Best Vacation Ever!

Sean and I just got back from a week long cruise to the Bahamas.  It was AMAZING!!  We dropped the kids off at my sister's house and were fancy free for 7 whole days!  It was like we were in our 20's again.  Every night was date night.  Every day was beach day.  It was just fabulous!  We chose Norwegian Cruise Lines and would totally choose them again!  They had about 8 restaurants to choose from and we got to make our own schedule instead of being told when and where to be for meals.  We even got to eat every meal at an intimate table for two instead of making painful small talk at a larger table with other cruisers that we didn't care about nor would we ever see again.

Our ship left from Manhattan so we drove the 3 1/2 hours up to New York and parked the car at the terminal.  Then we boarded and had a Bon Voyage barbeque party by the pool.  It was freezing, but we were all in a festive mood so it didn't matter.  We saw the Statue of Liberty as we made our way out to sea.  Honestly, I thought it would be bigger, but considering when it was built, it's pretty impressive.  That night we went to a show where a comedian magician chose me to be his assistant.  I was so nervous that I would do something stupid, but it all worked out and he was really funny.  Later, I found out that the performance was recorded and shown on a loop on all the TVs in the rooms.  By the next day, I was a minor celebrity.  Of course I loved the attention, but I was glad when a new performance took my place on TV.

Our first stop was Port Canaveral, Florida.  We tried to rent scooters but there were none available.   So instead, I got a pedicure and took some nice beachy pictures at Cocoa Beach.  There wasn't a whole lot to do, unless you wanted to get drunk, so we went back to the ship early.

The next day was Beach Day on a private island in the Bahamas, Great Stirrup Cay.  Norwegian Cruise Line owns the island so they put out the spread.  It was a beautiful warm, sunny day.  We had a barbeque, did some snorkeling to see the fish and coral, participated a bit in Beach Olympics, and lounged about on our chaises.  I lathered up in sunblock to keep from getting burned, but I wish I could have come back with a little more color than I did.

Then we set sail for Nassau, Bahamas.  This is the diamond and gemstone shopping capitol of the Caribbean.  Since we weren't interested in that, we got to rent our much wanted scooters.  We drove all over the island.  We even crossed the bridge over to Paradise Island where the monster resort Atlantis is.  Unfortunately, they charged a lot to do anything on Paradise Island so we didn't stay long.  Nassau was beautiful and the drive was awesome.  By the end of the day, however, I was happy to turn in the keys and take a much needed shower.

We dressed up for dinner every night.  They had 2 main dining rooms and a buffet.  One of the dining rooms was fancier and had a dress code.  I liked going there because they would have live music (a pianist, a guitarist, and even a Latin trio), and usually no children.  I loved feeling fancy.  I loved having strangers tell me that I looked beautiful.  I felt like a rock star!

It was an amazing trip and I hope it won't be too long before we can relive it.  Now. . . back to our real life.  Back to cleaning up after ourselves.  Back to pot roast, frozen chicken, and macaroni and cheese.

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

 

I saw this cute idea on Pintrest.  It's more fun than I thought it would be.  First, I cut out a TON of 3" pink hearts (thanks, Cricut. . . again!).  Stacked them in four stacks.  Then I put initials on each heart per stack (H for Heidi, Sean, W for William and C for Charlotte).  Then I had a little family meeting to explain the game.  I got out a large clear vase and told them we were going to see how much we can fill this up before Valentine's Day.  In order to fill it up, we needed to hand out hearts to those we love in our family.  But, it needs to be a surprise!  When you give someone a heart, it's like saying, "I love you!"  When you get a heart, you drop it in the vase and that's how we fill it.  I swear you can't help but smile when you find these hearts in the least likely of places.  William usually will set one on my pillow or on the floor in front of my door.  Sean has been more creative.  I've found hearts on my Diet Coke in the fridge, inside my Nook cover, and even in each shoe!  I've handed my share out and helped Charlotte.  We've put them in toy boxes, Sean's jacket and cover, William's Wii controller, under car keys, etc.  It's been great and our jar is almost half full already!  I totally recommend this game to anyone.

Recipe of the Month

Here's a rib sticking, tummy warming, favorite.  Homemade manicotti!  It's so easy to make and is a real crowd pleaser.  This is especially a good meal for taking to someone sick or home from the hospital.  You'll need a couple of things you might not have on hand so it may require a special trip to the grocery store.  You'll need:

2 cups of shredded pizza cheese (I use the kind in a bag.  Remember I'm lazy!)

2 tubs (32 oz each) of ricotta cheese (I use whole milk but if skim would work too)

2 Tbs dried basil

1 1/2 tsp salt

Combine all of the ricotta and half of the pizza cheese with the basil and salt.  Then spoon the cheese mix into  a gallon sized Ziploc bag.  Set aside.

Now get a baking dish or roasting pan and spray the bottom and edges with Pam.  Then spoon your favorite pasta sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.  I used Italian Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.  (You will eventually use 2 24oz jars of sauce.  If you make your own make sure you have about 48 oz of it). Get a large stockpot of water on the burner.  Salt the water and bring to a boil.  While that's heating up get the pasta ready.  I used:

1 pkg. Lasagna Sheets (found in the the dairy dept. or by the other refrigerated pasta)

Lasagna sheets are thick flat sheets of pasta that just need to be blanched.  If you don't have the sheets, I guess you can use manicotti tubes and fill those.  You'll need to follow the package directions about preparing them and skip to the part about the filling.

Cut your sheets in half so you have 16 squares.  Drop them in the boiling water, one at a time, and boil for about 1 1/2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then drain and transfer to a large bowl of ice water 30 seconds.  Remove and set aside.

Now you're ready for the filling!  This is a basic cheese filling but you can add stuff to it.  A box of frozen chopped spinach would be tasty.  Maybe some chopped sun dried tomatoes. . .

Line up a few at a time on a large flat work surface.  Get your cheese filling bag and snip the bottom corner with some scissors.  Pipe cheese filling down the center of each square.  Roll and place, seam side down, in the sauced pan.  Fill the pan then coat more sauce all over the top of the manicotti.   Cover with parchment paper on top of the sauce and then foil on top of that.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes.  Then take off the foil and parchment and cover with the rest of the pizza cheese.  I love me some cheese so I put some extra on for good measure.  Put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.  Your kitchen will smell like you've died and gone to Italy!!  After you pull it out, let it rest for about 15 minutes and serve with extra pasta sauce.  Salute!

Happy Wii Day!

William has wanted a Nintendo Wii for YEARS.  Ever since he first played one at my sister's house he's been hooked.  At first he was too young, then we didn't have a proper TV for it, then blah, blah, blah.  We just kept putting it off.  Well, William had decided  months ago to save his money for a Wii.  He has a large money jar and little by little it would fill up as he earned money or saved it from birthdays or grandparents.  Some of his chores include vacuuming the kitchen floor, unloading the dishwasher, cleaning his room, dusting, and helping with putting laundry away.  These go for 50 cents a job.  He has also done a couple of big ticket jobs like clean and vacuum the car (for 2 dollars).  Sean and I have also helped him out by putting loose change in his jar when he wasn't looking.

Well, today was the Day of Days!  William finally had enough to buy his Wii.  He was so proud.  Sean took him to the bank to change out his coins.  He made sure they went at a slow time so the tellers would be more cooperative.  He had over $50 in change alone!  Then they headed to the store so William could pick out the box and pay for it with his own money.  What a big guy!

Apparently the box was super heavy so William couldn't keep his smile going!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from William and Charlotte!