Gingerbread Cookies

It's that time of year, right? For celebrating and for baking and for being with family. I figured we'd try something new and make some gingerbread cookies. We've never done these before. Reagan and Cole had fun making their own "style" of gingerbread man and woman.



They were in their Christmas pjs when we made them and Reagan's Christmas pjs turn her into Mrs. Clause with hot pads on her hands - perfect! Yep - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!

Let It Snow!!!!

Remember how I said, before our trip to Hawaii, how it had not snowed much and that the weather had been pretty tame? Well, that's over. We were dumped on. Lots and lots .... and lots of snow! It's perfect for Christmas!!!

Steve went out to shovel the walks and the deck (and to brush off the satellite dish) and Reagan and Cole decided to get in on the act. (Not sure why Cole is wearing his Halloween knight costume, but .. oh well.)



I love to see this - especially right in time for the holiday. When we return from getting our dose of sun and surf, we look at it as a winter wonderland and love how gorgeous it is. Everybody is else is saying how sick they are of the snow and the cold, etc. Going away gives us just the breaks we need :)

So, I say let it snow .... Let It Snow ... LET IT SNOW!!!!

YW/RS Christmas Party

The holiday season brings with it many parties and celebrations. One of those is the Relief Society/Young Women Christmas Party. Since this was only a couple of days after the Ward Christmas Party that the YW were in charge of, the RS was kind and gave us an easy assignment. The theme was Ugly Christmas Sweaters. The YW were in charge of prizes for sweaters. My counselor Kim took this over while our family was in Hawaii. She was so funny when she was describing to me the YW activity where they made the prizes. She tried to explain to the girls that ugly Christmas sweaters are a joke to most people and that almost everyone will laugh at themselves and anyone else wearing one. However, there are those women (usually much older) who wear those sweaters in all seriousness and that we needed to be respectful of the situation. So, there was no "Ugliest Sweater" prize. The girls did great - they had prizes for the loudest sweater, the brightest sweater, etc. and gifts that corresponded with the title that was won. So cute. Our YW roamed around the house during dinner and decided on their winners.

The above picture is of our YW and our YW leaders. The pic below is of the recipients of our prizes.  All in all, it was great food, great company and a super fun night!




Our girls announced which sister won what prize and why the YW decided on that. They were great sports by wearing ugly Christmas sweaters themselves. Too cute!!!

Reagan's Christmas Sing

Cole's Christmas Sing was last week; Reagan's Christmas Sing is this week. The children did a great job singing, reciting poems and dancing. They work really hard on this program and we are so happy to be able to support them. Shannon was able to make this one while Rachel was held up :(  As I reviewed the video in order to write this post, I could totally see - just looking at Reagan - when Shannon walked in the room. Although it was in the middle of a song, Reagan smiled so big and she started twisting back and forth (her happy dance). Then, she couldn't help but give a little wave. At first I actually thought it was for us ... you know, her PARENTS???? That thought went out the window when I heard Cole yell out "Shanny!!!!!" Yep - they love their sisters. I tease, but I'm thrilled that they love to see their sisters, that they are as excited to tell them things as they are to tell us and that they want to see them as much as possible.



Anyway, back to the Christmas Sing. It was really cute and Reagan was loving being the performer (as probably all 6 year old girls love to do). I had to laugh because Michelle (a woman that I went to law school with and who worked with me for several years) was there. Her son, Connor, is in Reagan's class and they were actually sitting next to each other and standing next to each other in the program. Its funny because the two of us used to be single ladies and working attorneys. Now we are both married and have children. I am a full time mom and she is a domestic relations commissioner (a family court judge). She adopted her son while she was single and later married another attorney. Never, in our wildest dreams (trust me) did we think we would end up each being married, each having children (in the same class no less) and neither of us actually practicing law. Life has a way of working things out ... wonderfully I might add :)



After the Christmas Sing was over, we returned to Reagan's class where the children presented the parents with gifts they had made. So cute!! We loved seeing Reagan interact with her classmates and enjoy having all of us visit her class. She did a great job in her program and I'm so glad we were here (last year we missed it as we were in Hawaii).
 

Here's a look at Reagan's Christmas Sing:

Ward Christmas Party

So, somehow the Young Women were put in charge of the Ward Christmas Party (again!!!!). Don't get me wrong - I wasn't in charge of the YW or the Christmas Party last year, but I'm still a bit miffed because it is a HUGE responsibility and to have the YW in charge of it for the second year in a row seems a bit unfair. There are many auxiliaries to share the burden of a ward party, so, to have the YW responsible again - ugggh! No matter, we will make it great. We decided to repeat last year's idea of a Christmas Breakfast. We decided on a theme of a Gingerbread Christmas. We have a sister in the ward who is an event planner and a florist. She helped us SO much! We had several food stations - Waffles (with the YW and leaders making waffles), Eggs, Meats & Potatoes, Drinks & Cereal, and Pastries & Breads. In the center of the room, we had a HUGE Candy Bar. We had jars and jars of candies, gum balls, crayons, toys, stickers, lollipops, pencils, and stampers. The primary children sang songs of Jesus' birth and then brought in Santa Clause with "Jingle Bells". After each child saw Santa, the YW gave them a gingerbread house box and took them to the candy bar.



It turned out to be a great party. The only hiccup we had was a last minute change in location. We were scheduled (since March ... seriously) to be in our building - the Stake Center. Well, the week of the party, one of the Bishops in our Stake passed away unexpectedly. They needed to have the funeral the morning of our party in our building. One other building in our Stake had a Christmas breakfast scheduled for the same morning. The last building in the Stake was available (it was much, MUCH smaller than our building); however, that building's ward had a Christmas dinner scheduled for that night and they had already decorated and set up for their party. Their theme was "Back to Bethlehem". Um..... alrighty then. So, we will have Gingerbread people going back to Bethlehem??????? Let's do it! The other ward was gracious enough to let us jump in on their party and decorations. We took some of them down and had to put them back up, but we were just happy to have somewhere to go.

All in all, it was a whole lot of work, but turned out wonderfully. We had lots of help and everyone seemed to have a great time!

Cole's Christmas Sing

Right after our trip, we had Cole's Christmas Sing. I love attending this each year for Reagan and Cole. We missed Reagan's last year because of our Hawaii trip. I'm so glad that we were able to schedule around these this year. The children practice for months to put on their little show - it's so cute. Unfortunately, Rachel and Shannon were each detained at the last minute and couldn't make it, but we were delighted at the show. Miss Karen and Miss Janice really worked with the children and their Christmas Sing didn't disappoint. Best of all, Santa showed up at the end and handed out candy canes!!!! We also were able to see Cole's picture of a raccoon that his teachers had put up on the wall to "show off".
 

I think my favorite song would have to be "Thirty two feet and eight little tails of white." The children had little white tails attached to them and as they sang about the reindeer, they would jump and turn around and shake their little "booties" with the white tails on them - SO CUTE!!! Yeah! Check out Cole and his classmates:

All of a Sudden, He has an Opinion!!!

I know I've blogged before about Reagan and her clothes choice. She definitely knows what she wants to wear and how she wants to wear it. For years, we have had "discussions" about what she was going to wear to church, to an event or to the store or the park. Some of the choices are removed as she wears a uniform to school; however, there are still choices to make (socks, shoes, optional items on Thursdays and Fridays). Anyway, Cole has always been my "easy child" when it comes to clothes. Whether because he is a boy, because he is younger or whatever, he has always just put on whatever I handed him or laid out on his bed.



Well, things have changed! For about eight weeks, Cole has been telling me "Mom, I need a belt." I have kind of put him off, telling him we would look when we went to the store, etc. Well, this week, we went to the store. We walked in Target to the area where the boys' belts were. There were probably 15 hooks with various boys' belts on them. Cole's eyes lit up and he walked right to one of the hooks and proclaimed "This is it!". It was a Shaun White designed belt that was bright red and black with graffiti writing on it and skateboards, etc. I couldn't believe it. I asked again and again "Are you sure?" Yep - he was sure - no doubt in this boy's mind. He did assuage his mom's concerns by saying "I should probably get a black one for church, right?" Yes, you need a basic black one for church.

We came home and he took off the tags and put the belt right on. He was SO proud. We took a pic and sent it to Steve. He put on a batman shirt (I happen to HATE the shirts with graphics on them, but today was his day and I was willing to let him put on whatever he wanted with that new, stylin' belt).



So, all of a sudden, Cole has an opinion about his clothes - who knew?

O'ahu - Day 9

We got up and headed to the airport VERY early this morning. Like I said in my last post, I am excited to get home and decorate for Christmas and enjoy the time leading up to the holiday. However, I will miss the gorgeous scenery and the laid back time we have been able to spend here. We will miss the relaxing days of sitting by the pool or at the beach.

We will miss the view from our hotel room. (And Reagan and Cole will miss the plantation shutters between the bathroom and the rest of the room. They've been playing "restaurant" the entire trip.)

We will miss being together 24/7. Ahhhhhh - until next time, Hawaii ..... Aaaaaallllooooooohhhhaaaaa!!!!
 

O'ahu - Day 8

We didn't get any swim time in yesterday as we were driving around the entire island. No matter, we made up for it today. We swam, hit the beach, lounged in the hot tub and enjoyed the slides. Today is our last full day here and we enjoyed it thoroughly.



In the late afternoon, we took a ukulele lesson. We each were given a ukulele and the teacher did his best to have us (and the other students) actually play 3 songs. Reagan and Cole really enjoyed it. We had some tapas at the restaurant by the water and then hit California Pizza Kitchen for our dinner.

After dinner, we stopped to watch a little hula show in the middle of the shops. Tomorrow morning, we get up, head to the airport and fly home. While I'm ready to get home and get everything ready for Christmas, I will miss being here.

O'ahu - Day 7

Today, we got up, got ready and hit the road. We headed to the North Shore. We stopped along the way to tour the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Reagan and Cole had a great time running around the gift shop and sampling fresh cut pineapple. They loved the pineapple dream sherbet stuff (or is it ice cream stuff?  Oh well). We took some pics and then returned to our little road trip.



Our next stop was at Sunset Beach for the Vans World Cup of Surfing competition. It was great. The waves were huge and they had a big jumbo-tron where you could see the surfers. There were bleachers on the beach and music playing and commentators pointing out moves that the surfers were executing. Reagan and Cole had a blast. Those surfers are brave and talented. The waves would just envelope them and we would hold our breath until they came up and swam back out there.



After having our fill of surfing, we hit the road again, up around Turtle Bay and on to Kahuku. Steve's brother and his family recommended the Kahuku Grill, so, we had to stop. Steve ordered the world-famous coconut shrimp while the kids and I shared a burger and fries. We saw about 10 missionaries and Reagan and Cole had to go over and talk to them for a bit.

After leaving Kuoko Grill, we continued around the top of the island to come into Laie. We stopped at the temple and took a little tour of the Visitor's Center. We met a sweet sister missionary who guided us around. Then, we walked around the grounds and went up to the temple itself. As is our MO when we are at a temple, I always have Reagan and Cole touch the temple and decide (again) that they WILL get married in the temple when they are older. They each touched the temple, closed their eyes, and declared that they will marry in the temple. I love that the temple grounds are always so beautiful, that the temple is white and can be seen relatively far away. I love that you can feel the spirit there, no matter if you are an adult or a child. I love that most places we travel, there is a temple there that we can see, or even touch.



Right down the road from the temple was Steve's neice's apartment. So, we went to see Ashley. Her dad had told us what a "dive" she lived in and how the owner should be ashamed for renting it in that condition. I don't know what he's talking about - it was nice. Yes, they slept 4 to a room, but they had a decent size kitchen and family room and the view from their deck? Amazing!!!!! Here's a pic:



We spent some time with Ashley and then headed on the drive back to our hotel.
 

We arrived and took a walk to get some dinner. We ended up going to Teddy Bear World. Reagan and Cole get to choose a toy or stuffed animal on each trip we take (if they are well behaved). Reagan chose a darling Teddy Bear in a Hawaiian dress and Cole chose a stuffed shark (really ... at Teddy Bear World). They were thrilled and we walked, toys in hand, back to our hotel to hit the sack. We've had a very full day of sight seeing and fun.

O'ahu - Day 6

Up with the sun again and loving today. It is nice and sunny and we hit the pool (again) for some fun. Reagan and Cole have honed in on the fact that the hotel has a "fun patrol". They are hotel employees who coordinate games in the pool or by the slide or on the beach. They have activities each morning at 11 and each afternoon at 2. Reagan and Cole bring their diving rings and meet up with several friends that they have made while on our trip. So fun!!!



After our morning pool time, we showered and cleaned up and headed out for some shopping. We hit the Apple store (of course) and Macy's and many of the shops along Ala Moana. We had dinner and then returned to the hotel. We are going to head to the North Shore tomorrow to see the surfing competition.