And finally, back to Christmas

Santa did make a stop at our house on Christmas Eve....though there were MANY threats that he could be reached via cell phone and told to skip our house altogether!

Here's the loot
What you can't see is each boy got a HUGE lego set and a big container to keep all the legos in. So far so good on keeping them in the container. Also, there is a rug with streets, roads, railroads and stuff on it (thanks Susan!)


So, you've got 2 art desks, one basketball goal, one computer, 2 sets of lego with containers, 1 activity rug and 1 Hannah Montana backstage tour book (also not pictured). Don't EVEN ask!

Deegan passing out the presents


Cameron playing with his Hannah Montana Tour Book thing...all he asked for was Hannah Montana and Polly Pockets. So, he got Hannah Montana and Polly Pockets with LEGOs and cars thrown in. I can't ruin his belief in Santa at the age of 3.


Most of the morning is on video, my mom may have some more pics but I doubt it. We spent the morning removing twistie ties, tiny clear rubber bands and tape from every possible item. We also got to see DevilDoc on the webcam and he watched the boys open their gifts.

It was an uneventful day, we had our Paula Deen's french toast casserole and dined on leftovers from Cocktails & Cocoa throughout the day. I don't think I even got out of my jammies :)

Friends, family and blog stalkers....

The Mele Kalikimaka part is a little late, so just skip over that.

Edited to add: I sometimes forget that people outside of Hawai'i read my blog! Sorry! The bottom part of that sign reads "Happy New Year".

I am totally out of order

so you'll just have to bear with me. The last post was Christmas Eve and now I'm taking us back in time a few days for a trip to the Dole Plantation and Honolulu City Lights Trolley Tour...get excited!

I love to take pictures of pineapple


they are just so interesting


Just one more, I promise


And really, what is a trip to Hawai'i without a Dole whip? That's like coming here and not going to a luau, not eating a malasada or never seeing a rainbow! It would be a travesty!


And, while I am on the subject of rainbows...well, not really but play along, k?!


There were some great rainbows that day!

I wish I could share pictures of the train ride, but unfortunately a small blonde child decided to throw the fit of all fits and I marched his little hiney right to the car. Where he continued to throw his fit and scream for his "GAMMMMMMA!!!!" while I looked through the sunroof, fiddled with the navigation system and changed the CDs in the disc changer at least 72 times. Pookins and Gamma rode the train and I don't think there were any pictures taken.

I know I said I would talk about the trolley tours, but I am just too tired. We just dropped mom off at the airport and I KNOW my offspring will be up at some God awful hour demanding bacon, eggs and toast thanks to "gamma"! So, I will tease you with this



I can tell you are on the edge of your seat now :)

2nd Annual Cocktails & Cocoa

Ahhh, the smell of kalua pork, the glow of the lights and Santa traveling the globe on the big screen TV!!! It must be Cocktails & Cocoa time!



Shannon hits the food table while it's still HOT!

Carmen and Andy enjoying food and drink!



Another of Carmen and Andy..I think they are watching Santa traverse the United States on noradsanta.org


My rainbow friend and her entourage lead a holiday performance!


This one just cracks me up...I should've had another drink!


The elves began to get restless so we appeased them with sticker activity sheets! I <3 pricebusters after Christmas sale!


I got bum-rushed when it was time to make "Reindeer Food"


Carter adding some glitter



Susan's spouse and his girlfriend STORM :)



I love this one of Paul and junior


And, the hostesses with the mostesses...



Jai


Christi


Gabe and Arturo


All the girls at the party..minus Tempy and plus Cameron ;)


And we bid farewell to Jack until next year!


Last but not least, putting out our reindeer food so Rudolph is sure to find our house!

Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to DevilDoc and the rest of CLB-3 and the accompanying units! We miss you terribly and cannot wait for your safe return. Hugs and kisses from the aloha state!

My mommy is here

and she brought with her the gingerbread houses from granny!



We also have been to see Peter Pan at Diamond Head Theatre, Christmas Gift of Aloha at Ala Moana Center and A Christmas Carol at Tenney Theater/Honolulu Theater for Youth at St. Andrew's Priory. While at Ala Moana we did the obligatory visit with Santa where Pookins asked for anything that is LEGO or LEGO related and Magoo asked for "Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana and Hannah Montana! Ffweee Hannah Montana fings!" Don't tell DevilDoc but Santa is bringing some Hannah Montana goods and I wrapped all is presents in Hannah Montana wrap :)





We stopped at "SWIRL" before heading to the candy cane train for no other reason than we could! SWIRL is a delicious candy shop at Ala Moana and Windward Mall; they dip and swirl bananas, apples, cheesecake, strawberries in all kinds of chocolate and then they roll it around in delicious sweet goodness. I had frozen cheesecake dipped in white chocolate rolled in white and milk chocolate chips and oreo cookies! Can you say PMS?! Mom had a frozen banana dipped in milk chocolate and rolled around in almonds, toffee bits and chocolate chips. Many a dirty old man enjoyed watching her eat that thing as we sat and waited for the train to come back.

This is my cheesecake monstrosity. It easily weighed as much as Pookins did at birth!


And mom's banana on a stick...teehehehe


And lest you think the children were deprived; they enjoyed a candy apple which is exactly what they asked for :)

What have we been doing?

I swear we have been busy busy busy, but I have NO idea what we have been doing! At school I was preparing for 3 performances (each of the boys plus my classroom of PreK kids!), hosting the PTO holiday social BEFORE the holiday program, preparing for the arrival of my mom, shopping for Christmas gifts and getting them all shipped out! Oh yeah, and still doing taekwondo, basketball and sunshine generation in there somewhere.

I now present to you, the holiday round up in photos. First up, some snaps of the next Damon Bailey...Mr. Pookins!





Oh yeah, I also hosted a cookie swap! It was great to have friends fill our home during the holiday season and share laughs, food and drink!

The kids decorating sugar cookies



The cookie spread! We had 10 people attend and each person brought 6 dozen cookies...that's 720 cookies in my kitchen!!!!


Next up is the performance by Sunshine Generation with support from Magoo. Or, not so much support. When I figure out how to get video off my DVD camera and onto the computer I will post a little clip...for now, it's just still pics!




And the holiday performance at school...

First a Magoo and his dance partner


Then Pookins


And finally, Mrs. Brown and I post Merry Hula performance


Mele Kalikimaka!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

from our 'ohana to yours we wish you Mele Kalikimaka!

Slacking again

Sorry. The holidays and work seem to have overtaken my life completely. I have tons or pics to post and maybe a couple of videos...plus just generally updating on what we have been doing! I promise to do it soon :)

We got goodies from DevilDoc!

Yesterday Pookins got a letter in the mail from DevilDoc with a cute note in "kindergarten" vocabulary and a couple pictures that he drew. Pookins was very excited and even went up in front of the ENTIRE school to share his letter!

Then, this morning when I opened my email we had a message with LOTS of pictures! Our school had sent over boxes of candy as part of our philanthropy event "Operation: Candy Drop" and I had also sent a Thanksgiving themed box.


I think they were a little bit excited?!

And here is the Thanksgiving set up I sent to him; the little pilgrim on the wall was included lest you think he packed that on his own :)

Love the protection *wink*

And his new digs...


Which is a substantial improvement from his old digs!


And I'm pretty sure he threw this one in just to spite me, because I HATE it when he is in an aircraft (helicopter to be specific!)

Crisis averted!

Everyone can relax now, the great Christmas Caper has been solved. The missing presents have been located. Carry on!

Why do I do this every year!!!!!!

I buy Christmas presents early and stash them away "thinking" that I will remember where I have put them. I went to my super secret spot yesterday to get my gift wrap on...and NO STINKING PRESENTS! What?! I swear I put them in that little tiny closet inside the laundry room. For those who have been to my house or live in one like it I'm not talking about the big closet in the laundry room all the way at the end; I'm talking about the waste of space teeny-tiny closet just outside the big closet.

I have torn the house apart looking for these darn presents! Thank goodness DevilDoc's stuff wasn't hidden away, I don't have to hide things from him since he's gone :) I'm sure I will uncover them in the atrocity that used to be the office. May the good Lord help me to make my way through that FEMA declared disaster area in the near future. I may have 3 children and one of them is just trapped in that room!

So...dad, Julie, mom and in-laws. You may be getting your Christmas gifts a little late, okay? Thanks!

O Tannenbaum

after a coma inducing Thanksgiving meal we came home and anxiously awaited the lighting of our tree. Ok, we weren't that anxious...we watched The Pirates That Don't Do Anything and ate popcorn. After Pookins and Mago asked 1,298,976 times if we could turn on the tree I relented.

A new tradition?

We celebrated our second consecutive Thanksgiving without DevilDoc. Last year we had the pleasure of sharing the day with some friends who also had deployed hubbies (and one who did not, HI BOB!) This year I opted for low key and decided to try out the Silver Dolphin Bistro on Sub base Pearl Harbor.



We enjoyed a wonderful meal of turkey, ham, dressing, green beans, sweet taters, mashed taters, rolls, shrimp cocktail and corn. There was pumpkin, apple, blueberry and peach pie, a HUGE pineapple cake with waaaaaaay too much frosting and an ice cream bar. They also had every drink you could have imagined and I am happy to report they have Coke Zero on tap ;) Oh, and let me add all THREE of us at for $6.35..total, not apiece!!!



I hope they do something similar at Christmas time because I know where we'll be going!

Oh, and here is the line of crazies at Best Buy on Kam Hwy. This was about 430p local time.



I leave you with a disturbing picture, the effects of tryptophan