Aloha!
I don't know where to begin with the crazy busy last few months we've had so I'll just dive right in...
With Christmas being both of our busiest time of year work wise, we made it a point this year to look at Christmas lights and get into the holiday spirit. Although, I will admit Christmas is still strange being celebrated when it's warm out- especially at church with the doors open during the service in the middle of December. We try every year to attend the Honolulu City Lights. It's a large outdoor lights display where the highlight of the display is shaka Santa and Auntie Claus. Different organizations from around Honolulu decorate their own Christmas trees which are displayed together for the public to enjoy. There is always a Leonard's malasada truck as well. Nothing better than a warm malasada while walking around enjoying the Christmas lights in 75 degree weather! Yep, we're going to miss this memory when we move back to Wisconsin.
Over New Years Mark's dad, Jeff and step mom, Cheryl visited Hawaii! This year we met them on Maui for a few days where they spent a week before visiting us on Oahu. We stayed at an awesome time share resort with a ocean and mountain view room. While we didn't make it to midnight this year (I think I was falling asleep on the couch at 10pm, lol) we had fun grilling out steaks and veggies before hand which was delicious! This was also about the time that we found out that we were having a baby BOY! We had a ton of fun sharing the big news with our family. We wanted to make a big presentation out of it but at the end of the day we were so excited to tell that we blurted it out to everyone without doing anything special, which we loved! :) While dad and Cheryl were here Mark took them to Snappers (the Wisconsin/Packer bar) and watched a Packer playoff win with them, which I heard was awesome! It's always so fun to have a tradition where family comes to visit us each year because we get to show them new things we've found on Oahu and get to discover new things and travel to other islands with them as well! It's always sad to see family leave after the vacation has ended, but we always feel thankful that we are able to make these crazy awesome memories with our family because our dream of living in Hawaii.
Chinese New Year (kung hei fat choi) was celebrated on January 28, 2017- year of the rooster. It's always fun around the islands to celebrate and see the traditional feeding of the lions! Lions are seen to be a sign of good luck and often during new year celebrations they are incorporated in the celebrating. This year we saw a bunch of events in Waikiki including a kung fu demonstration.
Here are a few more pictures from other fun things we've been up to the past few months!
Love, Mark, Jen, Caesar, Cleo and Baby C!
