Since Christmas has been put away for another year, I finished some January/Post-Christmas baking, and it is 10pm, the house is clean, the pets are sleeping and Mark is out....Let's talk about Jamaica! Our wonderful pre-Christmas vacation with the family.
One of Mark's cousin's was getting married and invited all the Edey crew....and guess what...WE ALL CAME! :) It was lovely. Warm weather, warm rain, rainbows and so much more.
I thought I might have trouble posting about it as quite possibly it would be later in the month....turns out I was right. Luckily I wrote a few notes everyday of the things that I enjoyed. So here it is in a nut shell (in no particular order)
Drinks
Who doesn't love a slushy fun, alcoholic beverage???!! Especially when you are at an all inclusive. AND when they have even more fun names???!! Some of the choices I had were: Bahama mamas, kiss and tells, piña colada and rum punch (Mark enjoyed those for one night only). Bob marleys (the lovely green, red, and yellow drink) and the lovely banana drink called the ambassadors reef...yummy!
Water
We stayed at the Rose Hall Hilton Spa and Resort and were lucky to enjoy not only a lap pool but a lazy river with waterslides. Now my husband may have at times got into little water fight wars with some 7 year olds (and I quote from one little girl, "The smart people spray others with the jets.")...but I digress.
The lazy river was loads of fun, managing to get every single family member in there.
Lots of fun moments had there, Mark may have tried to splash his mother....sigh....poor mom. My favourite moment was when Mark's granddad and his auntie Sandra went in. Sandra wearing her glasses, and granddad wearing his hearing aids realized a waterfall was ahead...one covered her eyes, the other his ears...so I covered my mouth to join the trend (hear no, see no, say no....)
The ocean was slightly smaller than most but I enjoyed listening to the waves, feeling the breeze and smelling the salty air. My favourite spot was reading under an umbrella and falling asleep to the waves crashing against the rocks. Lots of beautiful look outs to see the sun rise and set, to walk around at night and day. Plus the swimming was fun too as I LOVE LOVE LOVE warm ocean water!
The hot tubs were fantastic when it rained a little harder than it should on a tropical vacation. It made everything all right as we soaked in the hot water with a drink in hand and the jets pounding into our backs.
Food
Let's just list the food shall we cause it was all delicious. All had at the hotel as well. YUMMY!
We had:
jerk chicken, jerk pork, paella, shrimp soup, mahi mahi with fruit salsa, festival (deep fried delicious dough), pumpkin rice
fresh fruit including mangos, passion fruit, star fruit, papaya, coconuts, and Mark's favourite, sugar cane (probably not a fruit)
Desserts of coconut macaroons, coconut cake, mango cheesecake, banana cream puffs, mango mousse, chocolate cake
Set up for everyone during certain nights was pasta stations, stir fry stations, smoothie stations, appetizer type food and an ice cream station. Can it get better?
Tours
On our second night we took the Rose Hall Manor ghost tour. Throughout the tour there were wandering ghosts haunting the place. They managed to scare me as a few jumped out and I may have grabbed strangers in fright. Others, (Mark's granddad) chatted with the said ghosts telling them that they have "scrubbed all the blood out". The whole house was quite huge with fabric wallpaper and beautiful furniture.
Another tour was one I did with Mark and his cousin Abbey. The adventure tour of zip-lining and tube rides. Done through Chukka tours and I must say some of the best tour guides I have had. Safe but fun and entertaining as I found myself laughing quite a bit.
Our tubing guide was called "Shrek" who everyone seemed to hassle, but who seemed able to give it back quite easily. Apparently it rained at the hotel that day but we had some lovely sun where we were so we jumped in the water, swung on the rope swing and enjoyed the morning.
Zip-lining may have given Mark and I a little bit of a hyperventilating attack. But we had to play it cool for Abbey (haha). Once we got a hang of it, it was super fun. The guides again were fantastic. And Mark had fun hassling them as they sure hassled him!
Entertainment
Reggae music, bar dancing (on the stage, just because we could), BINGO playing, card games, reading books, working out at the gym, some golfing, others enjoying the spa, water aerobics, sailing adventures, steel drums and so much more.
And most importantly...what this whole thing was about: Spending time with Family
Watching two wonderful people get married, and just prior seeing a rainbow in the horizon (that has to be good luck, doesn't it?!)
Dancing with a little one, playing games with the little one, exploring with the little one, swimming with the little one and lazy river cruising with the little one.
Celebrating an 89 birthday at a fancy restaurant with plenty of family around to sing happy birthday.
Long talks with family whether it was in a hotel room with siblings and parents, at the bar with cousins amongst drinks, chatting over lunch, supper or by the pool. It involved reminiscing about times past sometimes prior to the oldest cousin being born, or when the last cousin was born. Some had hilarity, others seriousness. Regardless what they were, those were my favourite moments because I got a glimpse into all these family members past and how they became the people they are today.
It was a wonderful vacation. I am so glad/fortunate/happy I could be part of it. More weddings should have been in the tropics....:)
love
p.s. pics don't really give a glimpse to all the family members. but I really don't know who would object to their pics online to the world so I did a select few of people, that I think would be okay with it! :)
