Tis the Season

I have approximately 36 minutes before people get to work and the Emily Rose phones start to ring off the hook. Not that I'm complaining!

We have a had a lovely past few weeks with visits from both Lisa's Mum and Dad and Cousin Tina. Busy... but very fun. We will post photos of the shenanigans when we have some more time. Mark's Mum arrives on Tuesday for an extended Christmas stay so we are very much looking forward to her arrival. Amongst all of the visitors Lisa is dealing with a crazy and successful Holiday Season but enjoying the hard work this time because at the end of her long days she gets to be with family. The first Holiday Season with Mark and Emily in 3 years!

Lisa had a tough week last week with a major blog mishap. Her technical guy didn't back up a database and the blog (over two years worth of posts and rankings) was lost. Mark knows how to cheer her up though and snuck off with Tina and Emily to bring home the very first Cabrelli Family Bahamian Christmas Tree. We had a lovely evening of trimming the tree - here are Mark and Emily adding the angel (Mark half dressed for his football game :-)).



It is wacky time here at our house and Emily's school had a very appropriate uniform release day today... Wacky Day! Here is Emily completely wackified... yes she went to school like this!

Just For Fun

The skill, beauty and coordination of Emily and Mark doing their synchronized swimming routine...

Island Fever

The common misconception about living in a tropical place is that life is a constant vacation. It's not. We are by no means insinuating that we don't have an amazing life - we do and are extremely thankful for it - but we are definitely not on vacation. Now that Mark has officially started his job and Lisa is gearing up for the Holiday season work is becoming pretty all encompassing. It doesn't help that Emily is gone one or two evenings during the week so it is very easy to just keep going... and going. Even on the weekends the lap-top is not far from reach.

Last week Lisa had a sudden bout of island fever. An unexplainable and overwhelming need to get "off the rock". Spirit airlines to the rescue!!! A quick half hour flight and Mark and Lisa were standing at the Avis counter arguing with the clerk on why we should have to pay the taxes on rewards vouchers :-) We spent an evening in Miami and then trekked on down to Key West. The wind streaming in through the car windows and the CD player blasting - oh what joy to be able to drive more than 35 miles per hour and more than a 20 mile distance.

After an initial bad experience with lack of promised wireless access (a must for Lisa) and a permanent pile of the last guest's smelly dinner dishes piled outside our room - we were kindly upgraded from our teeny patio single (paid with points no less) to an ocean-front suite overlooking Sunset Island. Score!! We ended up staying a 2nd night - de-stressing and unwinding. We sipped a bottle of wine on our patio and Lisa ate a pound of "peel and eat" shrimp from Conch Republic as we watched the famous Key West sunset. Gorgeous.



We did manage to get in a bit of shopping (we arrived armed with "requests" from our Nassau friends) and found Emily a jar of her beloved Nutella. Unfortunately we were trying not to check luggage ($25 a bag!) and the airport security guy removed it from Lisa's bag after the x-ray... straight in to his pile of requisitioned "goodies". She was not happy (Emily that is - not Lisa).

Now the island fever is cured and we are happy to be home. Stay tuned for news and hopefully video of Emily's Survival Unit at school and the exciting school pool raft races.

Sunrise

Yes - this is the sun rising. We got up early this morning to let Emily say goodbye to the puppies before school. All 3 have been adopted and will go off to their new homes tomorrow morning (Emily won't see them as she will be at her Dad's). We have a few fun videos to post from the weekend but we think this sunrise deserves a post of it's own.

No We Are Not Keeping Them

I know you are doubting us right now because we are obviously madly in love - but they are all up for adoption and nearly ready. Know anyone?

Emily and Lieutenant



Mark holding The Princess



All of them growing up...

Fish Are Jumping

Lisa-Marie here - I know there is probably a quick and easy way using my Mac to edit this video and only keep the end part where you can actually see the fish jumping and don't have to experience all of the dizzying zooming that I was doing - but I am not friends with my Mac yet and am not spending time with him (at least I am assuming it's a him - he's stubborn and willful like a few other men that I know), so therefore you will have to get sea sick as you wait for the good bit.

The fish and seagull video was filmed at the request of Mark only so he could say to my Dad - "the fish are jumping in to the seagulls mouths but you still can't catch one!", to which Dad replied something that is unprintable on the blog but included the frequently uttered words "...only a bloody Scotsman".

But there's more... yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day here. The ocean was as still as a lake for most of the morning. Tricia came to pick up Ali from her sleep-over around 11:00am and casually threw out a challenge we could not refuse. It was such a beautiful day why didn't we row our little dinghy down to their house? It's not far and the ocean is so calm today. Emily spent the trip diving off the side of the boat to get in some good snorkeling and then taking a little nap when she got bored. Mark and I alternated rowing but it was mostly Mark since I am so obviously an unfit under-exercised weakling. We arrived at John and Tricia's house (barely) after and hour and 40 minutes of rowing - Mark has blisters on his hands - only a few seconds before an amazing storm hit during which you couldn't see more than 4 feet in front of you out on the ocean. Can anyone say... lost at sea? I have attached the route we took and advise no one try this at home!