Caribbean Christmas Staycation Part I

While a lot of students and their spouses leave Saint Kitts for the holidays, we chose to stay. Yes, we miss our families. Yes, we miss our friends. And yes, we even miss the snow. BUT—our move to the Eastern Caribbean is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and temporary, so why not experience Christmas elsewhere? Why not dive into the culture here, while we have the chance? Why not live a little, and do something out of the ordinary?

Matthew and I weren't the only people who wanted to stay over semester break. There were quite a few of our friends and students who we didn't know that were here. Who do you think pet sits when all of the students go home, eh? Our friend, Tracey, eventually created a Facebook group so we could all keep in touch. We met up to go to the beach, snorkel, play beach volleyball, play soccer, etc.

Our soccer fans: Harmony, Milo, and Trooper

Christmas dinner was hosted by the Emily and Taylor. Leann and Brayton, Peter and Audrey, Angelikie and Dan, and Matthew and I were the guests. We all brought something to share and feasted the evening away. It was heart-warming and fun to celebrate this special holiday with our island family. We laughed, we ate, and we enjoyed each other's company. No complaints. After a while, we ended the night early because on December 26th, at midnight, is when the celebration of J'ouvert begins (more about that down below). 

Here's our Christmas dinner group. 

Me and Em---Crasian Christmas!

The boys doing the dishes---as they should. Hehe. :) 

J'ouvert was our next big Staycation adventure. For additional information regarding J'ouvert and Carnival, click here to read Cory and Julia's blog  from a few years ago, when Cory was a student at RUSVM. Enjoy the photos...it was a crazy night/morning. Celebrations began at 12:00 a.m. and did not end until 9:00 a.m., or even later. The pre-party began in TDC field at midnight. While there, we partied, danced, listened to a live band, refilled our water bottles with delicious rum punch, got paint slapped on us, etc. At 4:00 a.m., we hit the streets of Basseterre following the troupe's big "float" with speakers and loud music. There were at least 500 people in our troupe...and almost ten troupes total. So...that's a lot of people! 

Here we are in our gear. Our troupe was: XTREME

Group photo 

I'm a happy girl with my rum punch. YUMMY!

Me and Leann...with all of our lovely paint. 

Here we are at about 6:00 a.m.

Here is a view form Ballahoo Restaurant of the troupes entering the Circus area.

   

We lasted until 8:00 a.m. WHEW!