Beef Wellington – Bless Your Heart

After CSP’s wild ride on the AquaDuck we changed clothes back in our stateroom. Snapped a quick pic of our view of Castaway Cay from our verandah. Such gorgeous water!

We went to O’Gills pub on deck 4. CSP had a ticket for a beer tasting. I do not enjoy beer so tasting 5 of them does not sound like fun for me. So I was just there as the photographer. I was surprised at how many people were there considering we were still docked at Castaway Cay. O’Gills is a very cool Irish pub. I loved the little area where we sat for the tasting. The bartender told us all about the history of beer as well as interesting facts about each beer they tasted. Their beers went from light to dark. Five 10 ounce beers for $15 is a great deal! Plus you learn stuff. Well, if you can remember it after drinking 5 beers in an hour! He had Stella Artois, Sam Adams, Boddington’s Cream, Newcastle Brown, and Guiness. We really liked the peanut dispenser dishes they had in the pub. No grubby fingers digging around for nuts. It’s a French company who makes it though- Revol. I’m on a mission to find these in the States. So far I’ve only found a UK site that sells them for a reasonable price.

After the beer tasting we went back to the room and….sob…packed.

Then it was time for our last dinner of the cruise. Back in the Enchanted Garden. By now our sunburns had really set in! Check out CSP’s red face! And my pitiful farmer’s burn! Thank goodness I use good makeup so I could tone down my red lobstah forehead!

For his appetizers CSP chose the Trio of Salmon, and the sesame encrusted tuna. I had a potato and goat cheese Napoleon. We both chose Potato Leek soup but CSP also had the lobster bisque. I think he was taking advantage of being able to order a million things for dinner one last time! I had a cranberry salad. Yum!

For our entrees CSP chose the Beef Wellington. I chose the seafood linguini. I can’t shells in my food so CSP had Beef Wellington and clams plus asparagus! lol

CSP picked the dessert trio- Celebration Cake, chocolate decadence, and a cappuccino mousse tartlet and I had the Celebration cake.

After dinner we went back to our room and found our last (sob) towel animal of the cruise. A stingray! CSP surprised me by bringing out the towel monkey! He had been saving him in the closet.

If you’re wondering how I remember the names of all our dishes and all the details of our trip (especially after the Mixology class and wine in my cabin) I take notes. I went to the Dollar Store and bought a multi pack of these tiny notebooks. I slipped one in my wristlet (one just like this one) with a pen and at every meal I would just jot down what we ordered. I would take a few minuted throughout the day to write down things we did and saw. My friend Lisa has a mind like a steel trap and can write up a trip blog 6 months later without missing a detail! Me- I need help! Hence the notebook.

But wait! There’s more!

Next up…Pictures of the ship and Debarkation Day

I confess I was a terrible photographer this year. For one my ISO sensitivity was set too high on my camera and I forgot to change it so all my pics are WAY noisy. Sigh. Also, I was having too much fun to take pictures! This was the first year we split Christmas day. CSP had to work late on Christmas Eve and didn’t get home til past 8 pm. Normally this would be the year his parents would be with us on Christmas Eve but with CSP’s schedule and the fact that they live an hour away we just pushed the visit to Christmas day. Early Christmas day CSP had to get up at the crack of dawn and go BACK into work 😦 for a couple hours. He is a grocery store manager and on days the store is closed they still have to check the freezers to make sure they don’t lose product. Sure enough he lost a case and had to spend way more time there than we’d thought cause he had to pull all the product and get it into another freezer so they wouldn’t lose it. I’m so thankful CSP has a good job but it sure can make the holidays a bit of a mess! He didn’t get home til well past when I thought we’d be at my sister’s house. So we quickly loaded the car and hit the road.

We missed breakfast but were in time for lunch, presents and Dirty Santa. We brought Jake and Joey a soccer goal that had to be opened in the garage. But we did end up inside too. Momo is such a trooper. She’s still in pain from her hernia surgery last week and has a swollen spot the size of a large lemon (looks like she’s smuggling fruit in her pants!) but she hung in there! I made yummy Spiced Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Muffins. It was my first attempt at stuffing a muffin and they turned out great! I’ll post the recipe soon.

I can’t believe it but I’d never played Dirty Santa before! At least that I can remember. It was so fun! Gigi provided all the gifts since it was a surprise to the rest of us that we’d be playing. Most of the presents were for the boys and that was just fine- it was more fun stealing presents than actually getting a present! There were 9 of us and most of us are super competitive, watch out on game night! Papa opened his first and it was a Jacob’s ladder. He instantly wanted to trade that bad boy in and when everyone else would be deciding he would chant behind us “Jacob ladder. Jacob ladder.” He kept forgetting the ‘s. Marc chose to open a present and wound up with a box of candles. He was trying to read the box to find out what scent but some of it was in French. He said “Ooh citronella! Citronella is French for creamy!” Bahahaha!!

We left Sara’s at about 4 and swung back by our house before heading out to CSP’s parents’ house. We ran in, grabbed presents and Zoe and hit the road. Zoe is still in a crate when we’re gone and we didn’t want her spending all day and night in there! We made good time and beat the snow. Whew! CSP was seriously sweating the weather on the way there. CSP was worried about the snow that had been predicted so our time at his parents’ was shorter than planned. We opened presents first then had a wonderful dinner. WHO KNEW that the hit gift of the night would be the one I spent the least amount of money on? You can go online and spend about $10 each on one of these. OR you can do like I did and buy a full dozen at the Dollar Tree! Everyone on my list (who drives) received one of these and they are raving! I know I LOVE mine. I have short arms, yo! I keep one in each car and one in the house for cleaning tall mirrors, windows, the tv, etc. LOVE. Everyone also like their Scentsy plug ins. I just love when people love the gifts I give them! Instead of wrapping paper or gift bags this year I used reusable grocery/tote bags to package up my presents. Going green at Christmas!

Dinner was fabulous as usual. My in-laws and my aunt and uncle are all serious foodies. You’re not gonna get tv dinners over there! They made Beef Wellington. I’ve always heard Gordon Ramsay yell about it on Hell’s Kitchen but I’d never tried it. It was so neat! Looked like a little meat present on my plate. CSP loved it so much he ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning! Dessert was creme puffs. One had egg nog whipped cream inside and the other had peppermint ice cream with hot fudge. We went home with full bellies to say the least! Zoe was on her best behavior all night and slept like a log when we got home. She just has the best time when she can go visit people and get some loving. 6 humans to love on one little pug= heaven for her!