westbaylodge - Happy New Year!!

Well, I’m not sure where December went. We were very busy. For Thanksgiving here Milos went to the mainland and got a large turkey and I fixed all our guests a traditional dinner on the top deck of the palapa. The guys decorated long tables with white lights, torches and candles all over. It was beautiful. We had 23 people in all for dinner that night. The day after Thanksgiving we decorated the outside of the front office in Christmas lights and it was really cute. We wrapped the trees in white light on the property and everyone came and said it looked like a winter scene in the mountains. Only difference is that it was high 80’s most of December. We had a tree that we made seashell ornaments and hung all over it. The Christmas concert for the angels was Dec 6 at the airport and very pretty, I went but too bad Milos got stranded on the mainland and missed it. This is the biggest fundraiser of the year, but I didn’t hear the total raised this year.
I had an idea to make candy/cookie baskets for the businesses in West Bay this year as Christmas presents. An idea that my Mom does for her friends. I taught the girls here how to make homemade candy and different types of cookies as they had never done this before. We all had so much fun but it became much bigger than we had thought as we kept adding people. For a week we had goodies everywhere and then assembled the baskets. Part of the problem is that I have never tried to deliver things like toffee; almond roca; fudge; frosted cookies etc. when it is 88’ outside and humid. Things get sticky quickly. Everyone was very happy with them. We went through 25 lbs of real butter. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the fact that the island didn’t have anymore butter for 1 week after or not.
The Christmas dinner was really special here. We got another large turkey and I made lots of apps. Each bungalow brought their favorite dish that they make back home. I let everyone use the kitchen here when they needed. There was even the uncle type that brought the wine and beer. We set the tables up on the top deck again and the night was beautiful and warm. There were 17 of us that didn’t know each other in the beginning and ended up being like a great big family having wine and making toasts and talking until 11pm with everyone helping to clean up.
For New Year Eve we went to our friend Steve Romania’s Condo at Infinity Bay, he has the front penthouse. Infinity Bay had just opened up for Christmas. My sister is here and went with us. The party was very beautiful with everyone dressing up. It was catered and had music until after midnight. I was so tired the next day as I only stay up late 1 night per year.
We are getting ready to start the pool now. We were not able to start digging until the rainy season was officially over. It looks like the 4 day storm is passed also. We went from hot to 74’ and rainy for the last 4 days. 1 of our housekeepers has been stuck on the mainland since Jan 1 when the ferry was closed and then last night on the first ferry out it was sold out. She finally made it over this morning, good thing since Vazeillie and I have been covering for her.
Well now you see why I didn’t have much time to post in Dec.

Hope everyone has a very good New Year!
Celeste