The Tree, The Eve and Beyond

This year we were in a bit of a quandary as to what to do for a Christmas tree. In Colorado we would always go to the mountains and chop down a tree. In fact for a history on our Christmas tree traditions you can look at last December's post on that very topic! But for the here and now, we were at a loss b/c pine trees do not grown in Hawaii. They do have some evergreen trees, but no formal pine trees that you and I think of when you say "Christmas Tree!"

We found out that many places import Christmas trees for the traditional consumer at a healthy $50 to $80 a cut tree. In other words, a tree that will soon die. So we decided to shy away from that a buy a potted tree. One that we could plant after all was said and done. Ryan found a nursery that sold potted Norfolk Island Pine trees. (Yes, it says "pine" in the name, but it's not really a pine.) So we went to find ourselves the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!

Not bad eh? It's 7 feet tall in the pot! And it will stay in that little pot from 2-3 years! So when we move out of this rental into a more permanent home, we can plant our cute tree there. This is how they wrapped up our tree so we could take the hour drive home.
Yay! We have our first Hawaiian Christmas tree! Gabriella is in the back seat. She was being a pill and hiding from the camera.
Nothing like a HUGE 7-Eleven Slurpee to refresh us from our Christmas tree hunting!
And then we got to decorate it! It looks a little sparse, but all in all we think it looks pretty great! And everyone got to help in the fun.

Ta Da!

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This is Christmas Eve, about ten days after we got our tree all prettied up! I am the candy maker in my family. For YEARS I have made countless batches of Divinity and many fewer batches of Salt-water taffy on Christmas Eve. It is a fun tradition that I wasn't about to let go of. However, I was a bit reluctant b/c both the taffy and divinity need the right climate for them to actually set up and work. And Hawaii isn't it. I didn't want to be setting myself up for failure, but I knew I just HAD to try it. Well, the divinity worked! It was wonderful!!!

We took a break from slaving away in the kitchen to spend some time on the beach! Ryan was teaching Hunter how to Paddle surf. Obviously he needs a paddle that is his size, but you get the idea.
Then we came back to attempt the taffy. It may be green, but I put cinnamon oil in it. Yummy! However, the taffy didn't work. Who knows what the problem was, but after pulling and pulling-- it kind of collapsed. Oops! Oh well. It still tasted great!
After we read Luke 2 with Hunter and Gabriella (we'd already put the baby to bed) we let them open one gift. Pajamas! Of course! Well, that is a normal tradition for many families, but this is the first Christmas that WE have done it. And it was fun so I think we'll do it in the future. Aren't they cute? I couldn't resist when I found boy and girl Sponge Bob jammies!

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Merry Christmas Everyone! We let Hunter and Gabriella sleep together in our guest room's queen bed (a real treat) which is at the end of the hall. This is important b/c the master bedroom in on the other side of the house. And they would have to cross through the great room where "Christmas" was all set up. We needed the kids to stay in their room until we came to get them. In Colorado, all of the bedrooms were upstairs so it was easy for the kids to come into us on Christmas morning- but that isn't the case here. So we put the baby monitor in the guest room and told them to talk into when they woke up so we would know to go in to get them. It was really quite funny! But it worked perfectly!

The kids woke up just after 7 am. Ryan and I let them move from the guest room into the next room over (Hunter and Kolea's bedroom) which is right off the great room- boy were they excited. We sat in there and changed Kolea while we talked again about the true meaning of Christmas. Another tradition we have, that I have done for as long as I can remember, is sing "Happy Birthday" in a reverent manner to Jesus. It sounds cookey, but the children really understand that we are celebrating Christ's birthday and that since He is not here physically, we give gifts to one another in celebration of His birth.

The following are some pictures from "Christmas morning." A picture is worth a thousand words!

Water-proof and fog proof Binoculars.
Now you see it...
Now you don't! This is all of the trash consolidated into one area. Not too shabby!
Kolea got one gift. (Well, besides what all of her grandparents gave her.) It was this one doll. She LOVES it. It came with this bottle and the baby's face sucks it when you put it to her lips. Kolea thought she'd try it out for herself!
This is how she says "I'm loving today- I got my own baby doll! No more sharing with Gabriella who takes her dolls away from me!"
Oh we are already wiped out. Hunter is busy playing his new Wii game. Kolea is just chillin' and Gabriella?? Where is Gabriella? She's been doing her own thing all morning...
There she is! Playing with some new moon sand that Santa put in her stocking, wearing a new leotard/skirt combo that one of her grandma's gave her; eating something normal. We'd been eating junk ALL morning. By about 11:30 a.m., I finally clued in that we ought to eat something a little more filling and wholesome- so scrambled eggs on English muffins it was! You know, after eating crap for a period of time... sometimes scrambled eggs and an English muffin just hit the spot!
So there is a little look into what our last couple of weeks have been like, relating to Christmas. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas day as well. Full of fun, family, and friends! Oh! I almost forgot to mention... on Christmas Eve we had a bunch of friends over for a big Mexican meal! We were so busy and had so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures to document it. But I wanted to thank everyone that came over and helped make our Christmas Eve special!