Christmas

1 Dinner the night we went to pick up Pig and Bear. Dave is finally off from work and made a feast of turkey and stuffing (since Thanksgiving was a bit crazy with him working and me and a friend hosting 20 pilots at the beach).	2 Christmas lights near our house. This one really takes the cake!	3	4 Mary SUPs out on the bay!
5 Sam and I took a spin, looking for turtles.	6 Mom, our boat is riding right on top of the waves!	7 At Bellows for Hogmanay - holiday opening ceremonies bonfire. Here we are focused on starting fire with our sticks again! We get closer every year! I got smoke again!	8 We can do this!
9 Ronnie takes a crack at it - he came really close!!!! Thank you, Ronnie, for jumping right in! (He's done it before, so he's an expert compared to us!)	10 Good technique, Sam!	11 We're helping it out a bit in the interest of time - since we are not Samoan or Hawaiian by blood, we just don't seem to have the knack for it! The sound of the lighter was pretty funny - when you light coconut fibers with a lighter it sounds like a jet taking off! We were like "Stand back!"	12 The gang relaxing and enjoying probably one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. See Sam sitting by the fire?
13	14 Ben taking a walk in the evening light.	15 Ben also took a liking to Rinnah - they were so cute chatting away in the little chairs!	16 She loves her little purse - wouldn't put it down. So cute!
17 I wonder what they're thinking about?	18 Cuties! She is about 9 months older than Ben I think.	19 Uh - oh! A "snowball" fight with marshmallows! That was sure a lot of fun! The big boys really got into it, believe it or not. They really pegged us! Then ran around and resupplied (see Mike in the background, ready to get Angel in blue t-shirt?).	20 Dave getting ready to peg me...
21 He has quite an arm! If you ball them up and squish them together, they pack a punch!	22 My two dear friends, Angel and April, apparently went out on a hike together, found all these items, and then made a painting of me on the trail amongst all the local flora. Amazing! They even found some toilet paper on the trail and made a teeny tiny roll and perched it behind a lava rock! (Longstanding joke between us...)	23 I'm trying to hide hot dogs behind my back but I keep flicking hot dog juice all over them as I laugh.	24 Dave is thinking ... I'm not sure exactly!
25 Richard took some great pictures of us being silly - here we are doing an A for the "A Team" - Angel, April and Alli! We first did this about 6 years ago, and I guess we still do it any chance we get :) Poor Angel!	26 Doug and Mary!	27 "I look like I'm on drugs!" - that's what he said when he saw this. Then we laughed and remembered that he'd just tried taking dayQuil that evening to calm his cough down. Everyone has been sick for weeks!	28 Wow. Unbelievable! Nice shot, Richard!
29 Cuties! Just married in April!	30 Mommy staying healthy by drinking lots of water!	31 Paparazzi!	32 Dave chillaxin :)
33 And sensing an opportunity to do something silly!	34	35	36 Everyone was laughing!
37 Yep! That is Rich - longtime friends from NR-1 days, stationed here now.	38 The sword fights were fun!	39 Giji - I love this photo of Sam and Jonah sword fighting! Thank you!	40 Look at this sunset!!!
41 Unreal. This is what I was trying to capture with this year's watercolor of the Ko'olaus (posted to the website a couple weeks ago).	42 Hear no... speak no...see no...	43 Reading about DINOS in the morning light and planning the day's activities.	44
45 Dougie out on the beach on Sam's bike!	46 Funny Tito Pig!	47 The Christmas Concussion! I got really wailed by my SUP in a rogue wave while asking mom if she wanted to take a paddle. I KNEW better, too, than to stay in the breaks with it! Darn!	48
49 Looking down the beach toward the Obama vaca compound - the white tent is secret service. You can't go past that tent. We were 100 yards from it - the surf break is right where the compound is.	50 Out there are patrol boats, three of them, keeping people on the other side of the yellow buoys.	51	52
53	54 On our way back out of the beach access, look what we ran into! I guess POTUS was arriving! The next sequence of pictures are thanks to mom, so you can see what all was involved.	55	56 The traffic backed up for a mile down Kalaheo as Dave and Ben were trying to come pick us up!
57 My friend Michelle is in the white in the foreground, trying to find a path around the crowd. She was out for a jog.	58	59	60 Gotta love the signage!
61	62	63 I guess they park an ambulance there so they can just shoot out if need be?	64
65 A bit overkill with the HPD perhaps?	66 Good grief, and there's more!	67 In that one?	68
69	70 Doug hauling the SUP back to Dave...	71 Loaded up and ready for traffic to move out. Sam and I would bike home.	72 Spaghetti dinner for Christmas Eve thanks to Dave, who despite not feeling well (same cough as mom we think) cooked nonstop for three days. Fantastic dinners!
73 And Christmas morning! Sammy looking very groggy as he came out to inspect!	74 Lots of fun opening presents, but I later found out why he was so groggy and fatigued - a fever. Still having trouble shaking this cold that's been passed around to everyone but me. Or it's different viruses taking their turn with us.	75 Ben is really into firetrucks right now, so this is a little block set.	76 Sam had asked for Star Wars Legos (although he's never seen Star Wars and doesn't know what it is!). So Dave and I gave him that for his big present.
77	78	79 The Ben blur opening presents!	80
81 Eyeing Sam's new drum set (well, new to us - tracked it down across the island to a Goodwill store after my friend said her husband had donated it before she could hand it down to us!).	82 This is a fantastic book...	83	84 Ben studying his new puzzles.
85	86	87	88 Wind chimes for Richard!
89 The new wagon! They loved pulling each other around in a wagon at Richard's house, so I found a lightly used wagon on Craigslist for them. Amazing what you can find! Toys R Us was sold out, too.	90 A neat book from Gramma for Sam - he loves studying these 3D images of the body.	91 And a gravy boat from Mary! She is so thoughtful - asked what Dave was missing from the kitchen and that's the first and only thing which came to his mind. She was determined to find him one!	92
93 A beautiful dress from Mary for me! LOVE it!	94 Gramma entertained Ben with these weird balls that squish out yucky things when you squeeze them!	95 Like Mary's stocking?	96
97 A wee nip we all shared :)	98 Looking forward to watching these. Thank you, Dan and Heather!	99 Mommy's present to Daddy so he can organize and charge his devices :)	100 Daddy's present to us :)
101 Dan and Heather - this was a huge hit with two generations of boys!	102 Another crazy ball!	103 Making breakfast - Pannetone French Toast (Dave) and gourmet egg scramble (Doug).	104
105	106	107 Yum!	108 Lego time for big and little guys.
109 "Diplodouglas" - much to Sam's delight! (Diplodocus :) )	110 Breakfast at Kalapawai Cafe and Deli!	111 A really relaxing day at a quiet beach on base.	112 Something for everyone - Sam crab hunting with his friend Aiden.
113 Checking out the conditions for all our gear, plotting who will do what first. Ben is ready for paddling!	114 After Sam and I snorkeled for a quite a while, I was really shivering. It was cooler here than usual although very nice and sunny.	115 Absolutely gorgeous conditions.	116 Look at Dave finally relaxing...
117 And Richard, too!	118 Everyone busy doing what they do best :) I am glad I thought to stash snacks and a cooler really handy for just such an occasion. There was plenty to share with everyone.	119 Catching crabs in new board shorts from Mary!	120 Ben absolutely loved paddling around! He would say "Big rock over day-oh!"
121	122 Ooops! Thanks, "Prichard"!	123	124
125