Mele Kalikimaka

Could it be? An actual blog post on a vacation! Surely you jest! Well, it seems the impossible has happened. This isn't the whole trip, I've actually skipped over my favorite section of the trip (but fully plan on posting about it...), but this is better than, well, I've ever done. Jon and I had a blast on our trip. It was so nice getting away from it all and we will fondly remember this trip. I hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas as well...and are ready for a new, shiny year. 2009! Wow!



Sunset at my favorite beach.


Chillaxin'


This awesome country store in the ranch land where they have elk burgers. Yum!



Just enjoying ourselves...


Sorry for the blur, but it's far away, nightime, and raining cats and dogs. But still, it's lava and that's just cool.


Surfboard fence. Um, that's awesome.


Crazy road.


Looking into the Haleakala Crater.


At Julia's Roadside Stand, home of the the best banana bread on the planet. And a cool dog.



Painted Eucalyptus. They're soooo beautiful.


Nice view on the crazy road to Hana.


At Laulima Farms, coolest smoothie shop on the planet. Yes, that is a bicycle powered blender. I know, amazing.



Enjoying the fruits of our labor. Ummm, so good.


A smaller waterfall on the way to the bigger waterfall. But it's still lovely.



Bamboo Forest. So peaceful.



Enjoying the stream and waterfall after our hike (why did I hike?)



I totally am in love with Banyan Trees...


The perfect way to end a day. And a blog post.

Cocoa, quilts, and a bit of rain.

I love winter. I love cuddling up in front of the fireplace with a cup of cocoa, covered in quilts while a snow storms blows outside creating a wonderland. Granted, I don't have a fireplace, and there's certainly no snowstorm...heck, not even snow. So for now, the rain will have to substitute for the snow (at least we finally have rain!), quilts, and that cup of hot cocoa. Or maybe, a Starbucks Gingersnap Latte. Oh my.

Well, this was going to be a fun Christmas post with lots of pictures of all we've been up to, but our computer that has all the photos is wigging out, so you'll just have to do without. But it'll still be fun.

Jon and I did our Christmas tonight and it was so fun! We just got small gifts, so I got him a couple Jeremy Camp CD's, and he got me some Starbucks mugs I've been wanting, a gift card to there as well, and "The Tales of Beetle the Bard", hooray! After that we read through all the things in our Thankful Jar. It was wonderful! We had so much fun reading through them and seeing all the things God's blessed us with. And it was fun to see when ours coincided. It's DEFINITELY going to be a Christmas tradition...and will perhaps resurface outside of the holiday season.

So, now it's time for some holiday knitting and a bit of relaxing. And perhaps that cup of hot cocoa. So, you guys all ready for Christmas?

Team Edward?

I was just talking to Parker about Twilight. He was making fun of the movie and I tried to defend it by saying, "Come on Parker, you don't even know what the movie's about!"

His response? "Everybody that's seen the preview knows what it's about. It's about gay vampires pretending to be straight!"

Well, that's one theory...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Well, it's officially Christmas time. It's past Thanksgiving, it's December, and rumor on the street is that Parker even called it. So yes, it's Christmas.

So, now that we're in the holiday season...how the heck did we get here? Did the year fly by for anyone else or was that just me. I can't believe it's December. Oy.

My goal this year is for Jon and I to do something holiday-ish every day leading up to Christmas. Yesterday we started off with a bang and went to the mall where they have the Festival of Trees. Now people, this is something that's actually cool at our mall. I know, shocker. Anyway, various business and groups from around town put together decorated Christmas Trees with gifts galore and you can buy raffle tickets to win them. One tree has a huge flat screen, and another has a laptop, Wii, and Playstation 360. There are about 25 or 30 trees there with every theme imaginable. Yeah, totally sweet gifts for $1 tickets. It's so fun to see all the decorations and imagine winning some totally awesome prizes. It's on until Decmember 13th, so go check it out!

Tonight I have a fun surpise planned for Jon and I for Christmas goodness, but more on that later. We actually did the same thing last year, so I think it'll be the start to the Christmas season each year. Technically, we should've done that yesterday, but we had Heroes, and that took priority. :)

Yesterday as I was praying during my quiet time God was laying thankfullness on my heart. We have so much to be thankful for and I think I tend to ignore it, or just take it for granted. I don't want to be an ungrateful person, so I decided a Holiday Thankfullness Jar would do the trick. Every night, Jon and I are writing down something we're thankful for, and dropping it in the jar. Then, on Christmas we'll read them all and be able to look back on all God has blessed us with. I'm pretty excited about this, and definitely see it becoming part of our Christmas Tradition.

So, with that in mind, two questions?
1: What holiday traditions do you and your loved ones have to celebrate the season?
2: What are you thankful for?