Festivus, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day

We do also celebrate the Solstice, so we fit a lot of partying into the winter break.

Here is a photo of our Festivus pole (aluminum, because of its great weight to strength ratio).

We had company for Festivus this year, as well Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Here is an awesome napkin fold Thing Two found online and executed brilliantly.

The Christmas tree, suitable for singing to,

and here is Thing Two with a gift from Cheesypickles, a Twinkie™ maker and the Twinkies he made in it.

He is also sporting a Christmas gift which reads,

"I brought the awesome. What did you bring?"

Now it is time to get ready for 2014.

Can you even believe that??

Merry Christmas!

We went to get a tree at a local tree farm with hot cocoa and apple cider, hay rides, and a little photo thingee. So here we are!

I have posted images of some of our fun ornaments in years past but I thought I would show some of the new fun things on our tree. Here is a bacon ornament from Archie McPhee, which we got last year.

This year's Archie McPhee addition is this stylish mustache.

I mustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later.

We also have Hawaii ornaments on the tree now,

and a new penguin.

This is a local ornament, showing the boat parade.

 This is a gingerbread house made by Thing Two, from the back...

and this is the front view.

Thing One and Cheesypickles made a Christmas gingerbread train. 

I made Christmas crack for our neighbors, here shown in the dark chocolate version topped with macadamia nut, oooooh so goood.

 BTW, I finished my first term of grad school with a 3.7, boom, baby! Feeling good.

A couple more Hawaii shots (I think I'm done now...maybe).

This is a mongoose! It was sneaking out of the bushes to snag a garlic fry Thing One dropped.

This is some sort of loud, funny bird Thing Two found fascinating.

No, really, he found then COMPLETELY fascinating, where ever we encountered them.

Here is Thing Two snorkeling.

Thing One embracing the snorkeling experience

(he prefers snorkeling to SCUBA).

 Fishes photographed by the Things at Hamauma Bay.

Hawaii

We left the day after Thanksgiving for a Hawaiian vacation.
We rented a car and made our way to Waikiki to the Hale Koa where we threw our bags in our room and went to the beach. We wandered around a bit, bought some snacks and enjoyed being warm in bare feet on the beach.




Saturday we went to Wailana Coffee House for Macadamia pancakes with coconut syrup (ohmigosh) then we went to Diamond Head and hiked the trail up, up, up, up, all the way to the top.

The view was amazing, and we also tried the Hawaiian specialty- shaved ice, in coconut and pineapple.

 (borrowed from Google)

We also met a friend of Mr. Logo's who works over there now and in the evening we met my cousin who moved over there last year. He hung out with us for a while and showed us around the Hilton Village along the beach, which was kinda fun to visit and he  loaned us snorkel gear.

We also drove the Windward side of the island and came back on the Pali Highway.

Sunday, the weather was hideous. Torrential downpours of historic dimension. We went to Hilo Hattie and bought aloha shirts and whatnot. Then we checked out of our Waikiki hotel and headed for our beach cottage.
We did manage to find an authentic local place and get a plate lunch, complete with 2 scoops of rice and macaroni salad.  We also went looking for Chinatown but everything was closed because it was late and the weekend. It was a little disappointing but hey, we were still in Hawaii!

Monday was the grand tourist day, we did Pearl Harbor, including the Bowfin and Arizona tours.

It was a great place to visit.

The Bowfin was fun to tour.

 Of course the Arizona was amazing.

Docked nearby is the Mo, where the war officially ended.

 After Pearl Harbor we went to Hamauma Bay and snorkeled. 

Saw tons of fish, had a great time.

Thing Two in Banyan tree with Thing One lurking in the rear.

 Thing One by blowhole lookout.

 Things with shave ice at Christmas tree.
(Pics out of chronological order here)

The Dole plantation where we had Dole™ whip (pineapple ice cream, omigosh) on the North Shore

Wednsday, we also visited the Punchbowl.

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. As we left there we took Tantalus Drive which offered some amazing views and made Mr. Logo and me wish we had motorcycles.

 This is us at a Luau Monday night.

 Where we ate enormous quanities of food

 and watched a show.

 It included lots of dancing, singing, and things like tree climbing and super-sincere lounge acting which was just astounding, frankly. 

This is the beach cottage we stayed in, with boys lounging out back on Tuesday.

This is the view from my bedroom.

 Tuesday the boys rented body boards and went to play for the morning while I lounged around the cottage doing school work. After they returned we did a driving tour of the North Shore and found sea turtles and awesome surf.

Wednesday we hit it early and we did parasailing. Then the boys took intro to SCUBA lessons while Rob and I went out for macadamia pancakes with coconut syrup (omigosh, so sooooo good) 

After that we visited Chinatown and went back by the Hale Koa for one last trip to the Waikiki beach as well as the Army Museum next door. We bought some last-minute souvenirs called it a day.

Then we had to head home.

Where we arrived to freezing temperatures.

I think we might have to go again soon.

My 25th anniversary is about 2 years away, that is a good excuse, right?