Preparing for Christmas

It was really hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year considering it was 80* and sunny every single day.  No I'm not complaining or trying to rub it in, I'm simply stating the facts.  Plus, you Omaha people have been blessed with a beautiful winter.  I'm quite jealous that you actually get to enjoy winter without having to bundle up and freeze your arse off every time you go outside!

Anyways, back to "trying to get into the Christmas spirit".  When you grow up in a place where winter consists of freezing temperatures, snow, ice, seeing your breath, frozen noses, and bundling up like the kid in The Christmas Story, it's really hard to get into the spirit with warm temps, flip-flops (or as they are called out here, slippahs), shorts and sweaty foreheads.  I never really felt that same anticipation for Christmas this year.  We put up the Christmas tree, played Christmas music, counted down the days and made Gracie's Santa list but it just didn't feel the same.

Our Hawaiian O'hana has been so awesome and welcoming out here!  We have seriously enjoyed spending so much time with them and their children.  It helps that they all enjoy getting together and celebrating holidays, otherwise Justin, Gracie and I would be 3 bored people on one tiny island.

To help us get into the Christmas spirit, we participated in a few Christmas activities with our Hawaiian O'hana.  The first was the Kapolei City Lights Parade.  It took place on a main street in our city and lasted an hour or so.  Maybe less.  Don't remember actually.  Anyways, they had high school bands, walkers, all types of vehicles decked out in Christmas lights and Santa Claus at the very end.  Gracie had a blast!  She loved the semi that had Angry Birds on the sides, and she loved seeing Santa.

Watching the parade

Love her!

The other activity was the Christmas Party at the Adams' Residence.  Gracie loves going to Sophia's house and playing with her toys.  She was so well behaved and polite.  She makes me such a proud Mommy.  P.S. trying to dress Christmas-y on an island is almost impossible, it's just too warm here for that.  All the stores out here sell winter clothes and winter gear. It's a tropical island people!  I can't believe they don't sell summer stuff all year round.

Trying to get a picture of her with her Christmas-y outfit

My sweet baby :)

We did a white elephant exchange with the other adults and names were exchanged for the kiddos.  Justin and I ended up taking up 3 Christmas movies (The Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Elf) which is what we brought!  We definitely loved bringing these home as they are some good classic movies.  Gracie also got an awesome present from baby Jayden...wooden puzzles (all her favorites: Cars, Toy Story 3, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and a story collection book with loads of Disney Pixar stories.

Thanks Jayden!

Another Christmas activity we did was decorate cookies.  Justin and I wanted to start a tradition with Gracie and now that she is big enough to actually participate and enjoy it, we thought this would be our tradition with her (and future babies).  We invited some of Justin's coworkers over to join us in the fun.

Preparing for madness and cookie eating 

Gracie and Sophia decorating cookies.  I think they ate more than they decorated ;)

Eating and helping decorate

Decorating with Daddy

We had a ton of fun preparing for Christmas even though it was quite a bit different than any of the other years we have celebrated.  We didn't have to worry about trying to figure out how to make it to all the parties, messing up Gracie's routine, buying a crap ton of presents, and dressing up this big belly that is growing (that's the worst job in the world these days and no, I'm not talking about Santa's belly).  It was a simple Christmas this year.  We actually got to enjoy each other's company and hang out as a family without any stress of weather, jobs, or traveling to and from parties.  It was different but it was nice.