Celebrating Christmas

Yes, the kids said that they had a great Christmas!!! Charlie can't remember when they didn't have a good one!!! Here are the kids with their "big gifts".

Our dinner was delish... The lobster, so yumms!!!

And here they are before we started opening presents... Rashan, Kiale, Kalani and Maia... The fam bam!!!

Mele Kalikimaka!!!

And its over... It took so long to get here, but Christmas has once again come and gone. And I'm still up... So I thought I'd jump on here and do a little blog about our AWESOME Christmas. I took a bunch of pictures, but I'll post them tomorrow when I have a little more determination :)

Last night, Kiale and Rashan made cookies for Santa and wrote him a note. I'm going to post a pic of the letter tomorrow, don't want to spoil the surprise and tell you what was in it, but it was absolutely priceless!!! He deserved every present that he got today!!!

We spent today at home (*smile*) with our family and Iva, Rashan and Junior. The kids made out like bandits!!! Kiale got 3 games (kerplunk, scene it, and othello), a DS game, 2 Wii games, a killer Hurley jacket (thank you aunty Tia!), a bunch of Sean John and Roca Wear shirts, 2 Quiksilver shirts, a Pokemon game, a creepy crawler maker, a huge lego set, the Mummy 3 DVD, a UH T-shirt, a Laser Tag set, a couple Bakugan, a Bionicle, the Tommy 20 Nerf gun and a portable DVD player... I think that was it??? He was sooooo happy! But then again, what 7 year old wouldn't be? His favorite is by far the Laser Tag set!!! Maia got a WHOLE BUNCH of clothes!!! Mostly Abercrombie and Roxy, oh and that sweet Famous sweatshirt, a Roxy wallet, 2 Roxy bags, moolah and her digital camera. It's a really nice one, so she was SUPER excited. Kalani got a WHOLE BUNCH of clothes too!!! Same, Abercrombie and Roxy, a Famous sweatshirt, moolah and her UGG boots. She was so funny when she opened it, because she wasn't expecting it. It took everything in her to contain her excitement, but you could see it on her face. The kids were thrilled and thankful for all their gifts.

After presents, and cleaning the mess, we had the best dinner. Prime rib... Lobster... Steak... Shrimp... Ham... Corn on the Cob... It was so ono. The lobster was the absolute best. The meal was all I wanted for Christmas!!!

As the kids get older, they are able to understand what the holidays are really about. Family, friends and the birth of Jesus. Even Kiale knows the true meaning of the Christmas. We always tell the kids not to expect much, because that's not really was Christmas is supposed to be about, so they always ask for simple things. It's actually me who goes a little overboard :) I can't help it!!! The joy for me comes from seeing their faces when they open their presents. Since they were little, I've always spoiled them at Christmas time. I remember one year, actually it was in 2000 when I had just gotten pregnant with Kiale. It took the girls HOURS to open all the gifts that I bought them. Because they were into toys, we bought 3 of almost everything!!! I'm glad that now I only really have to buy them clothes to make them happy. Especially since I'm the best sale shopper around!!!

Hoping that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.... Blessing to all!!!

Lots of snow.... Just in time for CHRISTMAS!!!

This is what we woke up to on Monday morning. We had a total of 9 inches of snow at our hours. It was insane!!! It's beautiful to look at , but now we're paying the price as it all melts away and makes driving out of our street HORRIFIC!!!

Kiale enjoyed sledding down our little hill. It's not very big, so he had to get a running start. Plus, the snow was so soft that you just kind of sunk right into it.

After that, Maia, Kiale and I made a snow man. I forgot just how heavy snow can be!!! It's funny cause the last time I remember us doing this, we had to struggle to get enough snow to finish him. This time, when we were done, we didn't even put a dent in all the snow that we had!!!

From there, we went to snow angels. Just Maia and Kiale, not me. I wasn't about to lay in the cold, cold snow!!!

Then, of course, we had to have a snowball fight!!!

Here's our tree on Christmas Eve. Kiale is dying to open the presents!!! He's been counting down the days on his "Countdown Santa" for weeks now. I had to reorganize the presents since they were making their way further and further out! Of course, I put the "big presents" in the back.


One of our traditions here is our "Secret Santa Stockings". We used to have the kids buy gifts for each other. Well by the time I had taken all the kids shopping, we'd spent another $200+ on the kids gifts for each other. So about 4 years ago, we came up with a new tradition. We all pull names for gifts in our stockings. Then we each head off in groups to the dollar tree. It's more about the fun of it. We each spend $5 and see what we can get. We've opened gag gifts, candy and nice things that you wouldn't expect to find at the Dollar Tree. This has actually become one of our favorite parts of Christmas!!!

From Our Family to Yours... Mele Kalikimaka!!!

Oh the weather outside...

This past week we've had a serious reminder of how living in Washington can actually suck!!! we've been hit hard by the "December Storm". The kids have been out of school since Wednesday. Kiale's not one bit upset about his extended Christmas Break. We started with about an inch or so on Sunday:

Since Wednesday, the outside of my house looks like this:

The kids have no complaints. The snow around our house tends to stay pretty much in tact since no one really comes back here. Charlie, Kiale and Rashan spent Thursday anf Friday sledding up and down the street (Charlie pulled them with the van). They did this for hours!!!