Happy Birthday Emily: and other stuff!

Christmas Eve

Both girls performed the Silent Night hula at church!

Along with these two beauties :)

Here is a clip for your viewing pleasure.  

Insert random beautiful sunset photo

Not in chronological order, but we also surprised the girls with tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet!  

And dinner at Gyu-Kaku afterwards!  Yummy Japanese BBQ that you cook at your table.  

When your sister is getting her hair cut, you should bring along your new makeup kit in case there is another young pal there willing to let you practice!

Just down the street from our house, the Salvation Army puts on a live Nativity show each year.  Super cute (betcha didn't know angels could hula?)

Another random sunset shot

Flowers from Santa!

Gifts from Grandparents

New crystal ornament to me from Olivia!  Beautiful

Birthday Party Sleepover!  Movie and Jiffy Pop

Pancakes and sunrise

Swimming in Waikiki after cupcake decorating...

Happy Day to my big "double digit" girl!!

Christmas Break is officially on!  

Of course we are not quite ready for the big day, but we've been having fun getting there, and are happy to have some time off to relax and enjoy the season.

Somehow all this happened the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we've had lots of time to feel festive in our new place.

And yes, for those of you dying to see this beauty...we did it again.  On purpose :)  You sure it's not growing on you yet?

Captured this shot at the end of a cute local Christmas Parade in our town.  I bet that elf is getting a bonus this year, holding up Santa's pants for the whole walk!

My little elf got a nice bonus too - a gift exchange in her classroom!  I think her pals know her extremely well.  

We wish you love, joy and peace and hope you are all having a wonderful season.  Merry Christmas!

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a little dancing :)  
Click on the link below for a special gift from our family to yours. 


Here's a little video we made in NYC this summer! 
 Merry Christmas!

House Photos

JUST KIDDING!  No more house photos (for a while)

We are about 6 weeks into being residents of Manoa and I'm happy to report life is slowly returning to normal!  Or our new normal, or whatever.  It's still day to day crazy but we have managed a few things other than unpacking.  

Mostly throwing out and selling!  About 2 weeks into the madness our 3000 lbs of storage junk showed up.  This is where 2800 lbs ended up!

Awful right?  I despise yard sales, but the job got done and what didn't sell went right to Goodwill.  

Good riddance junk...I don't miss you at all

Then there was a little holiday called Halloween.  This is about as far as our decorating went this year, and we were lucky to get that done.  

Luckily her class had a big shindig full of crafts and food so all was happy.

My Candy Corn Witch!  Notice the orange sequin shoes :)  You didn't really think this one would go as an ugly witch did you?

Warning: house photos! (tricky aren't I?)

But only to show you where I now spend most of my time these days.  We finally got some lanai furniture and the views don't disappoint!  Every few minutes it's something new...

Big storm covering Waikiki, it nailed us about 10 minutes later!

Thanksgiving sunset

And speaking of...ours was fit for a King.  A bunch of them really.  We had a LOT of food - good news is I shouldn't have to cook for a week!

Emily's apple pie!

The post turkey nap!

Yes, no happy holiday is complete without Mom torturing everyone with the dreaded Christmas Card photos!  Too bad I couldn't get my camera to cooperate and take one of the 4 of us.

And as is becoming custom...I'll end my post with another Manoa creature.  This "Giant Madagascar Gecko" was on the stairs to greet me the other day.  Giant indeed, hard to tell in the photos but he was about 9" long and 2" wide!  

He wasn't too bothered by me and stayed put while I called everyone out to take a peek.  Apparently he is a bit of a biter if you try to grab him; there was no danger of that.  While I thought he was magnificent, I was not tempted to show him any love!

Mahalo for your patience with my blogging.  Things are starting to return to normal.  Happy Thanksgiving to all, I hope you had a wonderful day!

Countdown to Christmas!!! 

(27 days for those of you in denial)