Christmas in Hawaii

It turns out that Christmas in Hawaii was actually awesome. We had my sister's car for the break and we made sure to do lots of fun things. Most of all, though, it was a tender and wonderful time to jus be with each other. Above is a picture on the way to the mall the the weekend after finals...we had a little bit of Christmas shopping to catch up on.

At the mall there was a beautiful Christmas tree that did wonders for my Christmas spirit, as did the look on that little boy's face when it started SNOW--ing!

Perhaps you have noticed a change in the quality of my photos? I borrowed one of the Kealakai's ( the student newspaper at which I am an editor///brag time I was recently promoted to editor-in-cheif over multimedia -also I was in charge over Christmas break) sweet Nikons and started clicking away. I don't think I quite have the photographer's touch yet but maybe someday...

We had a Christmas party on Christmas eve and it went really well. Justin and I teamed up to put together homemade stocking stuffers for our guests to take home. We filled them with carmel popcorn balls ( Lacee and I made them a few days before), hard candy from Costco, hand-folded pochibukuro with pennies inside ( we made them with wrapping paper using this tutorial ( learn how to fold your own courtesy of a little girl speaking a different language http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTaCCYsoKLE(portuguese??),a secret homemade present (soon to be revealed) and cuties ( the cheap way of giving people oaranges for their stockings). They were a hit I think. I printed the cute little to-from tags from brooklynlimestone.com. , they are the same ones I used on the invites (see my earlier post for a pic. ) I will post pictures of all my Christmas crafts in a separate post so stay tuned!

We acted out the nativity underneath a tarp Justin and I spent forever hanging. This is baby Jesus, also known as Kaito. His mom Madoka is from Japan ( which is why we included the pochibukuro in the stocking bags) and his dad, Risky, is from Indonesia. This picture definitely does not do his eyelashes justice, they are so adorably long it makes your heart skip a beat. CHALLENGE:We videoed our play, I will post it if I get five comments telling me to.

Matt  ( Lacee's husband) being pensive as he watches Charly Brown Christmas

We drew our parts out of a hat ( besides Madoka and Risky and Kaito who were Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus) p.s. Matt totally wanted to be baby Jesus. Justin and I were Shepherds /film crew.

We grinched our tree! Our friends Brandon and Lacey went on a cruise this Christmas and they let us borrow their tree. We used a red ribbon I originally bought for the door for the top, and added 2 dollars worth of our own ornaments to those the Krouts had already put up along with the lights. Then we used batting and smooshed it onto the branches here and there to make it look snowy. I bought some little mini nativity art seens and hole punched them, then tied them to the tree with black ribbon for the final touch.It was such a beautiful tree, I was so worried our Christmas would be cheesy, that I wasn't mature enough to do Christmas right, but man that tree just told me something about myself. Guess what? I can put together beautiful decor, and awesome parties. It's something I am very pleasantly surprised to find out!

Matt and Lacee hosted Christmas dinner, I made bell pepper soup with a recipe I found on pinterest...I was looking forward to the leftovers but I accidently left the soup there! Dang it!

Our wrapping paper pile, we were so lucky to have presents sent to us from so many family members! Thanks everyone!!!! Especially Mom! (She sent A LOT of presents)

(Below) On the way to Kaneohe...It is so beautiful here I have made a New Year's resolution to share Hawaii more fully with my blog readers, you guys deserve it !!! In honor of this decision I will soon present an awesome post that does just that...stay tuned!