A Guamified Christmas!

Well I love to brag that I tend to be healthy as a horse but of course that only comes back to bite me in the bootie. And boy did it ever! Christmas outdid me this year as I've been down for the count the past four days with the flu. Fortunately it came after the holiday and not before!

We had a nice Christmas here in Guam. It was my first away from home but I'd say being surrounded by so many friends helped tremendously. So did cooking for 20. I took on my dad's Italian Christmas tradition and along with my fabulous husband, we cooked shrimp linguine for our friends on Christmas day. So delicious and easy to make!

 LCG Christmas Eve Service: Christmas at the Caves, complete with a manger scene! Although I wasn't aware there were carabao back in the day...

(yep that does say Bud Light Ct...OOG)

Dinner at the Chance Villa...Buon Natale!

 Given the strange angles of my house, I did my very best to get everyone in this picture:

We had tiramisu, cookies and pecan pie for dessert!

The kiddos!

We went diving with our friends the Fishers and Phillips' the day after Christmas. We dove a couple of great locations on Guam, everyone says they found a cool octopus. I did not. So either they're pulling my leg or the darn octo climbed back into his hole before I could swim over.

Overall, a great Christmas! We pack out in two weeks but not without a trip to Palau. More on that to come!

It's nearly Christmas card time!

So I am sure you all are busy rifling through your address books (or at least you are planning to) as you prepare to send out those annual Christmas cards. I actually find this rather exciting, reviewing all the exciting things that happened that year. I would say in all my life my favorite letter was the one my mom wrote after our house burned down in 2003. Nothing like a distant friend opening the mail to see the whole Barker family in front of a pathetic burnt out chimney saying:

 “A very Merry Christmas from our house to yours!” 

Now that I’m married, I wrote my first one last year. Last year after using Shutterfly for our wedding thank you cards we decided to use it again including our wedding  and vacation photos in our Christmas card:

   I must say this is the next best thing to scrapbooking as I do not possess the talent (nor much of a will!) to pump out 50+ homemade cards!

Aside from cards we've used Shutterfly for many things such as photo books, calendars,  prints & of course, Christmas cards! And the best thing? They ship to Guam, a BIG victory for those of us our here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!!

So if you haven't figured out what to do for Christmas cards and want to be able to afford to send cards to everyone on your list, check out this promo from Shutterfly and secure 50 free Christmas cards!