Christmas- Hawaiian Style

 This year, our plane took us to the sun, surf and family for the holiday!  We had a fabulous time!  Our first day there, we ate lunch at a favorite place on the beach and then jumped in our pool at the guest home where we were staying next door to Grandpa and Aunties Linda, Leesa and Nicole. That night, we enjoyed a holiday party dinner at the home of Grandpa Lyman's TV studio family in a gorgeous home on a rural property on the ocean. It was a place where your muscles can't help by relax.

 The next day, at Auntie Nicole's request, we went to the Hilton where Lyman and I stayed for part of our honeymoon 12 years ago to enjoy the pools/property for the day. While we were lounging by the pool, Lyman went to the bar, and we spotted him on the phone. Of course, I started busting his balls about being on the phone to his family, but shame on me since, he was on the phone arranging a spa day for me at their luxurious spa in the hotel. So, I left me family poolside and enjoyed an early Christmas gift of a lo mi lo mi massage and all the spa facilities. Later that evening, we were going on a dinner cruise date. It was so much attention and pampering, I didn't know if my body could stand it, but I did! 

 The hotel resort is so big, there is a tram and these boats to get you around.

 Walking down memory lane, this is the tower at the Hilton where our honeymoon suite was. That was an amazing trip and so was this one!

Cruisin

 One request of mine for our time in Hawaii was to take a dinner cruise and boy did Lyman and his Dad deliver. It was a great time!  Lyman's Dad arranged it, and my Lyman went along with me cheerfully. Best of all, he left his phone on the shore!  Milo stayed behind with the family. The first order of business on the cruise was to look for dolphins and whales; we saw both!  Then the incredible sunset.

 It was a lovely, clear night. This is the mountain on the shore side which is usually never vi sable behind clouds.

 There was a viewing window in the bottom of the boat.

All through the tasty dinner, there was a musician playing the ukulele and guitar singing and playing very nice music. There was also a talented hula dancer. She had many fun costume changes to for the different dances. What a night!  It was such a treat and wonderful end to a day of pampering.

Whales!

Because I have no shame...

Christmas Eve Day at the Beach

 We spent Christmas Eve day a the beach- aka Paradise. It was beautiful with blue skies, warm water and happy family.

Merry Christmas!

 Christmas morning was great fun with a mountain of presents! As excited as Milo was, he was really wonderful at waiting for his turn to open another gift and being interested and excited for the person who was opening a present. We were really proud of him.

 Having said that, he did have the most presents, a fact he was quick to point out to Grandma (Linda's mom) when she was going to open her gifts from the family before dinner later that day.

 Both Grandson and Grandpa got underwear!  Grandpa, are yours ninja turtles too?

 Milo started a tower from the first gift opened.

And here was his favorite- the golden goose as Lyman called it. Alien autopsy... check out the video.

Alien!

Volcano National Park

 This place is amazing. I couldn't believe I was still in the United States; it felt more like the moon in the crazy natural wonder all around. The actual lava flow is going into the ocean- adding coastline everyday- so you can only see that by helicopter. We drove around the crater rim where we first saw this crater with this huge plume of smoke.

 Then we drove around to where there are these steam vents. The hot steam escapes cracks in the earth's surface, and it's hot!  Steam at a fine spa hot. Wet you skin, fog your glasses hot. Cook a chicken all day down in the crack hot. Hot.

 We were there on an unusually blue skied, sunny day. Usually, it's rainy and grey making the steam much more hot as the air around can't cool it as quickly.

 Then we drove around to the sulfur pits, which is just like what it sounds like, rock with minerals, sulfur, magnesium  and some more that smell like rotten eggs. Usually, you can't go in there without choking on the smell, but again the cool breeze helped us out and we got close without respiratory distress.

 Half this national park is flat, steaming, grey land and then suddenly, really suddenly, you are in a bona fide rain forest!  A rain forest!  There are a hundred trails and hikes, but we chose the one to the lava tube.

I don't know how many thousands or millions of years ago this formed, but this tube- maybe a quarter mile long?- was make by lava flow through the rain forest and you can walk through. It's super cool. This was a really fun day!

Last Day

 Our last day was a full day since we were taking the red eye that night.With our final hours, we managed to have a lot of fun to distract us from the fact that we were leaving. First we visited this charming playground that Grandpa Lyman helped construct with several hundred other volunteers. It's a beautiful, creative space full of imagination and artistry.

You know what else was at the park?  Pigs. We heard about wild pigs all week, but never saw any until this last day. They were wild suckers, running, jumping and thumping on each other with some feral cats in the mix as well as a mongoose or two. That's something you don't see any day in CA, or everyday in Hawaii, so it captivated me.

As a finale at Milo's request, we went to the beach again. This one was right in the city shopping area and close to a lot of hotels. It was right by the pier where our dinner boat took off. We walked right over after lunch, played with a bunch of other kids and then walked to get shave ice before dinner and our flight. It was an amazing trip; we had such a nice time all together. Of course we missed our family in Indiana and all their snowfall, but we loved being with our Kona family this year!

Home

 After a LONG journey home on a red eye flight with a connection, we made it home. Lyman went immediately to a nap so he could go immediately back to his crazy schedule. Milo and I went about the business of unpacking and playing with all his new stuff including all the fun that arrived in packages while we were gone. Look what else he got! Another Alien Autopsy toy- a slime shake maker for more Alien experiments. Who wants to come over to our Alien lab?  Assistants needed.

Grinchmas!

 This year, we bought the season pass to Universal (remember those hot, sweaty pictures from Nonna's visit?) knowing we wanted to take Milo to Grinchmas during the holiday. I am glad we did, because we all had a lot of fun.

 We met some Whos.

 Milo played in more real snow.

 Got eaten by Jaws!

 Just kidding!

 The highlight, for me, was the live stage show of Whos and the Grinch in a kind of lame extension of the story (why couldn't they just act out the story?) But it was really pretty and the songs were the same.

 The show ended with the lighting of an amazing tree.

 Milo got his picture with The Grinch and Max.

As always, he has come home and acted it out over and over with his new Grinch gloves.

You're a Mean One... but not really!

Snowdays So Cal Style

 This is how we do it here- a truck dumps a load of snow in a pile and merriment commences.

 Our little friend was really enjoying it until Milo broke the rules and threw snow at her face!

 As you can see, you didn't have far to throw a snowball without hitting someone- so no throwing!  Actually, no doing much. All the people walking on the snow just packed it tight. As Ivan said, we could skate on it in an hour, and we were there when the event began. Milo loved it though- would have stayed all afternoon until it was a pile of slush or an ice rink, whichever came first.

Snowballs

All I want for Christmas...

 is my two front teeth!  That's right, Milo lost two teeth, two days in a row!  It was very exciting. He lost both teeth at school; the first one was on the play yard, where he just took it out of his mouth and put it in his pocket!  The second one was at extended care where they have him a little plastic toothshaped tooth holder to keep it. Adorable! We told him when we were kids we got a coin under our pillow from the tooth fairy, and he told us the kids at school told him you get a prize. "It's like an award, because you lost your tooth." he explained. He was right, the tooth fairy left him a batman comic for the first tooth and a playdough toy for the second.

Here is Milo missing summer, and hoping it will be warm enough to swim in Hawaii!