Merry Christmas!

Our ward party this year was well worth the drive to Laie from Honolulu. Good food (still no Mexican) and great entertainment provided by the ward members. The Relief Society sang a Maori rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I was part of the "8 plants of puha" group. Here is the sheet of words we used with some helpful translation (Kenz provided the nice and colorful background...nothing is safe from her artistry here):

Christmas PJ's accessorized appropriately with a Cinderella headband and Snow White socks. Christmas dress which she has worn every day since receiving it one week ago.Boe won a gift basket at his work Christmas party that included various delicacies including this turtle. We were surprised to find... ...these hiding inside. I didn't feel right eating them, it being Christmas and all.

More Christmas

Kenzie's Christmas tree. We're displaying it in the lobby of our residence. The hotel is having a contest for residents/tenants to guess how many lights are on the tree. My plan was to count the number of plugs that could be seen then multiple that by the number of lights in a standard strand, but we ended up making an uneducated guess of 850. We'll find out on the 23rd...

Invasion of the Shaka Santa. He's everywhere! This is right outside our condo rental.

Honolulu thus far

Holiday Honolulu Christmas Decor. I love how Santa is riding a wave pulled by a team (pack?) of dolphins. The Shaka Santa and Mrs. Claus. Each of the figures, 21 feet tall, 15 feet wide and weighs 4,000 pounds, is lugged our annually to make appearance at the Honolulu City Lights. Kenz makes the shaka sign (“hang-loose” sign to us mainlanders) now whenever she sees or hears of Santa. It’s pretty cute.

A holiday village set up for the Honolulu City Lights.

Rides at the nighttime festivities.

Christmas trees Downtown.

Poinsettias all over Downtown.

Fire-dancer from the Honolulu City Lights parade on the night of the official city lighting

Christmas crafts at the library, all of which have since been destroyed.

At the Triple Crown surfing event in Sunset Beach.

This picture was taken before the largest waves in decades hit about a week later, making the beach access now a cliff. This dog kept coming up to us with a coconut (see between his legs) which we would throw into the ocean and he would retrieve (knocking K over a couple of times in the process).

A rainbow from our apartment view.

At any moment it is not unusual to find stray chickens wandering on the beach. If I were a bird of any sort, I'd live here too. No migrating necessary.

Our winter snowman. Some tourists from Ohio even took a pic with it. Next time I'll charge.

A beautiful sunset.

Crazy banya trees at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Greeted by some friendly faces outside the Polynesian Cultural Center. The beautiful temple.

Pineapple fields on the way to the North Shore.

Eating some Matsumoto's shaved ice in Haliewa. Not as good as Bahama Bucks in Mesa, but I won't complain. Our favorite flavor is lilikoi (passion fruit). The real die-hards eat their Matsumoto's smothered in sweetened condensed milk. The waves at Waimea Bay seem to break right at the shoreline. In 1978, Eddie Aikau, the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay and well-known surfer, was part of an canoe expedition that was following the ancient route between Hawaii and Tahiti. The canoe ended up capsizing so Eddie decided to go get help by paddling on his surfboard towards the nearest island. The crew was later rescued by the Coast Guard, but after the largest air-sea search in Hawaii History, Eddie Aikau was never located. So in his memory, the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay was created. As a requirement, the event only occurs when the waves reach a face height of over 30 feet, which has only happened eight times since 1985 (one of those times was a couple of weeks ago when swells reached record heights in decades!). His memory also lives on in the saying "Eddie would go".

Kenz and Dad at the beach.

At the BYU vs U of Hawaii basketball game. BYU did us proud.