Christmas 2009 in Cayman

We had such a wonderful Month this December. Austin had almost a month off of school and we were so busy relaxing on the beach and spending time together that I totally neglected my blog. We went to the beach most days. I loved sitting on the sand watching Austin play with the girls in the water. I hope that the memory of them playing will be etched in my memory forever. We played in the sand, made a "sandmen" family complete with seashell eyes, nose, and buttons. We buried the girls in the sand and made them mermaids. The girls and I even buried Austin and made him a mermaid with a big fat belly and hearts on his tail. Of course those days I forgot to bring my camera with me. It was pretty funny though. On days it rained we would spend time watching movies. It really felt like we were on a month long vacation on a beautiful island that we love. Here are some of the things we did that I did get documented with the camera.
There are a few houses here that go all out with Christmas lights. It is almost like the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork but it is warm and you walk through it. The girls LOVED this. They kept telling us "thank you mom and dad for letting us come here". They had me take pictures of them by all the lights and figures they had there. It was a fun night with the girls.

Each year the branch members go to the rest home and the hospital Christmas Caroling. It was so fun. After caroling we went to a sister in the branch's home and had yummy snacks. We didn't go last year and I wish we would have, oh well, this year was great.
Here are the 4 missionaries that are here right now, with some gifts for the people at the rest home.

I found Charlie Brown's Christmas tree in one of the wards at the hospital. Kaity spent the whole time caroling with Frank (he is one of Austin's Young Men).

This was in the pediatric section. The place was all decorated to look like you were underwater and then they had Santa snorkeling. It was really cute.


Those of you who follow my blog may recall the time Kaity tripped and hit her teeth on the asphalt? Well one of her front teeth did turn black and died. It was starting to get loose and we were hoping she could keep it as long as possible. We talked to our neighbor Lyle who is a dentist and he said it was fine, but if it gets an abscess above it then the tooth will need to come out. Yep, you guessed it...it got an abscess a few days before Christmas. It was hurting her to bite anything because the tooth was soar and loose. Austin wanted to get it out before Christmas so she wouldn't be miserable. We held her down kicking and screaming on the counter and Austin tied some floss around the tooth and right before he was about to pull it I couldn't stand it and took the floss off the tooth. Which, yes I admit made things worse for Kaity because the tooth had to come out. I just couldn't stand to see my baby so scared. Finally, a few tries, bites, tears (by her and me) we got the tooth out. Kaity was scared of the hole in her mouth at first but once she saw it in the mirror she though it was pretty cool. She thinks she looks like Ellie from Up. Now she said she doesn't want her other tooth to ever grow back in. The Tooth Fairy even left her $5 because it was her first tooth.



Christmas Eve we went over to our sweet friends the Gramp's house for dinner. They had gone on a lobster charter earlier that day so we got to have fresh lobster. It was so so so Yummy!!! We had a good time. The girls love their teenagers and had such a fun time playing over there. We just love this family and I am so sad to have to leave them in a few months, but I am so glad we got to know them.
We went home and let each of the girls open one present that was already under the tree. They set our their stockings out. We left some cookies and milk for Santa and it was about 11 by the time they got in bed.



Santa made it to our house and we had a wonderful Christmas. They got lots of presents from Santa and lots of money from the grandparents to spend when we move back to the states.


This was Kaity's favorite present in her stocking....her very own jar of green olives.

Allie and Kaity's favorite present was their Disney Mix Max's. They are a mp3 player that can play movies etc. Allies was Hannah Montana and Kaity's was Tinkerbell. This has been the best gift ever that Santa has brought for the girls and also for us. ha ha ha.

For Christmas dinner we went over to our friend Ismail and Aline's house. She made a turkey and some German dumplings and cabbage (Aline is from Germany). It was so good and fun to taste what some other cultures have for Christmas dinner.

Austin enjoyed his Christmas Cherry Pie a little too much.

Aline and I took the girls over to this little park by their house and let them play. We got some really cute pictures of them.


The 26th was Austin's 31st Birthday! I feel bad I didn't do anything on here for his Birthday but man we were busy. We went snorkeling with Ish and Aline. We saw some cool red fish with huge eyes, the largest parrot fish I have ever seen, and huge barracuda that was between 3-4 feet long. Then we just played on the beach. Aline played catch with a ball with Kaity.

Austin and Allie played Frisbee.




Then we went to Ish and Aline's pool and swam a little bit and Ish made us some really really yummy turkey sandwiches.

That night we ordered Sushi from Yoshi and Austin learned a little German.

This was his Birthday Cake (that was actually a little pie). We were so full from sushi that dessert didn't even sound good.


Another fun thing we did was go to Rum Point on the north side of the island.


The girls played in the sand, Austin relaxed in a lounge chair and read a book, and I relaxed and listened to my mp3 player and watched the girls play.

It was sort of cool when we were sitting there I saw a bunch of Pelicans diving in the water and eating fish. I watched them for a long time. It was so cool to see and they were huge!

When we got hungry we went over to this little beach down a little way that we call Starfish Point. We had some MRE's that we brought over for hurricane supplies. We wont be having any hurricanes before we leave so we decided to have a picnic on the beach with those for lunch. It was fun and they actually tasted pretty good.



Then we looked for starfish. We only found 2 little ones that day.




...and a Cayman Christmas isn't complete without sitting on a pier drinking coconut water.

I loved this Christmas Vacation!!! We spent New Years at our friend Sarah's house playing games, laughing, and enjoying the great company of friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL!!! We love you!! XOXOXOXO