Sixty Nine Degrees

Most homes in Hawaii are built without insulation. It is an extra $8,000 to have it put in your whole house pre-construction, and much more afterward. This was a big shock to us when we moved here. We had just our attic insulated to retain cool air from the air conditioning, and retain the daily heat during the cooler winters. We live "mauka side" or on the mountain side, about 1,000 feet above sea level. So it gets cooler here. I was freezing late this morning! I threw on a sweatshirt, some black yoga pants, and socks. (Ha ha, I am not into yoga.) Oooh it was still really cold! Right before I jumped under the covers to warm up for a few minutes, I glanced at the thermostat. Sixty nine degrees. It did get into the seventies later in the day, but I kept my warm clothes on! It's funny how temperature can be relative. Sixty nine degrees was a really warm day in the Virginia winter, and one degree from average year round temperature in Southern California. Hawaii is the only place I have ever felt cold at sixty nine degrees!

Back in the Beltway

Hubby barely squeaked out a win....maybe it was an early Christmas present...ha ha.

The third mama to ask us about an arranged marriage, and Son1 was barely weeks old. We would be honored. :)

Thanks for great dinner and conversation...next time if Wifey comes we WILL play HEARTS.

Thanks for lunch....it was yummy. Looks like summer, huh? The next day it looked like this:

Freezing! Great food, and even greater gaming.


Ranger Buddies

A picture of the fairy godmother that landed us in Hawaii. Aloha....


Look at that alphabet...JDP, CPA. CONGRATS. Thanks for driving down.

Adding to Our Christmas

You know I love Christmas...and I love to decorate. So here are a few new things at our house this year....

Hubby just got back from his trip. He brought me a few goodies:

Last year's White House Christmas ornament. One thing I really miss about Christmas in the Beltway is collecting these ornaments. Sure I could get them without living there, but it just isn't the same.

This year's White House Christmas ornament.


Two ornaments from his office. It is not the best picture, on purpose.

Then I participated in a blog ornament exchange and I got:

A Hawaiian angel!


My mom bought me this nutcracker, plus an additional one that wasn't available in Hawaii so she had my dad buy it in CA and save it for me until I can pick it up.


She also got me this special Christmas tea house. Son1 loves to play with it.

Mom made me this little table cloth. I picked the fabric. I wanted a nativity theme. I didn't realize Baby Jesus wasn't anywhere to be found on the fabric until I got home. It's Santa with a manger scene...so no Mary, Jesus, or Joseph. Humph. There are angels and all kinds of nativity sayings on the fabric. Strange, but nice colors.

We had this Little People set last year, but now it sits on the little table cloth. The Baby Jesus is still at preschool for show and tell and some of our manger animals were not on the table when I took the picture.

These are my new place card holders. The place card sits in their hats.


Below is the Waterford Holiday Heirloom teapot for 2007. My mom and I have been collecting the Christmas teapot they put out every year since 2003 when they first started the line. We went to several stores all over the island and called many places all over the island to find this teapot. No one carried it this year. I called Hubby in VA to see if he could pick one up, but they did not have any at that store either. So....we called my dad in CA for this, too. Now he knows how my mom and I are crazy about these teapots. He went to several stores in CA until he found one store that carried three, and he bought the last three: one for mom, one for me, and one for my sis. And for good measure, without asking, he went ahead and bought the dinner bell below, too, just to make everyone really happy. God bless him, because he thinks that Mom and I can be ridiculous about Christmas. And that's the truth! We are!