Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010
Merry Christmas! Our first Christmas in our home - you would have thought I'd freak out about it, but it was fairly mild. We didn't even go cut down our own tree this year! Sadness. But I was freaking tired from the semester and working. Christmas #1: We had mom over to our place for some presents and tree decoration.

We were having issues getting a 'natural' shot of us decorating the tree, so per usual, I decided to go for flamboyant.

We had a nice evening eating too much, listening to Dean Martin, and opening presents.

Mom hung out with her granddogs.


Christmas #2: At my Dad's

It's official: we all suck at taking pictures. If Courtney's not around, odds whatever's happening will not be documented.

Fire! Love it.

We got Dad a Wii Fit. I would pay good money to watch Dad use that thing.

Dad sets up his Wii while I try to figure out how to use my new game.

Opening presents! Hi grandmom! It was great to spend the holiday with her.

We had a lovely evening eating, playing games, and relieving Dad of his wine stash. Also, we really need to get a Trivial Pursuit with question cards that were printed after 1872.

Christmas and Other Adventures

Day 5

I'm still at the office, being screamed at by deaf seniors, so I have no idea what when on. Enjoy the photos.

However, I DO know where they went - they are at Ko Olina, where David and I used to live. Perfect for sunbathing.

A view from underneath one of the thatched umbrellas on the beach. I thought this was a cool shot. Apparently all Dyer children have mad photography skills. Not only can they hit a pose in under 2 seconds, they have a good eye for composition.



Sting Rays at the hotel

GIANT Banyan tree. You can see the other normal trees to the left to give you an idea of it's size. This was my favorite tree to climb up into and read a book.

The beach below the tree

Aww, cute couple

Ok, I obviously WAS here for this. Ruthie and Josh were awesome and took me out for a late birthday dinner at a place that was a lot nicer than I thought it was. I mean, it's called Nick's Fishmarket, for cripes sake. Doesn't exactly have me thinking black tie.

Anyway, it was awesome, and I got to check off a restaurant on my 'want to go to' list. Thank so much guys, this was a wonderful treat for me. So glad we could share it with you!

Day 6

On this day, we counseled them to go out on their own - some of our favorite memories were when we would visit Court and take off and explore for a day by ourselves. So, we handed over the car keys, and off they went!

They stopped by Pearl Harbor like good little Americans and took some cool pics:

Although, personally, this one is my favorite from the day.

Manly.

Speaking of macho, I got my macho on in the kitchen, by making what is becoming my signature 'visitor's' dish, Macadamia nut-crusted mahi mahi with sesame potato cake, wilted spinach, and chili-coconut sauce. Whew, that is long. It's also a pain in the butt, so I only make it for visitors. David says 'please more people come out.'

But the macho came in when I FINALLY got to use my torch on some unsuspecting macadamia nut creme brulee. (I apparently like theme cooking) I gleefully charred those puppies. In a good way.

Intense concentration

Day 7 - Christmas!

I am not sure if I mentioned this, or if it's in blogs I've written and never posted, but I have visitor's OCD. It was definitely going on in full force today.

If you are ever at Christmas at my house, Santa will come to visit you. I don't know why this is, but I have to have something in my stocking. Still, David has yet to remember this year to year, and so each Christmas morning he sheepishly opens his stocking while mine is forlornly empty. I have hope for next year though! I think it made an impression this year.

Stockings hung by the..um, window? with care

and a lot of tape

Of course, Ruthie and Josh couldn't pack out there presents all the way out here, so they had to watch us open all of ours. I kind of felt like a chump.

These are the presents from my mom, Queen of Wraptopia. You can't tell, but they are adorable.

Ok, Close ups!

Look, David as Santa. He looks mischievous - he is probably about to give someone some coal.

And Winter Tiffy. I look like a Barbie Doll. Mainly bc my actual wardrobe was not involved.

Mom sends us checks each year, and each year she outdoes herself in packaging. This year, David opened his present, and saw mom sent him.. a book? What? He was perplexed. And probably somewhat frightened. So we opened it up and read some of it to see what the heck it was about, when SURPRISE! it is one of those books with a secret compartment inside! I thought that it was excellent, and so did David. We are totally keeping that bizness.

Of course, I SAID everyone gets stockings! At least they had something to open.

AWESOME frame from my sis. Love it.

Lily got a present from mom too - even hers was wrapped nicer than anything I sent out.

There were cookies in there. They didn't last long. I think she ate them while they were still inside the bag.

Have you ever seen this t-shirt? I thought it was freaking hilarious, so I got it for David. Princess Bride fans will laugh.

Then came the new Christmas tradition of trying to hook up via webcam, where we all sit around for an hour while the techie Dyer brothers futz with computers/tvs/speakers and try to get us to all talk and see each other in real time. I don't know if you can tell, but John's face of frustration on the TV makes me laugh.

Of course, it eventually worked. They are geniuses, after all.

Here is us attempting to take a Christmas picture. My freaking dog is the worst poser ever. It's like she suddenly has doggie ADD and cannot sit still, and will go into freak out panic mode if you try to make her. Gack. As you can tell, she is in the process of ripping off her antlers.


Another new tradition is the Christmas lunch cookout on the beach. It is fun! Idyllic!

At least in my head.

David wanted to bring Lily, and there really aren't that many beaches that allow dogs. I suppose we should have done more research, but we pulled up to several that got rejected before we finally gave the law a little Christmas cheer and totally ignored it, taking Lily wherever the heck we wanted.

This actually marked the beginning of my time off to be with them, and the weather turning against me and all my well-laid plans. I make graphs, people! Graphs that cross-refernce weather forecasts and activities! Graphs! Of course, I make them and keep them in secret, lest I reval my true level of crazy.

Josh chases some crabs on the beach.

It ended up being really windy. I mean, REALLY windy. Like 40 miles an hour non-stop. It was like when you stick your head out the window on the highway wind, but there was no escaping it. It kind of made things... uncomfortable. And less than warm. Which turned out to be fine, because.....

Right. So getting in the water was kind of out. Apparently the high winds were blowing in some things from deeper water. Or it was a full moon. I can't remember.

W also had some issues keeping our portable grill lit. I mean, just look at Lily's ears!

Ruthie and Josh are too nice to say anything mean, but I was the host, so I can complain all I want. This was NOT what I had in mind. Where was the lounging on the beach with hot dogs and playing some frisbee while Lily splashed in the surf? Instead we got ghetto-rigged grilling while using all extra appendages to hold down our stuff to keep it from blowing away, while at the same time holding on the the dog and trying to get her to quit eating all those mystery chunks of who knows what that were under the table.

I dunno, I freaking love this picture.

Anyway, after the we ate the obligatory hot dogs, we got into the nice wind-free car and went home. Freaking nuts.

On our side, the wind was mostly blocked by the mountain range, so it wasn't quite as bad. We went for a walk on Waikiki to take in the sights.

A Sunset-flavored shave ice at sunset. Nice.

Look! A decent picture that was acutally taken by me! The Kesteds with Duke

I just liked this pic

After sunset, we went home and cooked the real Christmas dinner, which I pawned all the hard bits off on Ruthie, because I had been cooking a lot and was kind of over it. I totally wimped out and did the glazed ham thing for dinner. We didn't have enough chairs for the dining table, so we ate at the coffee table. My mother is shaking her head in shame right now.

Our nice Christmas dinner at the coffee table, with me, David, Josh and the vaccum cleaner. What the!? Why is the vaccum cleaner out!?

We ended the night by going to see Four Christmases at the theater, and it was hilarious. David was planning on being bored, but he laughed a lot. I think I can go ahead and recommend it.

This Christmas

And now, I will blatantly plagiarize a post from one of the coolest people who will let me call them a friend. You will all be better off peeking inside her head.



Not to mention, she writes better than I do.



So without further ado:



I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I love that people are more willing to talk about spiritual matters. I love that the birth of my Savior is celebrated. I love the weather. I love being able to wear scarfs and coats and drink hot chocolate. I love that my entire family is together in the same place. I love that people are more giving around the holidays. It all makes me giddy.



But I really hate the way commercialism has dwarfed Christmas. I hate that I thought "oh no... presents" this morning instead of "Praise you Jesus!". My thought process reminded me of something I read on The Rose's blog a few weeks ago: Advent Conspiracy. They posted the following video and it really got me thinking. Hopefully it will get you thinking too.

Partridge in a Palm Tree

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

It has been a weird holiday season for me. The separation from family, combined with the weather and fusion Hawaiian-Christmas music (imagine: The Beach Boys singing ‘White Christmas’ gaaah.) have kind of robbed the holiday from me. I probably should have written this post earlier, before I got used to the Hawaiian weirdness and it no longer bothered me. I spend a lot of time walking around, and I remember my incredulity at the vast differences between the holidays here and at home. I wrote a bunch of funny editorials in my head, and then promptly forgot them. It's annoying. It's like once my brain is done analyzing a situation, it is erased from my head and all I have left is a vague tingling sensation that I've forgotten something important, again.

This is the star of the downtown Honolulu decorations - Santa's big toe is about the size of my head. You could find Santa in various states of undress all around town, enjoying the Hawaiian lifestyle.

I think that is what I will miss the most (other than people) – seasons. The cooling weather, fires, hot chocolate, and home cooking are all missing out here. I just couldn’t get into it, which is saying something as you all know I am kinda Christmas-Crazy. All the aspects are there; Christmas lights downtown, pine trees, shopping hordes…could weather alone make that much of a difference? While I was overjoyed to spend a Christmas with my sister again after so many years, something was missing. The magic. The magic was missing. That sounds like a horribly cheesy tag line, but I'm not sure how else to convey it. Where did it go? As it is something nigh impossible to define, it will remain a mystery. Thank you to everyone who sent us a Christmas card – they were like little lifelines to back home where there was someone who missed us. We appreciated every one.

Heading to David's Office Christmas Party

Decorating the tree later that evening

Christmas Day itself was fun – David and I started out the day with a video conference back to the Dyer household. I do miss his crazy family, even though half the time I’m unsure if I’m being laughed with, or at. We have an evil plan to lure them all our for Christmas next year, which would be wonderful if only it could happen. Here’s hoping. Below is this year’s Dyer Christmas Portrait. They posed with us via the webcam. Pretty cool.

Then we loaded up and went over to Court and Paul’s to borrow their tree, and proceeded to open our presents. The ones who really made out like bandits were the dogs – flooded with the influx of toys, their little brains went hyperspastic. Many a stuffed toy met their end that day, when they (they being Lily) finally quit stealing from each other and settled down with one toy to destroy. I discovered that it is a good thing Bear is the most well-trained dog on earth – she can reduce anything to little pieces in about 10 minutes, if she really concentrates.

The dogs wait to open presents from my mom - I think they got more than I did.

Watch out, fish! Or in this case, Christmas tree.

David's big present was a subwoofer to complete his entertianment utopia.

The dogs rip into their gift

My present from David

Court and Paul are ready for the ocean! In case you were wondering, that thing Court is holding is to suck up fish so you can look at them closer.

Walkin' in a Wrapping Wonderland

David's new tradition for celebrating holidays

After that we headed out to a BBQ dinner on the beach. I had heard from somewhere that it is traditional to eat ahi (tuna) on Christmas, so that is what we had. Usually when I think I’ve heard something ‘from somewhere’ that somewhere is David, and since I’m too lazy to actually look it up myself, I can always point the finger at him in case I’m wrong.

David and I had bought a portable grill for future beach parties, so after a few false starts, it got its inauguration. We had a wonderful time, and after eating headed down to relax on the beach and laugh as Lily went into Beach Mode, which bears a striking resemblance to Freak Out Mode.

Paul tests our new beach grill

That's all you really see of Lily for the first 10 minutes - a blur.

Here we are enjoying one of my mom’s gifts – ridiculously nice beach towels. We all kept remarking that they felt too nice to put on the sand.

After, we crashed at Court’s and watched an episode of Firefly – which if you are a big SciFi dork like me, you will love. If you’re not, pretend that you don't know I am.

Mom sent Christmas Crackers with her gifts, and I thought that was just awesome. Here we are with our prizes.

So Aloha and Merry Christmas to you all from Oahu – I hope you enjoyed and cherished your respective holiday with your families.