Apparently it's gone right out the damn window!! Seriously! It seems like it wasn't that long ago that B arrived from deployment not to mention the fact that SOME HOW the first 9yrs of L's life have just skated right past us. AND with each passing day it seems harder to wrap my brain around the fact that VERY soon she will be graduating high school, college, marriage AAAAAAH!!! I'm soooo not ready for her to grow up. But we all enjoyed her birthday party! She celebrated with a few girls from school at the Ice Palace, it's the only ice skating rink on the island. Who would have thought they'd have one, but apparently it's ALWAYS busy no matter time of day or year! AND they do book up fast for events. Even though it was still quite warm outside, the cool temps inside made us feel like we were back on the mainland where during this time of year where we've previously lived it's normally pretty chilly!
Similarly, having your daughter strut around in basically a bathing suit on Halloween and not be the slightest bit chilly was another one for the books! NO WHERE but Hawaii, would she have been able to pull it off. Even last year when we were in Florida for Halloween it was a wee bit chilly! LOL But both of the kid's costumes were a huge hit! I finished J's costume just in time for us to head to our first University of Hawaii game on the 30th. Next year I will NOT procrastinate and get them both done early!!
Thanksgiving was a nice quiet low key day; we did share it with 2 single guys from the boat that didn't have family on the island. Even tho I'm open for new traditions, Thanksgiving is the one we don't mess with! So we had all the traditional fixin's and the luckily we had left overs to munch on for the next few days.
We are fortunate enough that we live comfortably enough on B's salary that we don't HAVE to go Black Friday shopping in order to get what we need. We 'could' buy them at regular price if need be, but why not save a few bucks even if it means getting up before the sun!? We shake our heads as we walk buy people with their cart or carts overflowing with toys/games/clothes knowing that they are racking up $100's if not $1000's in credit card debt...and the novelty of the new Christmas presents lasts a few weeks but the debt will remain for MONTHS, but not for us! Really we just love finding awesome deals; the time we get to spend with each other is just a bonus!! ;-)
And as an unofficial tradition, B missed my birthday yet again and just as last year by only a few days! UGH!! He did take me out to dinner once he got back tho!! :0)
As the days got closer to Christmas, our excitement grew each day knowing the kids would LOVE all of their awesome presents. So much so that we decided to start a new tradition...we would be able to open ONE present on Christmas Eve...the present would be of OUR choosing though! Both the kids and B were off which would have been an excellent opportunity to get and do stuff together except for the fact that Mother Nature thought it'd be a great opportunity to have HUGE front stall over the island where it would RAIN nearly EVERY day for close to two weeks. And that meant that J wouldn't have baseball practice, nor would both kids be able to play out with their friends. BLEH! Thankfully we kept them distracted with getting the house/their rooms for Christmas and the influx of new stuff. We and Santa of course ;0) chose some excellent gifts for the kids this year. Santa gave them a Wii and the look on L's face was PRICELESS. J has been DYING to go fishing, so he was very thankful to get a pole...tho he was VERY EAGER to go..like THAT day!! LOL
Christmas IS one of those holidays that we do mix it up a bit as far as the meal is concerned...tho ONLY for lunch/dinner as we ALWAYS have cinnamon rolls for breakfast!!! LOL This year it was all about fresh and fast. I didn't have to get up a the butt crack of dawn to put something in the oven nor did I have to spend half the day slaving away on the meal. I think in total it took about just over an hour. I made Warm Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad(Pampered Chef), REAL risotto(I have the carpal tunnel pain to prove it!) and shrimp scampi. For dessert, I was GOING to attempt a fresh fruit tart, but chickened out and bought one at Whole Foods instead! lol We weren't having any company over(all of B's youngin's flew home), so it was a nice relaxing day with no time restraints what-so-ever...something we don't usually have, but definitely embrace when the occasion does arise!!
So the week in between Christmas and New Years was largely spent inside, tho in between the pockets of rain we quickly shoved the kids outside to expel all of that pent up energy. We were even able to fit in a game of Nerf Dart Tag. Tho that was quickly busted due to hurt/jealous feelings. We tried to explain how to be a gracious winner/loser but that fell on deaf ears, so a few melt downs and some 30 minutes later we headed in to eat dinner.
New Year's Eve was a busy fun filled day and night for all! B had to run in to the boat for just a quick thing early in am before the fun began. The boys dropped L and I off downtown to catch the musical Cats! She ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! We of course had to buy an official Cats! program and tshirt to complete the experience! ;0) B is headed to shore duty in just a few weeks, so I plan on taking her to any and all shows that come to town!! While we were at the theater the boys went to play a few games of bowling and grabbed a quick bite to eat. We're not sure why but J LOVES to go bowling he asks to go ALL the time, unfortunately we're not always able to meet his demands. LOL We headed home to prepare our New Year's Eve feast: kalbi(it's like a beef rib w/ teriyaki style sauce), rice, lumpia(similar to an egg roll) and crab rangoon...the kids munched on popcorn chicken. With full bellies we sent the kids upstairs to watch a movie and hopefully squeeze in a quick nap so they would be awake to watch the entire valley light up with fireworks later. B and I were able to watch a movie in peace and quiet...and if you haven't seen it already we both HIGHLY recommend The Other Guys with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. We laughed our butts off the ENTIRE time!! Finally it was "time" to head up the hill and watch the fireworks from the Army hospital. What an amazing view. There were fireworks going off in every direction! Hawaiian's LOOOOVE their fireworks!! The HUGE smoke plume and smell of sulfur in air would be a small hint. LOL They are so crazy they let them off not just at the end of their driveway but IN the middle of the street!! And of COURSE that is the kid's FAVORITE part. So of course we couldn't merely just drive home, we'd have to take the long way home through town exposing my beloved Journey to live exploding fireworks! I guess it wasn't enough to experience it last year when we had NO CLUE or just 3 nights prior dodging a fury of fireworks that were literally thrown RIGHT in front of the car as we passed by. GRRR
And that is how we ended 2010!!
Pictures have been uploaded to Facebook ;0)
2011 is shaping up to be another FANTASTIC year!!
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