Welcoming the New Year

Last Week of 2010, and First day of 2011

Christmas Eve was a quiet event, we had our friend Pat and his daughter Laurie over dinner.

The house was in a full Xmas mode...

Charlotte set out a beautiful Christmas table for the occasion...

And while it might have been a quiet and informal affair by no means it was a bland meal....we had: Prime Rib (grilled), Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pine Nuts, Beet salad, Green beans & carrots, mashed potatoes and Blue berry crumble with vanilla ice cream......

Christmas Day started bright and early (as usual) with all of us gathering around the tree to get our gifts, this was certainly a good year for all, we all worked hard and Santa showed appreciation for it!

It seems that Charlotte worked the hardest of all, so she got the biggest present, a NEW BIKE!... (watch out Armstrong)

The girls got good presents too, a new body board for Syd, a new doll for Hana...

They also got a collection of vintage Archie and Jughead comics from Uncle Eric and Aunt Kelly from Canada, pretty cool eh!?...

It was time to go Batty!

Even Mowgli got a chance to have fun....(although he didn't even get a lump of coal!)

I got a VERY cool little digital camera that mounts on a surfboard ....

and takes video or pictures every 2s for some very cool images!...of course I couldn't wait to try it out and Bayfront happened to be breaking so here's one of the pictures I got....

It seems that once in a while there is a gift that really is a big success....and it's not always the latest in technology, or the most popular toy or video game....some times it's an old classic, and this year it was a sparkly red tether ball!.... (and it requires no batteries!)

It has already provided many hours of entertainment!...

This year we had a 3-day Eatstrvaganza starting on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we were invited to the Chrysostomous' house for another monster meal. Charlotte baked a ham, there was Turkey, mashed potatoes w/gravy, yams, and many more delicacies..... then on the 26th it was over at our friends' Fran and Jim where Jim made a Prime Rib (there isn't such a thing as too much prime rib) Fran and Charlotte made about half a million tamales (pork with red chili, and poblano with queso fresco) and much more.....

New Year's Eve we stayed at home just the 4 of us and continued with the tradition that we started when we moved to Hilo 4 years ago, to have some fresh Ahi on New Year's Eve to bring good luck for the new year...

We also had some sparklers, and happy lanterns to play with....

Later that night we had our cheese fondue, which we usually have for Xmas Day brunch, but since we went to the Chrysostomous that day the fondue got postponed... Then the plan was to have a Harry Potter Marathon, and some were worried that we did not own the 6th movie, they even considered sending me out at night to buy it!....so I told them that if they made it to the 5th movie I would go out and get the 6th........We were all asleep before the end of the 1st movie......

New Year's Day was absolutely post card perfect, 75F light breeze, sunny skies, a couple of puffy clouds, and the water in the Bay clear as Kona water!....we went and had a picnic at Coconut island to welcome the new year....

So to all Friends and Family we want to wish you a HAPPY...

With all our....

From the ......

Family