softball games to wrap up in. Brad finds it ridiculous because he does not think it is that cold. Well last night, was the tournament. If they won their 6:30 game, then they got to play in the 8:30 championship game. For some reason, I did not think this through so when I told Brad I was ready, I was wearing jeans, a thermal long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, ankle socks, and tennis shoes. I also brought the big blanket. By the end of the 6:30 game, I could barely feel my toes. Smart. I should have worn my snow pants, long socks, and boots, and maybe even a big coat.

Well, they won the 6:30 game by a pretty big margin. There was almost a fight too. I'm glad Brad didn't get involved, but his Dad and one of the other teammates looked like they were going to take out the pitcher on the other team. He was a jerk. But we won, so it was fine. And thank goodness the teams kept the pitchers from killing each other.

Well, I explained my freezing body to Brad, so we went to 7-11 and got some delicious hot chocolate. My roommate Jen introduced me to 7-11 hot chocolate and the goodness of the coffee mixins (like french vanilla, half and half, and pumpkin spice). Yum, so i had a very creamy pumpkin hot chocolate. Which was great, but my toes were still frozen. So Brad had me put his sweats on over my jeans, which helped. The crazy guy played both games in just his shirt and shorts. Crazy! He is a snowman, I am not.

Well they lost the championship game. Sad, but they still got a big trophy for taking 2nd place. And they did get t-shirts for being the regular season champions.

On a good note, the Cardinals won last night, while Brad and I were sleeping buried in our blankets and with the heater turned on high.

Time to turn on the space heater for the basement so I don't freeze all day. I already am cold now. I'm too scared to look at our thermometer to see what the temp is down here. Upstairs it is only 65. Freezing. Can I just say how excited I am for November and December when it only gets colder?

Surprise!

Not a picture of THE surprise face, but this was funny candid. I would loved to seen my dad's face when he saw our car in the driveway though, next time I need to have hidden cameras to capture such priceless faces

2 weeks ago, Brad text me at work asking if I could get off early the following Wednesday (Oct 6). He told he was going to try and get thursday and friday off. When I asked him why, he told me that we could go and surprise my parents! Awesome idea. So we both got the time for this impromptu trip. Then the weather decided to play a funny joke on us.

You see, we seem to have a knack for driving to Sacramento whenever there is a huge storm. Like Memorial Day 2009 when we drove through a snow storm over Donner pass. Fantastic!

So when the news all of a sudden started talking about this rain/snow storm coming through, I just wanted to laugh. The storm was supposed to be leaving California Wednesday and coming into Utah Thursday. So Brad started to check the weather over the pass like crazy. The storm then seemed to move faster then planned so when we started our journey Wednesday at 4pm, we drove through rain in Utah, a little snow in East Nevada, and then clear skies. Caltrans kept reporting no chain control over Donner pass, so it was looking like our timing paid off!

At 11pm we crossed in California, passed the fruit patrol, and Caltrans still was not reporting chains. Then we hit Truckee. I hate that city so much, cause there was chain control. It was snowing, and not sticking cause it was so wet. It was now 11:30 (CA time), and I wanted to punch the guy who told us we HAD to put chains on. Hello! We are from Utah! No one puts chains on, especially when there is no snow on the ground!

So we pulled over and put the chains on. By we, I mean Brad. He is so wonderful. I was trying to help, but it was cold, the metal was hurting my hands, I was exhausted, and had started to cry. Turns out I was also low, so I sat in the car eating and crying, while my wonderful husband messed with the chains. So we finally get past chain control and are moving at a speedy 30mph. Woohoo! Then the whole line of trucks stops. No one was moving. We were stopped for an hour on top of the mountain. Brad was once again prepared and had loaded some Dino Rider episodes onto his phone (it's an old 80's cartoon show that Brad loves). I tried to sleep, but I just couldn't fall asleep, plus I was still made at the situation. We finally started to move again. After 3 hours, we were able to take chains off. Yup 3 hours! Normally, it takes tops 2 hours to get from Reno to Rocklin. This time it took 4!

So we showed up at my parents at 3am PCT. I had been up for 23 hours. I have a key to my parents still, but Brad was worried we would wake my parents, so he insisted we be ninja quite. I was failing at this ninja quiteness. Brad was concerned my Dad would come after us with a bat. Our work friends were concerned by Dad would hear us and shot us. I however, know that my parents have slept through very loud slumber parties, that my dad does not own a gun, and that Brad and I were much closer to the bat then he was. So we slept downstairs on the living room floor.

In the morning, my dad got up early to go running. Now, my dad is not the most observant person. He had to come downstairs and practically walk right by/in front of us to go out the front door. He didn't notice us. It wasn't until he got outside and saw a car parked in his driveway. He started to flip out wondering who had the audacity to park their car in his driveway. Then he saw the Utah plate and went "What?!" He came back inside and finally noticed us. I heard him stand there for a few minutes. Then he went upstairs and woke up my mother. My dad is quite, my mom is not. We heard here screaming from upstairs. So down they came laughing and shocked. I had text my mom the day before telling her I really wanted her to buy my awfuly annies and mail it to me (it's an awesome breakfast place). So when she came downstairs she said, "You sure did come a long ways for breakfast!"

The breakfast! Yum! Can't beat apple cinnamon french toast like this!

We had a fun few days in Rocklin. We went to Awful Annies, Buffalo Wild Wings, BJ's Brewery, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World), saw The Help, and went to the newly re-opened mall. Oh and I went to my friend Tamie's house and hung out with her and Katie for a bit. It was fun, the drive not so much. But at least the drive back was okay. And I was kept plenty busy with cutting my fabric for my halloween wreath.

Needless to say, I told my Dad that I would not mind it at all if they moved to Nevada so they were on the right side of the Sierras.

Getting Crafty!

So a few weeks ago I was talking with my fantastic friend, Shalise, and I mentioned how with all my free time on my days off, I would love to do crafts, but that I never know what to do. Shalise then told me about Pinterest. For those who haven't heard of it, it's like an online blog where people "pin" things they are interested in (ie: crafts, clothes, food). Facebook helps connect you with people you know so you can see what people like and find all sorts of awesome blogs/websites. I LOVE it! It's so addicting and fantastic!

So, through pinterest, I have found all sorts of halloween crafts to do. I have made pumpkins out of toilet paper rolls, hung up bats, made spiders, and am now finishing this wreath. It's awesome!

I must say though, the websites were you can find the crafts, don't always state the important things. For instance, from Country Living I found all of these simple halloween crafts. So i cut out bats to cover my walls. Country living said to use double sided tape to hang them inside. Great! However, the bats started falling after 5 minutes. Even with loads of double sided tape, they were dropping like crazy. I was not very happy, and Brad thought it was the funniest thing ever. So I had to create plan B: hang them with fishing wire and 3m hooks. No more falling!

I got the fall wreath from this "Sassy Sanctuary" blog. She makes it sound so easy! You just buy fabric, cut it into 1" by 6" pieces, and tie onto this wire wreath. Easy right? Nope! It is extremly time consumning! Oh my goodness. It is turning out really cute, but I'm getting blisters from all the tying. Basically, I tied a bunch on and thought I was almost done, except I still had a ton of fabric I hadn't used. Wierd. So Brad takes the wreath and uses his man power to shove the fabric around so I had tons more places to tie fabric. That was nice the first time, but he has done it 4 more times. I love him, and he is helping, but not the best thing to do when my hands hurt and it's 11pm. So after a week, I am hoping to finish today! If you decide to do a cloth wreath like this, plan on lots of time. The cutting takes lots of time, especially if you are just using a ruler and scissors. Luckily my mother-in-law has a huge fabric cutting board thing that made the cutting go by much faster. I would recommend doing the tying while watching tv/movies. It helps take away from the monotany of tying.

So there are my 2 cents. I love Pinterest and can't wait to get started on christmas crafts next month (I will not start them in October cause that is just wrong).

Finally Done! It wasn't till finishing that I realized I had read the directions wrong and used 4X as much fabric!

Oh well, it looks cute at least...