Christmas 2012

Hi there! Were you wondering if we were still alive?? Well, we are. And I know it's been forever. No excuses. Just I'm here. With a few photos from our super fun and crazy Christmas.

Grandma Jo and Grandpa CR got to come spend Christmas with us again this year - it has become a really wonderful tradition to have them here! And this year, we got to do something none of us have ever done. The Saturday before Christmas, we headed down the Hana Highway to the Garden of Eden where good friends Mike and Bessie are the property managers / caretakers / people in charge. We've driven past this place countless times on our way to Hana and never stopped, thinking it was just another tourist trap charging an exorbitant fee to see a few pretty flowers with a nice view. But man, were we in for a surprise! That place is HUGE! I had no idea. 30 acres of trails and tons of stuff to see. Mike and Bessie walked us around for awhile and we didn't even see 1/3 of it. Definitely a must-see if you come to Maui...but don't plan on doing it on your "Road to Hana" day because you won't have time. Plan it for another day and plan on spending several hours there. Pack a lunch and explore.  Here's a picture from just one of the overlooks:

Sunday we dipped pretzels (my personal favorite Christmas treat) and then baked cookies for Santa. Dean did the cookie decorating himself.

Christmas Eve day we went to the beach. It wasn't a very good beach day - cloudy and cool and a little windy. But it's our tradition. And if you know me, you know that you don't mess with tradition.

 

In the evening on Christmas Eve, we headed over to Tutu's for dinner and presents. Jayci was there, which of course Dean was happy about. Before dinner, we walked down to the beach for sunset (which wasn't very good) and to watch for whales.

Santa came while we were sleeping and Dean woke up to way to many presents Christmas morning! He got everything he wanted and then some!

 

After a yummy lunch of smoked ham, we headed out to Kealia pond and went for a little walk on the beach. We came home and Dean went on a bike ride. Then Grandpa spent the next 5 hours putting together a Playmobil School while Dean made giant messes playing with new toys and games.

 

It was a pretty perfect Christmas!

Also, if you haven't visited the actual blog in awhile, be sure to stop by - I've given it a little makeover! And I do hope to be better about posting in the New Year!