The Hogmanay tradition is Scotch – it’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s marked by fire, fireworks, parties, shenanigans, family and friends. Having a bonfire at Bellows is a really great way to let the kids roam with all kinds of balls to play catch as the grownups catch up with each other while grilling up various meats (no veggies last night – oops!) and participating in silly games that came to mind (my mind, that is!). The guys competed for a “King of the Camp” lei I brought, cooked “Hawaiian haggis” over the fire (SPAM rocks – “Shockingly good” as Doug says!), and Portuguese sausage. It was so much fun I didn’t want to wash the smell of fire out of my hair!
Here’s my invite, just in case I need some ideas for next year ;0 :
Hey gang!
Coordinates for our bonfire adventure: (21.375426, -157.707925)4 ft high fire allowed!
We have:
60 lbs of wood
two coconuts to crack open (insides undetermined so I have can of coconut milk as well)
lots of SPAM and Portuguese sausage
some munchies
two boxes of wine – white and red
water jug
machete (never host a party without one)
football, soccer balls
On site:
mini mart
gas station (?)
bathrooms
table
fire pit
Please bring:
your best beast on a stick (there will be a competition)
something to drink out of (boot? hat?)
musical instrument
rain shelter if you have one and no big deal to set up
misc teenage boys (very helpful for many purposes, and they tend to have a lot of fun chopping up wood)
secret service agent
FAQs:
Can we get on base if we are not military?
– Yes, please send driver’s lic #, make/model of car, full name and I will put you on list.
Do we have to stay overnight?
– No 🙂
Do we have to pee in the woods?
– No, although the bathroom is further away this year so there will be races to the bathroom because it sounds fun for another party game ;0
Can you actually do any damage with a marshmallow snowball?
– Yes, if several are wadded up hard enough and a man throws it at his wife. (I have personal experience.)
Are headlamps an accessory?
– Yes, certainly. I say one dresses up any outfit, but my sister-in-law might have an alternative viewpoint.
Can we bring friends?
– Yes, we can have up to 15 tents and 75 friends!
Click on picture for a slide show of the fun this morning 🙂 Aloha!
Merry Christmas from our living room to yours!
This slide show captures all the special moments from our year and is complemented by a great soundtrack which includes Sam playing ukulele and a Jingle Bells medley featuring Earl Skruggs and Duke Ellington. As I went through each photo (there were 3,626 pictures in 143 folders!) I was smiling and laughing, feeling very blessed. I am thankful for a great camera that takes a real beating while snapping away on adventures. I am thankful for two little boys who are my best buddies game for just about anything (although Sam is starting to get that pesky good judgment of his father). Thankful for a hubby who loves spending his down time with us instead of the golf course (although we do try to get him out there). Thankful for family near and far who stay in touch through technology of all sorts and make special efforts to get to holiday gatherings. And very thankful for friends who continue to love me despite all my wacky ideas, and especially those friends who are willing to be rousted for such endeavors… If you have 14 minutes with a cup of tea (or a wee dram) in hand, I think you will enjoy the show, too. Please know that lots of time was invested in curating and preparing this in the interest of sharing our lives with you because the return on that investment is great – staying connected to your lives despite the miles. It’s the only way I know how to teleport ourselves into your living room this holiday 🙂 And thank you for the cards with pictures and greetings! Aloha 🙂
It’s been raining 3″ an hour and everything is literally swamped. But that makes for interesting puddling opportunities! We took the trucks, our boys, helmets, Lego bin tops and garbage-bag knickers (and rain jackets) over to base to “clean” the trucks by…well…you can guess…then off to the playground for sledding! Enjoy!
We had a great time on the trail today with friends from school. Sam invited Keani and her family and luckily Tamera and her boys decided to come as well! So there were 5 kids age 2 1/2 to 7. Despite some early misgivings about actually going all the way up (any time in the woods is a good time, so we weren’t being goal-oriented about it), the kids all made it to the top of the Lookout! We had a great time and found lots of fun diversions along the way, as if hiking 5 miles roundtrip over 900 ft elevation weren’t adventure enough. I am wondering if the vigilance that I maintain for those 4.5 hours is about like being a cardiac surgeon – do they feel the same sense of profound relief and compelling desire for “fortress of solitude” time that I do after a hike like this? It is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I am so glad they all had a great time! You know what is really nuts about me? Should I even share this? I found it relaxing to remind myself about how the Krebs cycle works in my new Biology book that I bought from the thrift store. Sam and I are really excited to dig into the 1200 page book…ok. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that…
Ben and I enjoyed making some ornaments this morning with my dear friend Angie and her little girl Rachel. In other random notes (this site is really my digital journal so I can search out funny or interesting things about the boys when my memory fails – hopefully some of it is interesting to family reading along as well!)…the other day Sam was asking how high the clouds are here in Hawaii. I responded that some are low, about 2,000 ft, and some are high, about 30,000 ft. I then asked how many miles up that would be if each mile is about 5,000 ft? I had barely finished the question when he responded with confidence “Six!” Wow – great math exercise! On the way home from the playground he was explaining in great detail to Gramma and me about photons being packets of energy released by the sun during nuclear fusion. He used the word “emerge” regarding photons “emerging from the solar surface.” Gramma and I were impressed. But I wondered if he really knew what “emerge” meant so I asked and he said “to arise”…wow! Not exactly what I had in mind but I can definitely see the connection. All the while Ben is sitting in his car seat singing (loudly) and periodically going “Oh! Oh yeaaah…yeaaaahh. Photons. Yeah!” We hid the “J” ornament above in the tree for Ben so he can learn that letter by finding it…Sam rehides it each night. He’s got “T” down (T was the first plastic trash I found and he held onto that little black plastic T for a long time). Now he also has S and often A (even a small “a” found in “Santa” the other night – I don’t remember teaching him that at all). S is for Sam, of course 🙂
Here we are with our little musical instruments book so we could refer to the orchestra map while waiting for the music to start. The orchestra is comprised entirely of kids ages 8-17. The youth symphony we saw perform was all high schoolers. They really hammed it up while the audience was taking their seats – they were doing the wave by section – it was so fun to see these kids have a great time together, then undertake a serious endeavor like playing orchestral pieces. Dave’s buddy from high school, Joe, is now a high school music teacher. I thought of him while I was watching the kids. What a great job to have!