Christmas around here….

Although it is weird to sing all the Christmas songs about snow, we have been loving the Hawaiian Christmas season. It’s so warm and lovely (except for the week Charity was here, of course) and sand at the beach is a nice substitute for snow… Except sand is not as good to eat as snow—but that doesn’t stop Po.

 

I love when December rolls around and I finally get to play Christmas songs on the organ for church. The only bad thing about being the ward organist is that I don’t get to sing the songs… but that isn’t too serious since my screechy singing voice doesn’t add much. I do love enjoying Sacrament Meeting up on the stand while poor Jonah has to wrestle the kids down in the congregation.

 

I’ve been trying to do more arts with the kids (thanks in part to my obsession with Pinterest—if you don’t know what Pinterest is, just give me a call and I’ll get you addicted too)… here are some paper bookmarks they made.

 

We have run into Santa a few times and it’s always the same—Elsie cuddles up on his lap and talks to him forever (I’m talking 5 minutes plus), even if there is a whole line of kids waiting.

Ana is always willing to have a photo taken, but she doesn’t talk to him much.

There are no pictures of Cam with Santa because since he was born, Cam does NOT like talking to or sitting on or by Santa. He appreciates the gifts Santa brings, of course, but Cam says he only has to give Santa ONE high five every year, and that’s it. According to Cam, once he’s done that, he doesn’t even have to say hi to him.

Poem grabs me real tight and her legs start shaking when she sees Santa. Hmmm. It must be the beard.

 

We went to our town’s Christmas celebrations and had a great time doing random Christmas things like painting a live horse and listening to the Middle School Ukulele band play “Jingle Bells” before the town’s Christmas tree lit up.

Homeschool Choir at Kalama Heights Old Folks Home

The kids also joined a little homeschool choir and had their final performance at an adult residential facility (is that the politically correct term?)… the kids playing the ukulele is only 11! He was a star.

 

We also have made some great Christmas memories at two ward parties (we are moving to a new ward next month, so we went to both parties). They were both loads of fun, especially the fresh Hawaiian food (like the lau laus above that Jonah helped put together) and hula dancing.

 

And the other crazy Christmas stuff we have been doing is closing on our new house! We bought this cute little [major] fixer upper near town. We had been looking for a farm, but we changed our minds when we saw this place (anyway, it has a pretty big lot for a big garden and we’ll throw some chickens out in the yard). It needs major remodeling, which is all that we have been doing for the past week since the beaches are all too crowded with Christmas crowds for our taste anyway.

The kids have been a huge help (see Ana above—on her way to go paddle boarding, but Jonah put her to work for an hour first), and although having little Po to tend has put a damper in how much I can accomplish everyday, Jonah makes up for it by accomplishing what would normally take three people. We are putting together a blog just about the remodel, so stay tuned.

Here’s the exterior.

 

 

Before we go to the new house to remodel everyday, the kids do schoolwork, and they are a little bummed that they have to do school while everyone else is on break, and then I remind them that they get breaks during other times.

(Wow. This is a random assortment of photos! I put a bunch of photos on LiveWriter last week to blog about and now that I’m actually doing it, I realized there is no real coherence to the photos, except that they were all taken this month…) Anyway, here is Po having her favorite food, avocado. Luckily, it is in abundance here on Maui.

 

Here is our weakly decorated living room. We have done better since this photo was taken, but I wanted to show how the kids were getting ready every night for our Christmas story reading. I checked out 25 children’s Christmas picture books from the library and wrapped them all and the kids open one each night and we read it together. They used to lay on the ground in their warm blankets (yes, it gets cold enough at night to need a blanket), but now they just all pile on top of me on a chair so they can see the pictures.

 

Here is Elsie at one of the church Christmas parties waiting for Santa to come.

And here she is talking Santa’s beard off.

 

I was hoping to finally get Po to sit on Santa’s lap since she was riling away in fear every other time we saw him, but no such luck. She was not a happy elf.

Speaking of Elf, my kids have watched it about a dozen times. Whenever I whisper, one of them says to me in a whisper, “I like to whisper too!” They also like to randomly yell, “I’m singing!”

The other movies I put on my iPhone are The Three Amigos!, The Princess Bride, Charlotte’s Web (old animated version), and Mary Poppins. It shouldn’t be to hard for you to imagine the quotes that have been pouring out of my kids’ mouths since they are the same quotes Jonah and I used constantly to annoy our own parents. Glad to keep the traditions alive.

 

On Sunday afternoon, I saw Elsie walk out with random items to the carport. After awhile I checked on her to find a blond beardless Santa with a magical flying turtle had taken over the roof of our car!

 

Our kind dear landlady felt like we were taking too long to get a Christmas tree so she took matters into her own hands. We put the cute little potted Norfolk pine up on a barstool to protect it from Po and it suits us just fine. If our tree seems upstaged by all the multitude of presents, it’s because our kids have overly generous grandparents and because Ana has been raiding garage sales for two months. I can’t wait to see what treasures she found.

 

We are so grateful to spend Christmas is such a beautiful place, even though we miss our extended families so much!! We hope everyone is safe and happy this Christmas and that you can bask in the joyful spirit of the season and take time to celebrate that glorious First Christmas.

Mele Kalikimaka everyone!