Aloha Kalikimaka

Happy holidays everyone!

We had an awesome few months celebrating the holidays!

On Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) we went with one of Mark's friends to an awesome Japanese restaurant in town. To even begin to describe the food is impossible. One of the best things living in Honolulu is the FOOD!!! Like this particular restaurant, as well as most restaurants in Honolulu- it's not only about the food- but the experience of the meal. I think part of it is many of the new places we have tried (ie. Ramen/sushi places) are just so different than anything we could find in Wisconsin, so it seems so exciting! In typical Hawaii fashion we ordered a bunch of different plates of food and shared them around the table. This is one of my favorite things about eating here with friends or a big group because you get to try so much! We had delicious taco rice, pork belly, Japanese style pizza, and my favorite dessert! For a final finish to our meal we ordered a baguette bread filled with vanilla bean ice cream. The bread was crispy on the outside and soft inside next to the ice cream. Soo delicious!!! ;)

On Thanksgiving day I made a delicious dinner for us. We had pineapple glazed ham, cheese potatoes, green bean cassarole, crescent rolls, mashed potatoes and more. We had enough leftovers for a week, hehe. It's so different for us to spend holidays just the two of us away from family, but we know it's not for ever so we are enjoying it together. 

Christmas in Hawaii still feels so strange to us and we never really get into the holiday spirit without forcing ourselves. The weather makes it feel like a constant long summer with Christmas decorations randomly showing up around the island. Just like last year, Mark and I went to walk around the Honolulu Festival of Lights. It's a huge display of Christmas lights that span numerous city blocks. There's even a malasada truck serving delicious warm donut-like treats to visitors! The highlight of the display however is, Shaka Santa. A huge Hawaiian Santa and his Mrs are the first to greet visitors to the beautiful lite buildings, wreath displays, and Palm trees decorated in beautiful lights. There was also a large display of different wreaths. Mine and marks favorite was a beautiful mermaid wreath and an entire one made out of champagne corks! This night definely made us ready for Christmas! 

Another fun holiday adventure included a trip into Waikiki to see the sculptures made out of sand at the Sheraton Waikiki while drinking some peppermint hot cocoa in our chilly evening 72 degree weather, hehe. On Christmas Eve, Mark ended up getting out of work early so we were able to spend almost the entire day together at the beach and celebrating our Christmas together! We checked something off my life's bucket list; build a sand snowman on the beach on Christmas. While we missed our families so much and it was hard being away- it was still pretty cool to spend Christmas with our toes in the sand! Later we went to Christmas Eve midnight mass at our Church. The whole church was light up with the windows open providing a cool breeze. It was so special for us. 

We've been doing lots and trying hard to do new things on our days off together, recently one of my favorite spots we've explored is Ka'ena point on Oahu. Ka'ena point is the the most westerly part of the island. It's an insanely incredible part of the island that is so remote and away from everything else. It's a very long beautiful stretch of beach that boosts white sand, black rocks and huge surf. We both walked along the sand for nearly two hours in awe of the beauty. Oahu constantly blows my mind because so much of what I see on a normal day/work week is the traditional hustle/bustle city living. But then driving such a short distance it's pure paradise on earth. It was an awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon together. 

Here's some random pictures from our adventures the past few weeks...

^ Star Wars craziness! Was worth it though!

Our next post we will show you all around Kauai! We just got back from a trip there just three days ago with Mark's dad and stepmom. We had so much fun exploring- even for a little island there is soo much to do/explore! Aloha and Happy New Year!!! 

<3 Jen & Mark

Home away from home

Aloha ohana!!!

We had a large post last time talking all about our Big Island trip. This post we want to catch everyone up with our fall festivities the past few months! On September 19th we finally went to a Rainbow Warriors game (Hawaii's college team). It was especially fun because they actually won! High school private vs. public is where it's at here though with the stands being full! A few of Mark's work friends had gotten really good seats so half the game we sat in the student section pretty close to the field. The stadium is pretty nice and we are especially looking forward to attending the NFL Probowl there in a few months! 

In late September, we attended an Octoberfest themed Eat the street. We wrote about it in the past when we attended, but it's a really great outdoor event featuring dozens of different food trucks. This setup was especially nice with more space to move around, great live music, a Biergarten, strings of lights that lit up the sky, and delicious German food that brought back memories of the real Oktoberfest we attended on 2013! We had a plate with a delicious brat, rice, and other goodies (it wouldn't be Hawaii without the rice). One of the trucks had a huge grill where dozens and dozens of brats were being grilled. The line for this particular truck would have taken us close to an hour to get through so we opted for their competition next to it- which was just as good ;). We even saw a few people in liederhosen- hehe! Only in Hawaii can you get great German food and the best organic shave ice in one spot. Oh yum!!

I wanted to add a few throwback pixs when we visited Germany for Octoctoberfest as well as for Paris with all the terrible things going on there. Paris will always be my favorite city in the world- That was almost our second honeymoon vacation. Sending lots of prayers and love to the city of lights. 

This was the famous IBM building in Honolulu showing support for the Paris attacks. (As well as some recent random pixs)

The first week in Octover we visited home for the first time in a year and a half!!! We can't even explain how good it felt to be back home to visit! (Although I do not miss getting out of a hot shower and freezing my booty off lol). We left for Chicago right after work on Wednesday night on a red eye and after a layover arrived Thursday afternoon. We planned to sleep the entire night on the plane and that didn't go as planned... So we arrived very, very tired to say the least. Regardless we sucked it up and met some of our friends/ family at a local bar that evening to see everyone in one spot and to catch up! That's so a feeling we miss having- so many people we love in one spot. The trip overall was so fun but after so many months anticipating it- flew by! It was filled with football watching, shopping, grilling out, a trip (or two) to the casino, a meal at our favorite Milwaukee restaurant, attending mass at our church, a poker game/ night with our friends, and lots of catching up to say the least! One thing we took from our visit was to not take for granted how much we do love/ miss Wisconsin. To feel the cool fall air in the morning/ evening made us realize how much of babies we have become with the cold, haha. 

This fall we really got into the holiday/ fall season. A few times I made a delicious apple/turkey stuffed acorn dinner which screamed fall. We also went to a local pumpkin farm on the leeward side to pick out a pumpkin and buy some sweet corn, etc. I can't believe this week is Thanksgiving already! We are cooking lots of goodies Hawaiian style this year! Yum!

A few weeks ago we were hanging at the North Shore and the surf was high enough that they started a surf competition hosted by hic (Hawaiian Island Creations) at Sunset beach- which is the Bonzai Pipeline. The contest wasn't going on when we were in the area but we still were able to see everything set up which we were so stoked on! Hopefully soon we'll be off when the contest is going on as they run on random days depending on the surf conditions. It's insane people have enough courage to go surf these waves- as they look so intimidating to be even from shore, lol. 

We have had a few weeks of beautiful sunsets that we had to share. Hopefully they will help bring some warmth to our friends/ family in Wisconsin! 

We wish everyone a Hau’oli La Ho’omakika’i! (Happy Thanksgiving)

ALOHA!! <3

--Jen&Mark