All the Holidays!!
I realized I haven't posted since Halloween! Life has been busy, happy chaos! But before I get to the holidays, let me recap Lion's cross country season: she's amazing! Not only is she Hawaii's USATF state champion for 9-10 year old girls, but she made it onto the grown-up podium in two public 5Ks. Her current PRs are 14:20 for the 3K and 23:34 for the 5K.

Initially, nobody was excited about Thanksgiving--not a single neighbor RSVPed to my block party potluck. However, I soon managed to get the girls brainstorming a menu and tablescape ideas, and they proved to be enthusiastic helpers on Thanksgiving day! We enjoyed a delicious and low key holiday.

Christmassy events started before Advent even began! Monkey and Bug stuffed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child with their Bible study group, and the girls filled three more to contribute to our church's shoebox drive. The Saturday before Advent we volunteered to help decorate the church, and create a few Advent kits for other families. In addition to decorating that day, the girls were officially assigned to move the wise men progressively closer to the nativity scene from the back of the sanctuary, so they arrive on Epiphany.

Little Lion fits right in! 

My little elf all tuckered out after a long day
of decorating, singing, and dancing.

On the first Sunday we lit the the hope candle in the worship service--the girls did a fantastic job with the three readings, Daddy actually lit the candle, and "Mommy, you can just stand there and look pretty." (At least, my part was easily accomplished!) That afternoon we blasted the Christmas music (finally! in Lion's opinion. She'd been trying to sing Christmas songs for weeks and got consistently shut down.) and decorated the house for the season.


For our family of year-round learners Advent is our longest break, and we don't start formal lessons again until after Epiphany. This Advent was especially busy as Aunt E came to visit for about two weeks! We did all the Hawaiian holiday things--beach days, hiking, WWII history, so much good food, shopping, etc.--and all the Christmassy things--church Christmas banquet, cookie making, a Christmas laser light show, the girls' Christmas recital, etc. We had such a great time!

The destination of one of our favorite valley hikes--a massive boulder
covered in petroglyphs

Lion, Aunt E, and Bug standing at the rail of the USS Arizona Memorial
with the USS Missouri in the background. They were showing Aunt E
the "tears of the Arizona."

Christmas cookies in progress!

I rediscovered some piping tools, and Bug made some
fancy gingerbread. Yummm!

On one of our beach days, the girls even made a "snowman."
Mele Kalikimaka!

We attended our library's Hanuka and Kwanza event
to learn about the holidays' origins and traditions, each snacks,
and do crafts. I promise they're smiling behind those African masks! 

The Rudolf noses got old quick, but these Santa hats were
very popular this year!

We made our traditional tamales for Christmas Eve, which
means the girls also made corn husk dolls.

Classic Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree!
Aren't they sweet?

But, really, this picture captures them so much
more accurately!

The aftermath of Christmas morning!
(Don't worry, Daddy was willing to share his new toy,
and the girls got to play too.)

Aaaah...the busyness of the Advent season has passed, and the
girls and I settle in with tea, cookies, and The Nutcracker.
(We're pretending like it's cozy, but it's still in the 80s outside!)