Christmas in Hawaii

it was so special to be able to go to church on Christmas morning.  we let the girls see what was in their stockings, and what santa had brought them, but we made them wait until after church to open the rest.  luckily, last year we had church at 8!

 izzy was excited about Christmas, but mae this year totally got it.  she was so pumped about everything Christmas related that we did.  it truly made this holiday so magical for us.

of course Christmas cookies were made.  carrying on the traditions I grew up with.  way too many cookies for sure.  but, we had a lot of fun making them, and taking them to our friends.

mae loved making a plate of cookies for santa, and chose each cookie carefully.  while everyone wasn't looking, izzy took a bite out of each cookie on the plate...lucky santa.

our tree was a little bare this year, I definitely didn't trust izzy with more than half of the ornaments that we own.  whenever we saw her touching the tree we would say 'hands off' and she would stick her hands up in the air. 

we didn't put any presents under the tree until Christmas eve, again I didn't trust izzy.  most of the stuff we ordered, and was piled up in our bedroom in boxes.  so one night before Christmas cody and I wrapped everything and put everything in the back of our closet.  the next morning mae started crying when she came in our room "did santa take all the presents away?" so, I had to show her that I had wrapped them and hidden them from izzy.

santa and so many people that love us were very good to us this year!  codys parents got ukuleles for the girls and cody.  and they have loved those. the girls got a play kitchen from my parents, which, has been so fun to watch and listen to them playing with.  santa brought mae a big girl bike...shes pretty much already too big for it, but shes figured it out pretty quickly and loves it.

 cody got the NES classic game system.  that was the crowning gift this year I think.  so fun to watch him play it.  it brings back tons of memories, and it really is like watching a kid play, he gets so excited and into it.  surprisingly mae has totally gotten into it.  she asks her dad everyday sometimes multiple times a day to play.  I think we need to get another controller.

I cant wait to introduce her to super Nintendo and the Wii when we're home over the summer! although, I'm a little worried we have a future gamer on our hands here.

one of my last favorite memories from this Christmas was our sweet neighbors doing elf on the shelf for our girls.  they absolutely LOVED finding elf every morning.  it was so much fun and so special for them.  we are so grateful for sweet friends that we have made since we've been here.  and it's so nice to have someone in the same boat as you.

christmas

what a different Christmas this was for us!  but, it was a wonderful one.  we had lots of fun activities that we did throughout the month that got the girls very excited about Christmas.

BYUH had a tree lighting ceremony and some fun crafts and things that we went to, and even more fun that our neighbors were there as well!  the girls loved meeting and getting pictures with Anna and Elsa (what they have to do with Christmas is beyond me).

I decided this year to attempt gingerbread houses.  I have avoided because it is so messy.  but, we invited our friends over to make them with us.  I don't even want to know how much candy was consumed making these, but the girls had a blast.

 we went into town to see the Honolulu city lights.  it was lots of fun, my favorite was all the different Christmas trees, each was decorated differently.  we all loved the harry potter tree, but we didn't get a picture of it!

 mae's favorite was santa and mrs clause.  they were ginormous.  the whole time cody and I kept asking each other 'where do they store this stuff?' 

 we tried multiple times to get the girls to sit on santa's lap, but they were having none of that.  wherever we saw him, they steered clear of him.  but, we were at the PCC one evening with our friends, and Cameron got them to sit with santa. (I think Cameron has magic powers or something). 

 we took a canoe ride around the lagoon, and watched the Nativity story performed.  I think this was my favorite thing we did.  It was so incredibly beautiful.  and our other neighbor was the angel!  the girls were SO excited to see him. 

we've had some rainy gloomy days here, but whenever the sun is out, we've tried to make it to the beach!  the girls saw their friends making snow angles, and improvised with sand angels instead.