Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka, Feliz Navidad, and Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to you from Hawaii and California! Joy to the World! The LORD is come!

Even though we did not send out Christmas cards this year, I told Hubs we HAD to take a family Christmas photo. I use our family's past Christmas cards as part of our decorations each ear. Well this year, I lost a lot of weight, and this was NOT the year not to send out Christmas cards!!! Mahalo to all of you that sent me a Christmas card to our old home address because they forwarded to my mom's address in San Diego. They brought me much warmth even though we are in hotel rooms! And if you STILL want to make me feel good and send me a Christmas card, you can send it to my old address, or via email.

Since I am in such a giving mood, we are going to play Guess that Waterfall. If you want to play along leave me a comment guessing the name of the waterfall in the picture. The first correct answer wins a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

We are in San Diego for ten days, part of the total sixty days we are in hotels. We are returning to Hawaii in a few days. I will swim every day when I get back for sure! I am freezing in San Diego. It is a thirty degree drop from Hawaii, landing us in the 50s right now. This is arctic for San Diego. It may not sound cold, but imagine a sudden 30 degree drop from your usual temperature.

Christmas on the Big Island

I have so much still to tell you about the move. But you are going to have to wait, even past Christmas morning. So to hold you over, here is a little Christmas cheer from the Big Island of Hawaii.

There is a little story behind this picture:
Son1 is now horrified by Santa. And his little brother followed suit. Supposedly, Santa arrives in Hawaii on an outrigger canoe rather than on a sleigh. We do not have snow, and we do not have chimneys. So imagine what happened when we played a Christmas Sesame Street DVD (a gift from a neighbor) for Son1 and I heard horrific screaming coming from another room. I found a shaken child. I glanced at the screen and Santa appeared at a chimney fireplace with a big black sack covered in soot. "Santa is scaring me!!! He is a robber!!! He came down the chimney, like the Big Bad Wolf!!"

So he tried proving he was a friendly Santa:

Our whole family loved the tree decorated in ukuleles. The kids strummed the lower instruments.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, Hawaiian Style (an actual song sang Hawaiian pidgin style) was one of my favorite.

After I saw this tree, I told Hubs I NEED another Christmas tree, tropical style, with fresh Birds of Paradise as the topper next Christmas!And for those of you that are dying to hear the Twelve Days of Christmas, Hawaiian Style, enjoy!
Twelve Days of Christmas Hawaiian Style

Mark the Hammerhead Shark

When things were crazy with Hubs gone and my mom in Hawaii, the rest of us were "car-a-zee." Unfortunately, Hubs was not in Hawaii for the Awana Grand Prix. But he and Son1 crafted a car over several nights before the big race.

The Awana Grand Prix is a pinewood derby race. Over 5,000 events are held annually at local clubs nationally. Each clubber purchases a pine block of wood and standard wheels. Everyone constructs a car that meets standard specifications to race in a four lane car race.

So Hubs and I discussed car design at length. I suggested our theme should reflect our time in Hawaii. Hmmm. Well, Son1 is CRAZY CRAZY for sharks, as in, he loves non-fiction shark books and ogles the majestic creature in aquariums and on TV. He knows sharks by their specific names. Get it? So we all settled on a shark car. Hubs called up a coworker with a band saw and a rotary sander in a garage with no light. So after sunset, in limited light, he made a few cuts and sanded it into a shark shape. At home, he and Son1 kept working. He pulled out his Dremel tool and mounted some glasses on his nose. Well Son1 figured he needed safety goggles, too. So he dug into some scuba equipment. Hubs and I had a good laugh.
But he chucked the scuba mask for more comfortable swim goggles.
Can you guess what kind of shark they are making? Let me say I am far less confident and more petrified of my children using anything that requires electricity than Hubs.
The next night Hubs and Son1 got to sanding. If you haven't figured out what kind of shark this is, well....hmmmm...they birth their young on the Windward side of our island every year. Maybe you have seen the show on the Discovery channel.A few years back we sprayed the lamps in our kitchen a stainless steel color. Hubs plucked that spray can from our shelf and together they dolled up that pinewood shark until he gleamed and shimmered a sharky silver.Hubs assembled the little car, complete with a 3 ounce weight in front. See that first little fin? That is the 3 ounce fishing weight, front loaded. The car could weigh a maximum of five ounces. We borrowed a mail scale from my neighbor, and sure enough, the HAMMERHEAD shark made weight. You can't see Mark the Hammerhead Shark's front grill, but it is a mean read set of chompers. Googly eyes rolled on either side of the head. Son1 added the number for on each side of the tail fin. Hubs asked him what number he wanted on his car. He looked at him rather obviously and said, "Four, 'cause I'm four!" We placed Mark high on a bookshelf until the night of the Grand Prix. I explained to Son1 that this was the only car he had. I wasn't going to craft another one for him if this one broke. So, he eyed it every night until the big event. See those stripes behind Son2? That is the only proof I have my mom was there.

The Awana club served dinner, but Son1 was too excited to eat. I started to cut his little brother's hot dog, but he was so impatient he grabbed Son1's hot dog and chomped it down whole. This is my lightweight child that can outeat any preschooler hands down. Where all of his food goes, we haven't a clue. Sure enough, he ate his own hot dog, some veggies, and everyone's chips, before dessert.

Weren't these cute?

After dinner, the cars were weighed, measured, and visually inspected for standards. we voted for best design in each category. There were over 60 cars and voting seemed like forever. See Mark? He was #3.

Just before the race, Son1 took his place at the sidelines. He had a great seat.
Finally it was Mark the Hammerhead Shark's turn to race.

Sadly, he did not win for speed. Hubs considered purchasing some graphite wheels for Mark. But he thought $30 on plastic wheels for our 4 year old son's car was a little excessive. While I was videoing, the father of the child's car that beat Mark the Hammerhead Shark grinned and told everyone he had bought graphite wheels. But that was ok. Mark was a winner, too, and not just in our hearts. Guess who won first place for best design?!?!?

By now, my kids were melting down, so my mom and I left and loaded them in the car. This was just the preschool race. They had still more grade levels to go. Just as I was buckling my kids in the car, my cell phone rang. What was Hubs doing awake on the East Coast? He wanted to know how Mark had performed. I laughed. It was well after midnight there. He told Son1 how he was proud of him.

As for me? I kept fighting with our desktop on uploading video. So Hubs never saw the video until he got home. But when he did, hmmm....he started to think about next year. And Son1? He was on Cloud Nine. He loved his trophy and he made sure to tell me that the packers should take great care of his Mark.

Aloha Friday #9

Fridays are the days we take it easy in Hawaii. We call it Aloha Friday, much like what folks on the mainland call TGIF. I post a question, and you comment. That's it, unless you want to ask your own question at An Island Life. My question is:

Do you have a favorite museum or nature interpretive center near you?

The major museum collection for the state of Hawaii is at the Bishop Museum and they have great exhibits! This week end I am posting about the shark exhibit.

WW: Mickey D's in Hawaii

WW:

Our Golden Arches in Hawaii are a little different.
Signs are posted at the drive through exit that say "mahalo" or thank you in Hawaiian. The employees all wear Hawaiian print golf shirts. The menu is slightly different, and our prices are a tad higher.Spam is a delicacy in Hawaii, so naturally Spam and eggs are served. Our McDonald's restaurants also serve Portuguese sausage, served in a many local breakfast dishes. The McTeri is a local variant of the McChicken and was invented at a McDonald's in Honolulu. Local food uses a lot of "teri" or teriyaki sauce.

For more WW participants, go here.

Every Story Has a Beginning

It is hard to tell you how our move happened so fast without starting from the very beginning.
Remember the story of the red vetted bulbul in our backyard? Sure enough, in an instant, BAM! We had a buyer. But the buyer's offer was contingent upon the sale of their home, which was not a done deal. They had a shaky buyer for their place. So we kept the contingent offer quiet, fully expecting it might fall through. We knew comparable homes to ours had just fallen out of escrow. We did not have our hopes up. We scheduled our home to close two days after their home closed. If our house fell out of escrow, at least my worldly possessions would not be on a boat to California with us still in Hawaii. I mentioned we were doubtful, right?But then Son1's name was drawn at Awanas to keep Cubbie Bear for the week. And I thought...hmmm....could it just be possible that we might be moving? Out of all the kids, what a great time for our child to host Cubbie! It seems silly now that I took Cubbie Bear's visit as a sign that we were moving, but I did.

Time started to tick, and the new buyers opened escrow. They could still walk away from the contract after the home inspection. Within days of opening escrow, prices of homes similar to ours plummeted in a blink. POOF! The potential buyers could have backed out, and bought a similar, less expensive home in our same subdivision. By the grace of God, they did not.
Just a few days later, Hubs left for a two week business trip. That left barely any time when he returned before our packers arrived. So he suggested I call my mom. On a Thursday we invited her to come that Sunday for over two weeks. She helped me with the kids so I could get the house in order to move. I explained that we really could be moving, maybe, possibly, hopefully?!?!? The days were long and I was exhausted. Blogging did not happen. But we managed to squeeze in some last Hawaii fun for my mom....

Take My Pulse

I am still here. I am sitting in a gorgeous hotel room at 427 AM. Son1 had a nightmare and now I cannot get back to bed.

We turn over our house keys to the new owners later today. We are going to finish cleaning the house. It is pretty clean. We gave a cleaning credit, anyway. So I am not too worried about passing the white glove test. 'Cause we are good and generous people.

It has not been relaxing thus far. But I have some good news for your little eyeballs.

I have many half finished posts, and much more of Hawaii yet to come. Just wait.

We do not permanently leave the island until January 17!!!!

Maybe I Didn't Tell You

Did I happen to mention the packers are coming on Monday?!?

Congratulations to Your Parents

Family culture in Hawaii is warm and beautiful. "Ohana" or family, extends beyond a traditional family unit. It means family that you are born into, and any adoptive or intentional family. It means every one that is tight knit and close, all those that are involved in your children's lives.Recently Son1 won an award at school. There was a punch and cookie reception after the assembly for the recipients. Many parents and tutus (Hawaiian word for grandparents), aunties and uncles (either by blood, or a term of respect for any adult and close to the child) attended the reception. Trays and trays of food were displayed. But before the reception, the principal had a few words to share.

We all congratulated the recipients with an applause. Afterward, the principal addressed the children, and shared that this honor was not just for them, but also for their parents, for their grandparents, and for their aunties and uncles. He said much about respect and honor, and the responsibility children have to their parents. Finally, the children were asked to get cookies and drink first for their ohana, and then for themselves. The children obediently went to the lines, selected goodies for their ohana, before serving themselves.

I attended by myself, while Hubs took time off to watch Son2. My heart melted when Son1 brought an embarrassing amount of food back to me. I declined a powdered doughnut. Those are Son1's favorite. His smile stretched across his face, and he said, "I want you take this all home to Daddy!" He knew his Daddy was home just so that I could come. I am grateful in a small way he understood.

A Hawaiian Thanksgiving

Our turkey roast and pork shoulder butt were cooked in a Hawaiian imu (pronounced ee-moo). Kailua High School hosts an athletic booster club fundraiser. They invite the public to purchase a $15 ticket to cook meat in the imu. They only sell 350 tickets, and we got one!

An imu is an outdoor underground traditional Hawaiian oven. This is how pigs, fish, and other meat are cooked for luaus. The meats are cooked under heated rocks. Steam is created by the vegetation placed in the imu, from ti leaves, coconut palms, and banana leaves.

The high school asked that we bring our meats in an aluminum tin, not to exceed 25 pounds. We prepared a turkey roast and a pork shoulder butt. Pork shoulder butt is traditional Hawaiian luau food. Hubs plucked ti leaves from a ti tree in our yard.

I called my neighbor and asked if she had any sea salt. She generously shared something so much better. For many years her husband's family has collected sea salt from rocks along the beaches. Think unprocessed, completely organic, straight from the sea. The salt was fine and crumbly, not dry and grainy. We placed the pork shoulder butt in foil, and rubbed it with salt and patted it with butter.
Next we wrapped the pork in ti leaves and closed it in foil.

I hacked some small apple banana leaves from a young banana tree in our yard.


We salted, buttered, and wrapped the turkey roast in banana leaves. We could have wrapped a whole turkey. Instead we prepared two types of meats.
We added four large sweet potatoes in our aluminum tray and we wrapped the whole package in foil for drop off.

Since Kailua is on the other side of the island, on the Windward side, Hubs, Son1, and Uncle T delivered the tray after their fishing adventure. They rented a Boston whaler, bought squid for bait, and grabbed some fishing poles. They only caught some love and family time.
They hurried from the Kaneohe Bay marina to drop off our tray. The drop off time was only 90 minutes long. They waited in a line, and high school students walked up to the car, took our tray, metal tagged it, and handed the Farmer men a claim number. Hubs, being the big fan of The Farmer Files that he is, asked the student to take some pictures of the imu for the rest of us. This is the bottom layer of the imu. The meats are placed on top, and then covered for steaming.
The next morning, Hubs cooked Thanksgiving pancakes before heading out to pick up the Thanksgiving meal. Pilgrim Farmer joined us.

Hubs, Uncle T, and the boys drove to the Windward side to collect our tray after breakfast. They drove all the way home, dropped off the tray, and trekked to the airport to pick up Grandma T. Finally, we unwrapped our meats and potatoes, and served Thanksgiving dinner. I unwrapped the meats, and they literally fell limp, juicy, salted, and mouthwatering to the tray.
These are the wrapped meats just before dinner.
While I was finishing the side dishes, Walking Bear and Grandma T started growling at one another. Better at one another than the cook. Well, we plumb stuffed ourselves til we couldn't breathe. If we ever move back to Hawaii we are cooking our dinner in the imu again. This was the first time we bought an imu ticket.

We took a family walk and enjoyed the Hawaiin trade winds before dessert. This was the first time Hubby's immediate family was together for a holiday in six years. We missed Aunt M but the boys couldn't get enough of Uncle T. We are thankful this year to be together for Thanksgiving.