Girl's Night~

A couple weeks ago, I took two friends into Waikiki to hear another friend

play music at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

 quite the crowd for Wednesday night, the weather was so nice.

 Mai and her sister Oni, got a chance to walk around the grounds at the Royal

before the show started.

 Mai, Coco, Oni

 I just LOVE it when I can take local friends someplace they've

never been before...Kaka'ako Kitchen in Ward Center.

A couple of us hard the Sweet Chili Chicken...so ono!

This was such a fun night!  Oni and Mai hadn't

been to Waikiki for years and years and NEVER to

walk around, listen to music or just hang out.

Oni was ready to go back the next night!

Christmas in the air...

The Christmas Season has definitely come to Hawaii.

Today going to Pearl City, we saw this car on the freeway, with their

tree on top.

 We saw this sign along Kam Hiway.  Wonder if it was a tree farm or

a container full of trees.  I don't think I've seen one tree farm here.

All of the trees come in big Matson containers...so what gets

here by ship, that's it.

 a rainbow, just because

 Since we have the one set of the grands coming next week, we wanted

to get our tree up. This way we have a chance to enjoy it

with them before we leave for the mainland for

Christmas.

I miss the smell of a live tree, but guess I could always

light a pine scented candle.

Thanksgiving~again...

Since our neighbors across the street, Ed and Laura were gone for Thanksgiving, Laura wanted

to cook a Thanksgiving feast for her family.

They invited hubby and I over, I had enough ingredients to make

creamed corn, cranberry sauce and fresh whipping cream for the pie.

It was so good!  Laura did a great job, she even did sweet

potatoes from scratch!

 Molly enjoying her "re-do Thanksgiving" dinner

 Ed just loving the great food!

 The chef herself...after a long day cooking.

It was a great evening.  We were able to get through dinner and then a trade shower

passed through.

Really nice, thanks for the invite Cua Ohana!

(side note on this...as soon as we started eating, "she crazy" had to start.  More on this

later).

Hank's Haute Dogs~

We met our friends Val and Ray and Iris and Dave in town for a fun lunch

at a place called "Hank's Haute Dogs".  It's a place that serves very fancy

hot dogs.  Ray had the Friday special...Lobster Dog.

Hubby and I had the Hawaiian, with pineapple relish, Iris choose

the chicken and Val and Dave had the chili dogs.

Really a fun place to have lunch in town.  It was nice to visit with

Ray and Val.  They'd come over from Kona to spend

Thanksgiving with Dave and Iris.

All of them had been out early for Black Friday sales

and off to the big craft fair in the evening.

So, Hoyt's next time you visit the "big city" of Honolulu,

we'll have to try another out of the way spot!

Kaamooloa Road Thanksgiving from start to finish~

Our Thanksgiving Day starts with hubby making his stuffing.  This has been in his family like

this for three generations that I know of...he tears cheap white bread into pieces,

 adds ALOT of sage...

 chopped onions (not too much) and Imperial margarine

that he mixes together with his hands.  He says it's so

he can get the "right fee".  Then he stuffs the bird.  Through

the years, the turkeys have been grown for more meat, so we also

do stuffing in pans and cook it that way.

 This is our next door neighbors house, Steve and Christine.  They've so gracious

to host it every year that we've lived here.  It really is nice.  Christine

does such a nice job on the decorations and place settings.

 Molly helped carry over my orange rolls

 this is only 1/2 the food and not any of the desserts!  My Gulliver's Creamed Corn and

a dish of stuffing are in the middle

 These were sooooo good! A marshmellow wrapped in cooked yam and rolled in

corn flakes and then baked!

A wonderul day ended with Steve's 88 year old dad

playing on a neighbors guitar.  He hadn't played or sang

in years.

 We're so thankful for such great neighbors who are like

family to us.



Flashback Friday~Holidays

(Geoff, Robert, Traci and Becci)

My sister and I were just talking about this picture when she was here and I came across it.

I think it was in the 1980's at our house in San Juan Capistrano.

They had come down for a holiday visit I think before moving to Minn.

So as we start another holiday season, think about those wonderful memories

of holidays past.

Thankful Thursday~good times

I could never put the pics of all the "good times" here (there would be 1,000's).

When looking through a few folders of pics, I just choose random ones

that represented friends and some of the good times.

So, here's to the good times and for those I will always

be Thankful.

Never fails...

right before or during BIG cooking, some type of problem happens.

This time it was our sink faucet that blew a hose and flooded

the under the sink and across the kitchen floor.

It was a good thing that hubby was home,

he took care of getting the plumber out here

with a new faucet.

The whole thing was installed within a half and hour

and they were gone.

Now just need to dry out the cabinet and

put everything back.

Hubby and I were laughing because it brought back memories

of a Thanksgiving at his folks house and the sink

backed up into the bathtub...

Needless to say it cost them a fortune to get the plumber out on a holiday!

Just can't wait for this to dry out and I can get back to cooking.

I've been busy...

making cranberry sauce!

24 pounds of cranberries and 20 pounds of sugar later, I'm almost done.

This is a recipe that hubby's grandmother and mother used to make.

I'd never made it until a few years ago and had to call my

daughter for the recipe since her grandmother taught her.

I'm always amazed how many people have never, ever

had the REAL thing!

So tomorrow will be spent delivering the fruits of my labor of love.

New use for a bandaid

Last week I was getting out of my car and happened to notice this on the car parked next to me.

It made me laugh.  There was a young guy getting out of the car and he noticed me

taking a picture of it.  He thought something was wrong, but I

explained to him that it just made me laugh.

He told me that it was all that he had to tape the tail-light back on.

Whatevea' works!

A Cultural Celebration ...

Last night I attended a "Cultural Celebration" as part of the

re-dedication of the Laie Hawaii Temple.

There were 2000 youth from the island of Oahu that took part in this celebration!  It reminded me

of the old road shows that I'd been in before. 

The theme of the night was "The Gathering Place" and how the church came to Laie,Hawaii.

Every stake took a part of the story and retold it in song and dance.

While waiting in line, we saw an excitement in the crowd, Mai and I rushed over to see

President Monson arriving and walking through the crowd. 

Mai started singing "We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet"

and President Monson stopped right in front of us to listen.

Even as I type this, my heart is racing.

This was how the acts started, with Natalie Kamauu singing

"This Is Hawaii"

chicken skin time for sure

(I started the tears here)

the area of Laie was considered a "City of Refuge" by early Hawaiians

They were telling about the early immigrants working in the sugar cane fields

I loved how EVERYONE took part

building of the Temple

The Pearl Harbor and after the war era

the beginning of the Church College of Hawaii

When I left I drove past the Temple in all of its beauty!

During his talk to the youth, President Monson told them how much

he loved LARGE gatherings for the youth.

I know that his heart was overjoyed with the love for these youth and all the work

they did to put on this truly magnificent CULTURAL CELEBRATION.

I know I was!