Christmas, Ellington style

Every year we celebrate Christmas at my parents house starting Christmas Eve. When we were children we would open all our gifts from our family on Christmas Eve and awake early Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought. Even though we no longer receive gifts from Santa we keep the tradition of opening our gifts on Christmas Eve after dinner rather than on Christmas day. This year we decided to do secret santas. Secret Santas were supposed to be secret, as the name denotes, but my family isn't exactly the best in keeping secrets so everyone had figured out at least half of them before we exchanged gifts. Shari was the worst; she went around telling everyone who she had (Nannie) and who had her (me!) and any others that she thought she knew. It was fun teasing her that if she was so certain we should wager on it, as gambling is a favorite pass time in our family, especially because in the end she only missed about 2.

Normally dinner includes Christmas crackers, as my mom was a Brit in a former life and loves all things British, but she had trouble finding them this year. Crackers usually contain a paper crown and a small novelty, like toys from cracker jacks. Oddly enough, Adam and I found them at William Sonoma. Can't you just find everything there? Christmas makes us all revert back to being 12, whether telling someone who you think their secret santa is or anxiously awaiting the end of dinner so you can pop your cracker and find out what is inside, and that's why it is my favorite time of year. Here are some pics from Christmas Eve at my parents...crowns and UT santa hats included!

The Magic of Christmas

I have always thought Christmas was magical and loved the beauty of a decorated tree and the glow of millions of twinkling lights but each year I am amazed at how much work goes into preparing for the holidays. For the last few years, we have done 3 inside trees in addition to the outside lights. Between the two of us it literally takes us 3 weeks to get everything up and working. Here are some pics of our effort this year:

                                         

I thought 3 weeks was a lot of time to put into something you can only enjoy for a few weeks until I read about this man that plans his Christmas light show starting Dec 26 each year. This man lives in Deerfield in Plano, which is known for the entire neighborhood participating in the Christmas light show, and was even featured on Good Morning America http://www.deerfieldplano.org/.  Adam had never seen the lights in Deerfield so I convinced him to go on Dec. 23. There was literally a traffic jam to get into the neighborhood and a complete dead stop approaching this man's house on Old Pond. Once we got to his street there was a policeman directing traffic and you were not allowed to stop in front of the house to really get a good look. The house had a 'live' Santa sitting in the front yard collecting donations and a kid that handed out fliers that told you what radio station to tune to hear the music that accompanied his light show. There was so many people it took us about 3 hours to go through the neighborhood. The neighborhood had already handed out the awards for 2008 when we went on the 23rd and this house won first place. We really thought it was too busy and that the 2nd place house that had Santa with his sleigh and all the reindeer suspended in the air at an angle was way cooler. I can't imagine the patience and time it takes to create something like what we saw. We are doing good to not blow out a portion of a stand of lights on the house or in the middle of the tree. How do these people do it? The magic of Christmas I suppose.

Speaking of magical Christmas moments, we certainly have encountered a few this holiday season:  Shari will eat jambalaya if Adam makes it, even though she hates every ingredient except chicken; I'll drink milk if it has brandy and powdered sugar in it and served up as a milk punch; and Adam will even admit that I'm right...he FINALLY agreed that Braum's egg nog ice cream does not exist after 2 years of never seeing one gallon!

Braum's Egg Nog ice cream does not exist; there I said it!

I don't like egg nog and don't exactly want ice cream when it is 30 degrees outside but I have spent hours over the last few weeks searching for Braum's egg nog ice cream.  The only reason I can come up with is that it is now all about the chase.  It started last Christmas when my mom innocently asked Adam and I to stop at Braum's on Christmas Eve and pick up some egg nog ice cream.  We went to 4 stores on the way, only to be mocked and laughed at because it was in fact Christmas Eve and the Plano locations had been sold out for weeks.  So this year we were not going to be egg nog ice creamless and thus started our search right after Thanksgiving.  We just stopped for the 10th time since Friday and guess what NO EGG NOG ICE CREAM!  Every time we stop at any location we are told the same thing, "The truck just came in today, let me go check. Nope, there wasn't any on that truck.  We should be getting another truck in tomorrow. Yall should check back then."  So what do we do, we go back AGAIN and it's the same story.  Of course every time we stop we have to buy something even if it's just cheese from their market area and Adam has to spend at least 10 min talking to the teenage or grandma aged clerks.  This search has seriously been worse than some I've been on for a coveted handbag.  I mean really, I found Kate Hudson's charcoal gray Chole bag after only visiting 2 Nordstroms....how could it possibly take 10+ tries to find egg nog ice cream???  

So I finally think I figured it out...Braum's egg nog ice cream does not exist....it's just a ploy to get people into their new improved market area to buy a bunch of over priced dairy products and local Texas crap.  Adam asked me to add a disclaimer to this posting in case any Braum's employees are reading....he DOES believe that egg nog ice cream exists and he will diligently keep the search party going.  If anybody has an 'in' he wants 3 gallons - 1 for him, 1 for my mom, and one to auction on ebay!

September 10th – Mahola, Hawaii

Our last day we spent at the pool. Tiffany, the cocktail waitress, came by to say goodbye. She actually had tears well up in her eyes as she hugged us. We had an unbelievable time in Hawaii…definitely one of our best trips ever!

September 9th - Remember Pearl Harbor

Today we went to Pearl Harbor. I had been a few times before as a child but Adam had never been so we decided to make the day of it. I am totally not into things like this, but Adam seemed to really enjoy it so we stayed about 5 hours. We did pretty much everything you can do – the Arizona Memorial, the Battleship Missouri, and the Bowfin submarine. When we got to the USS Missouri we decided to do our own tour rather than the guided one. We were warned that this was a rather large battleship and to stay on the path so that we didn’t get lost. I was fine for the first hour or so and then I started to realize how long we had been on the lower floors and I started to panic because I realized we didn’t know the way out. I’ve become extremely claustrophobic in my old age and immediately started looking for an exit. We stuck to the upper levels for the remainder of that exhibit. Unfortunately, the last stop of the day was the Bowfin submarine. I so much as walked down the stairs and started to panic so I decided it wasn’t for me and I would meet Adam by the exit. I left through the entrance stairs and a security guard informed me that was not an exit or something to that effect. I think she could tell by the look on my face that I wasn’t going back down there to use the proper exit so she told me where to go wait for Adam. Here are the pics from Pearl Harbor

We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon so decided to go watch the surfers in front of the Moana Surfrider hotel and then enjoy the sunset….

       
         

September 8th – Happy 1st Anniversary!

Again today we decided to do nothing but go to the pool. Prior to leaving Dallas, I had made plans for Adam and I to renew our vows. When we got married last year, the minister at the Atlantis read the wrong vows. We think he read the ones from the wedding that he did before ours but we aren’t sure. All we know is that they weren’t the correct ones. Adam had no idea that I had planned this; only that we had plans at sunset and it didn’t include eating. After the ceremony, we returned to our room for champagne and cake. I had arranged for the pastry chef to make a chocolate peanut butter cake like the grooms cake we had at our wedding, minus the gator on the outside. So here are the pics from our vow renewal…

For dinner we didn’t feel like dealing with the crowds in Waikiki so Adam arranged for us to have dinner on our balcony. It was absolutely fab, a great way to celebrate 1 year!

September 7th – Finally relaxation

Since we are going home in a few days we decided we need to relax a little since we have pretty much been on the go since we arrived in Hawaii. Today we did absolutely nothing but go to the beach and pool and drink French mojitos and chi-chis. The beach in front of the hotel is unbelievably small so we spent most of our day at the pool. The cocktail waitress, Tiffany, loved us probably because of our bar tab and that we were the only mainland Americans there as the hotel had an extremely large Japanese population. She made a great dinner recommendation - Chef Mavro’s. You order according to how many courses you want and they pair a glass of wine with each course. It was truly amazing!

September 6th – Welcome to Waikiki

Today we went back to Paia so Adam could finally get his fish sandwich at the Paia Fish Market and it was well worth it.  Probably one of the best fish sandwiches ever! We were VERY SAD to leave Maui. Even though it didn’t start out too good we ended up having an unbelievable time…

We flew to Oahu this afternoon. We are staying at the Halekulani on Waikiki Beach. Waikiki couldn’t be more different from Wailea. Wailea is quiet and relaxing. Waikiki is lively and happening to a detriment. The second we left HNL we wishing we were back in Maui.

Tonight we went to dinner at Sansei at the Marriott– yes, the same Sansei that we ate at in Kihei on Maui. It was so great we just had to go back!

September 5th - Part 2

The final major stop was Pipiwai Trail that takes you to the bamboo garden and the acclaimed Waimuke 400 ft waterfall. They claim it is a 4 hr hike (2 mile each way) because it is severe up or down hill over rocks/roots. Adam and I did it much faster...about 3 hrs round trip. We move pretty fast when we are on a mission...and it started pouring rain on our return and I wanted to get out of there before that bamboo decided to fall on my head!

here is what I call the 'kiddie ride' as we thought it was cool until we saw the real deal

The terrain to get the waterfall was not too bad...mostly dirt trails with lots of roots and rocks a lot of which are in place to prevent the entire place from being a mudslide. We wore our running shoes for this one so relax..sigh! Along the way you go through the bamboo gardens which were super cool. Here are some pics

Ok, so here's the main event. The 400 ft water fall Waimuke. It was TOTALLY worth the hike!!!

It is required at all tourist attractions, per the locals, that you do the 'shaka' hand motion...so i HAD to do a 'double shaka' when we FINALLY made it to the waterfall. And here is Adam AGAIN breaking the law.

After the waterfall hike we hiked a short 15 min to the 7 pools, fully known as Ohe'o Gulch Seven Pools. This was cool but nothing compared to the waterfall so we kind of rushed through it. It's basically a waterfall that collects in 7 separate areas that don't get hit by waves and thus they are pools that people swim in. We were soaked from walking an hour back from the waterfall in the pouring down rain that we were not really up for a swim.

We hauled-ass on the way home only stopping once for a slight motion-sick moment (no puking!) and bathroom break so that we could make it to our dinner reservations. Hana is so big now and slightly commercialized that you can't make it out in less than 3 hrs so we had to call and cancel. We ended up eating dinner Longhi's again because neither of us wanted to be in the car to drive some where else. It was ok. Here are some pics from the way out...

September 5th - all this beauty in one very full day

Today Adam and i drove to Hana. I took NUMEROUS bonine (dramamine sub) and actually made it not only all the way to Hana but several miles past to Waimuke Falls (400 foot waterfall) WITH NO VOMITING!!!NOTE: Locals currently HATE tourist being on Hana Hwy and have even gone as far as to paint over mile markers that denote major sites or to black out signs with pertinent info such as ' one way bridge', 'restrooms', 'scenic lookout', etc. It's actually quite dangerous without correct signage. The good news is that it has NOT deterred any tourist, the bad news we all wonder around in circles asking each other where the 'sites' are...the double bad news is that in the one way portions of the road the locals DO NOT STOP for on-coming traffic. We were ok outgoing as we 'hugged the mountain the whole way"; but the way home was super scary as we were on the cliff/coast side and these people just push through space or not! One couple told us that a local tried to charge them $125 EACH to see one of the waterfalls, claiming it was his grandma's property...WHATEV!!! In everything that I have read the beaches and water ways are owned by the PUBLIC in which case this guy was just an ass trying to take advantage of a tourist- which by the way, is his livelihood. Luckily, they didn't pay him but needless to say it is NOT the Hana Hwy mom and dad took us on as kids!!!!  The road to Hana was beautiful but treacherous as EVERYONE who has been on it knows but we saw the MOST AMAZING things today. please see!!!

Keanae Arboretum - most amazing, unusual flowers you have seen in your life:

Keanae Pennisula - not only an amazing location but great banana bread (yes, I even ate it as it had NO NUTS!). What is crazy is that on the other side of the parking lot where we parked to take these pics is a KIDS BASEBALL FIELD!!! Can you imagine playing b-ball where if you hit a home run it went into this???

Check out the hibiscus! They grow wild here in EVERY COLOR you can imagine. I LOVED the pale pink!

After Keanae we saw a waterfall on the way to our next major stop. It was NOT accessible from a trail so we climbed LITERALLY over a shack (as in I stepped on the roof to get to the next foot hold) to get to it. There was a deteriorated sign saying 'private property, no trespassing' but of course that did not deter Adam. He was over the shack before I even put my running shoes on! It was pretty cool...here are the pics. In Adam's defense, note that others were there.

Next stop was the red sand beach at Kaihalulu which is just past Hana. The interesting thing about this stop was that it was on the Hana "must see" list published by the Grand Wailea hotel but it is marked as private property; no trespassing. Of course, to Adam that is an invitation to keep going so here you go...we hiked about 10 min over dangerous cliffs (some points no foot holds only roots to cling to by hand!) IN FLIP FLOPS (gasp!) to get to this one but it is a gem! We went swimming here but the bottom was ungodly rocks that tried to tear up our feet. Both of ours are so thick skinned from our lifestyle that it didn't deter us too much. If you swam really close to the rocks the tide on the other side of the coral reef would create a 'draft' that would pull you like a lazy river right along the reef in a safe distance that you didn't bump the reef. All the locals were doing it as well as some not so smart tourist. I'm not so smart sometimes, but not completely dumb, so I 'allowed' Adam and I to try it ONCE and I couldn't enjoy because I was just waiting for the big wave that crashed one or both of us into the reef and scared our faces for life so I quit after the first go...daredevil, yes...but a light-weight daredevil!