I Love...

Trader Joes!

Oh, the wonders of special Holiday sweets and cookies!

The Trader Joe's people say that they'll never come to Hawaii...not good business.  If they did come to Hawaii, then what

would all of us bring back for omiyage?

A major...

Christmas light display.  This house is over in San Juan Capistrano, actually our old

neighborhood.  We'd seen it a few nights earlier and decided to take a drive over

with the grands.  As soon as we pulled up Jack said "this is MAJOR!"  Grey soon followed.

It was neat because they got to get out of the car and actually walk around and through

all of the displays.

 ( sort of a scarey under-lit photo aka...Haunted Mansion)

There was another house we'd found, but all of the lights were turned off.

It was more "over the top" and a REAL MAJOR than these.

Tree decorating

A few years ago (after we got the MH) we got a fake tree.  Hubby and Lauren had gone to get it

and when I came over a few days later, I brought a lot of "unbreakable" Hawaiian ornaments from home.

It's now become a new tradition that the grands decorate the tree for us.

I've bought some of those shatterproof balls and a few other things.

It's nice to sit back and let them do the whole thing.  Poppa just has to put a few high ones up

and the star.  This year Lauren actually got the wooden garland around it.

 It's hard to see in this picture, but Terry has just put up his favorite ornament.  It's an ugly candle

that we bought many, many years ago in Mexico.  He LOVES it!  Lauren even tried

taking it down...but he puts it back up.

These three are the best tree decorators around!  Next year Miss Emme will be added to the mix.

I love this new tradition.

(you can really see how much Greyson and Lauren look alike!)

Light Show...

I'd been hearing about the Geminid meteor shower that was going to

peak tonight. 

I stepped outside onto the front porch and saw two right away.  The moon had already passed

overhead, so it was pretty dark.

I tried taking my own picture, but they were just too fast.

We see a lot of falling stars out here because it's pretty dark (except next door),

but there were definitely more tonight.  Pretty cool.

Not Just One...

On the way home, I passed a couple of houses that had those "blow-up"

Christmas decorations and took them to the extreme.  Not just one in the yards,

but MANY!

Gotta Love It!

December Sunset

Can never have too many of these, especially when the rest of the

country is freezing cold!

Haleiwa Christmas Parade 2010 edition

Last night was the Haleiwa Christmas Parade.  After the wild storm that we had

the night before, everyone was hoping that the parade would still go on.

Here in Hawaii I would say that EVERY town has a Christmas Parade.

Every one of those parades is probably unique to that city...I know that ours is.

High School bands, Miss Hawaii (who is from the North Shore), canoe clubs,

soccer teams, football teams, Gecko pumping truck, stand-up paddlers,

local business, pre-schools, moms pushing strollers, old cars, decorated

golf carts and even the Fire Truck is decorated!

The parade always ends with Santa dressed in an Aloha Shirt

yelling "Mele Kalikimaka" as he goes by.

We LOVE this parade!