It's almost here!

Finally out of school and ready to have some Hawaii fun!

Or we could pretend it's cold, put on a hat and go iceskating. Yes, let's do that!

We got this.

Nothing like a hot cup of chocolate on a 73* day.  Brrrrr

Update on my little guy.  I finally released the noose and laid him to rest.  Next year we will stick to lights on the railing.

Love this show!

And the yummy dinner that follows

 And my goofy crowd

Can't forget gingerbread houses!  Or as we like to call them in the islands, cockroach motels ;P

Cider is in the crockpot

Presents are wrapped

Santa is ready

Now we enjoy the decor, call our friends, deliver our cookies

Worry about the stuff we didn't do, eat too much and wait for the baby in the manger.

Wishing all my friends and family a very merry Christmas.  Love to you all - I am so thankful for you

HO HO HO

They're Back!!!  The cutest trees on the planet.  This time around I had the bright idea to get a little guy for our lanai

Cute as a button.  Until we started with the gale force December Manoa winds that is.  My poor tree has been knocked down, deprived of water, had it's branches broken and is now leaning up against the house hanging on for dear life.  Best laid plans.

Thankfully the star of the show is nice and protected inside the house and is looking as pretty as ever!

Here is my bulletin board at work. Yes, I drew all those people and cut them out.  Tedious work.  Don't look too closely for accuracy.  Pretty sure I have some giants and midgets in that scene.

Work fun.  

I love that our town has this old-timey Christmas Parade.  

They give out candy to the crowd.  Nothing cute about this little one

And what could be better than running into your favorite elf (Olivia's BFF) for a quick hug?

Nope, nothing cute here.  Move on

We finally are off of school at noon today.  One week - we are in the "too much to do, it'll never get done, cookies to be made, presents to wrap, heaving breathing phase," but oddly calm. It'll all happen, it always does.  It'll all be over too fast.  I'm very much looking forward to down time (= no homework time) with my family.  We sure could use the break.

Always missing my family at this time of year, but I'm happy for the technology that keeps us up to date.  Even mom has joined in the texting club.  Now for Dad.....

May your days be merry and bright!!

Happy Thanksgiving (Where did November Go??)

Two days ago, amidst all the cooking, I would have told you we were eating out next year!  Now that it's behind me and I don't have to cook for a few days thanks to leftovers, I can happily reflect on a lovely day.

Apple pie (I might just be eating the last piece right now for breakfast)

Pumpkin pie with pecan streusel. 

Our highly overpriced, super organic, not frozen, stress free turkey from Whole Foods.

Worth every penny!  

I seriously can't believe Christmas is less than a month away!  I'm sure my next post will be me swearing never to do it all again and then happily reflecting on the memories :)  And so it goes.

In the Manoa Critter update category...haven't seen too many of our favorite green guys lately.  They may have drowned - we have had biblical rain lately.  Here are some of our not so favorite nor cute guys:

About the size of your palm and able to destroy my herb garden in a single night.  Grrrrr.

Also about the size of your palm but he didn't do much.  Just sat there and let us take his picture.

But thankfully we have lots of these

This was an early morning beach cleanup extra credit activity for Olivia.  We let her clean and took a nice sunrise reef walk.  Just beautiful.

Latest hula performance photos.  I can't take any at the performance, but thankfully every teen has selfies!

Here we go....(yes, we love them so much we got a mini for the lanai).  Can't wait!!