Holiday Fun!

"I'm too poor to travel." That's something that you hear constantly, and even something I would say to myself way more than I should have. If you really have the desire and the wish to travel and to see the world, it can be done.. simple as that, if you choose to make it a priority that is. For me the easiest way to save to travel is to save in small amounts, or cut unnecessary expenses out of my budget (like the $10 trips to subway a few times a week, or the $5 coffee every day). These tiny changes are barely noticeable in your everyday life but over time can fund your entire trip.

For Mark and I when we travel we choose to stay at the middle of the line hotels/resorts. At least for the two of us we spend so very little time in the actual hotel room that it would be pointless to spend a large chunk of our money on a nice room. Instead we choose to spend that money on tours, museums, or other adventures that we may not have been to otherwise justify spending money on. We are the same with eating out when on vacation. While obviously we like to dine at a few fancy/different restaurants... we make sure we limit the amount of money we spend on food/dining out. Usually one of our first stops is a grocery store for snacks, water, alcohol, etc... for things that easily could be overpriced at the  hotel. That alone saves us a ton of money and we think of it as money saved for our next trip. (That's exactly something someone addicted to travel would say isn't it?? lol).

I have a 'round-up' savings account with my credit union which rounds up all my purchases to the nearest dollar and puts that "change" into a special account. I love this because it's like a virtual piggy bank and you really don't even notice that you are saving, which is great. I saw something online a while back that I loved as well. Each week of the year you put a dollar away based on what week it is. I prefer to start it backwards so as the year goes on you have to put less and less away but are still left with an awesome savings! It's the little changes that will allow you to be able to do more traveling and exploring without completely wrecking your budget.

Fun and easy way to go on a big vacation!

We had a great first thanksgiving in Hawaii! I spent the day working but Mark and Joey were off so they were able to throw the football around and relax a bit. That night however we had a great thanksgiving meal! It's so strange with the warm beautiful weather this time of year that it didn't really feel like the holidays until we had that wonderful comfort meal! We enjoyed pineapple glazed ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, Hawaiian sweet rolls, stuffing, apple pie and snicker apple salad. It was really hard being away from our families but we felt like we were there in spirit. Thanksgiving weekend we went to the Disney resort and ate lunch and hung out on the beach as a little getaway. We also visited the Ko Olina lagoons which were beautiful! It was a high tide day so we were able to see gigantic waves come crashing ashore which is amazing as always. This entire experience has taught us how extremely blessed we feel to have such great/supportive families and as the years come will make those holidays even more special for us as we will be able to look back at this time of our lives and forever feel lucky.

Thanksgiving sunset

Hanging with Stitch at Disney!

Perfect day for a Sangria

Enjoying a spiked tea!

Tanning in November..what a hard life!

Ko Olina Lagoons

What a feast!

Honolulu is more and more becoming festive and preparing for Christmas with buildings being illuminated with red and green, decorations around the house,secret service traffic due to Obama's annual Hawaii visit, more traffic/tourists starting to flock to the island, and the Christmas sand sculptures in Waikiki (that's one thing I could never of dreamed of saying this time of year in Wisconsin, lol). That's right sand sculptures are now replaces snow sculptures in our lives, haha! Many of the buildings display red and green lights and spotlights at night which makes the entire city feel festive. We've added to the spirit by stringing Christmas lights along our lanai. The weather has been beyond gorgeous the past month. The tide has been strong so there are many surf competitions going on at the North shore and humpback whales starting to flock to the islands. The weather gets to be about 80 degrees during the day and down to 70 at night (which is when I need my zip hoodies... worst Wisconsinite ever, lol).

Gooood morning!!

We finally made it to KCC farmers market (something we have been meaning to go to since the first week we moved here in April)! Tons of food vendors, made in Hawaii items and other goodies! We picked up a wonderful Acai bowl, Hawaii made honey, granola, and fresh kettle popcorn along with a bunch of fresh veggies!

Last week Mark was able to get tickets for us to see a Hawaii Christmas program at the Hawaii Theater where they sang a mix of classic Christmas songs as well as Hawaiian Christmas songs. It was fun for us to see different takes on Christmas songs as well as Hawaiian Christmas songs. The theater itself was beautiful with high ceilings and artwork on the ceiling. It reminded us slightly of the Pabst theatre with the artwork and details. The best part of the show was at the end of the program it started to 'snow' in the theatre which made everyone extremely excited, lol. It was such a fun date night for us to get into the holiday spirit while enjoying the cultural twist on Christmas!

Until next time.....

Mele Kalikimaka and Merry Christmas! <3

 Love, Jen and Mark