Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad - Mele Kelikimaka

Last night we had a monster dinner at home. We invited our good friends Gary and Millie with their two daughters Kirra and Raycey. We had a smoked turkey (it did not stop raining all day yesterday so I had to set a canopy outside under which I set the smoker), mashed potatoes, gravy, hawaiian purple sweet potatoes (yes, not only did I eat sweet potatoes, but I cooked them too), ho'i'o with mushrooms and instead of cranberry sauce we made a pomegranite sauce that was better than any cranberry sauce! hmmmm, and for desert home made cherry pie, courtesy of Aunty Pie (Charlotte that is).....

Then this morning we came out to find our tree almost buried in presents! Well, "morning" is a figure of speech, for if you look at the pictures, outside is pitch dark! the girls got up at 3:30 AM, however, the night before we warned them that they were not to wake us up before 5:30 -isn't that considerate?- which they did....so, at 5:30 we were opening presents while it was still dark outside.......

There were presents from Arizona, New York, and Mexico. Here are some of the highlights:

Sydney: electric guitar, with strap and amplifier (oh dear.....)



Hana: scooter....no picture available yet, cool shoes and slippers, silk pj's, a digital camera......

Charlotte: New surfboard (9 footer), gardening tools and a bucket of bath stuff.....
Me: cool t-shirts (grinch from Nana, and a beer shirt from Kelly)

aaaaand........

A NEW GRILL !!!! Wooooo Hooooooo!

(some assembly required)

Angus & Tiger: New matching collars, a bone (Angus), a scratch post (Tiger) and plenty of leftovers....

But, the show was stolen by the presents sent by Nonna.....the one person who could overule parents AND Santa Claus......

(In the end of the video Hana is saying "Syd but, we don't have any of the games to play" bwha ha ha! our revenge!, just kidding, we got those for them....)

Yes, they finally got what they had begged us for and we had not given in.... a Nintendo DS (each!)....oh the spoiling powers of granparents).....

Keep checking this website to track Charlotte's progress riding the waves, Hana's ability on her scooter, and Sydney's future as a Rock Star.....

Love to all...