Christmas Winds

The Christmas Winds are back here in the Virgin Islands, and they are driving me crazy! During the rest of the year, we see mild winds, but at the end of December we see tradewinds blowing 20-30 knots- constantly. They howl through the trees, toss the boat around, and bring very cool nights. In the South of France in the winter, they have the Mistral winds (rumored to actually drive people crazy) that blow a lot harder but only last for a few days. Ours last for a couple of weeks. I can't complain too much, though, at least there is no snow!

Our boat is decorated for the season, we don't do a tree but we wrap the inside part of the mast with garland and hang our ornaments- lots of divers and mermaids!



We also have an inflatable snow globe that sits on our awning over the cockpit and is quite impressive. You may think it would bother the neighbors, but the other liveaboards on our dock put similar inflatables up, too! Quite the carnival!



We did ok on the budget this week, $116, so $11 over budget, and this is what we ate:

Sunday: We had some friends over for a tapas party. I made flatbread, and served balsamic marinated watermelon, roasted almonds, warm olives and peppers, a cream cheese tourine with tomato and basil, and of course, lots of wine!

Monday: We made a pizza with leftover veggies

Tuesday: Husband made chicken breasts stuffed with ham and swiss, tomato soup on the side.

Wednesday: Pasta alfredo with veggies

Thursday was our softball game, and we grabbed burgers after.

Friday: Spinach salad with grilled chicken

Saurday: Burgers stuffed with Roquefort cheese and cajun seasoning, topped with red onions and tomatoes on Hawaiian buns. Yum- best meal of the week!

Hope everyone has agreat holiday week, and thanks for stopping by!T

Moonlight Cruise

One of our favorite things to do in the evening is to take a sunset happy hour cruise in our dinghy...this time of year though the sun is almost set by 5:30, when we are getting home from work. We have had a lot of rain this week, but the other night the skies cleared to reveal a gorgeous full moon- so we did a moonlight cruise! We typically tool around the lagoon and look at boats, but it was such a nice night that we went far out into the bay, cut the engine, and just bobbed around for a while. Simple pleasures!

On the way back in we stopped at the lagoon bar. From the water it's mostly hidden by mangrove trees, so you have to know it's there, but you can pull your dinghy right in:

We did pretty well on the budget this week ($105), we spent $98, and this is what we ate:

Sunday was corn chowder in the slow cooker, with a tomato and cucumber salad on the side

Monday we roasted up a bunch of veggies with sausage on the side

Tuesday was another slow cooker meal, exactly the same ingredients as the day before: veggies with sausage stew and a little gravy on top

Wednesday we had pizza

Thursday we play softball, so had a quick BLT on English muffins before the game. After the game we were so hungry, but no place open and no food on the boat. BIG breakfast the next morning!

Friday we ate out at one of our favorite restaurants, Schnitzel Haus. The only thing on the menu is schnitzel

Saturday we finished off the week with a big salad: mixed greens, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, red onion, and turkey with a homemade mustard dressing.

As always, we resolve to eat more salad next week- we'll see!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!