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.