Christmas with the Ts!

On the 25th, Lowell, Kumeu and I had an intimate Christmas morning together opening the FOUR presents under our tree- all from New Zealand! One of the gifts was an inflatable kiwi bird that Kumeu wasn't too sure about...

Thanks Ma & Pa Gw and Lance & Natty!

After opening our prezzies, we headed to the farm to have Christmas with the Ts!

For our gift exchange this year, each couple bought a game (or gameS) worth $40, and we did a white elephant exchange so each couple got to take a game home (but not before playing them!) It was great amounts of fun and made Christmas shopping super stress-free!

We also enjoyed listening to Lowell's Dad (Grandpa Brian) read the Christmas story, and the older gals sing some Christmas tunage.

We made a little treasure hunt for the niecies so they could search for each of the gifts from their doting aunties and uncles.

Here they are opening their gifts from Lowell and me...

Can't tell what they are?

Well, in Hawaii, I bought 7 different colours of classic Hawaiian print material...

I slaved and I slaved (enjoying every second of it)...

And made them each an apron!

They looked super cute in them (sans napping Julia)...

They got lots of nice things from everyone, but I think they got the most immediate mileage out of the crazy neon hair and jewels that Marti & Lando got them (and the rest of us were picking long neon hairs off of every surface for the rest of the holiday!)...

The twinnies really enjoyed the giant monkey slippers that I always wear at the farm...

And all the crazy adults enjoyed the twins enjoying them (can you count all the cameras?)...

A huge highlight at the farm was the PUPPIES! That's right... Kumeu has some half brothers and sisters who are just melt-your-heart-adorable!

Cutie Katelyn with the big doggies...

I couldn't find Lowell for an hour, and wasn't surprised to hear that he was still with the puppies. This is what I found...

SO CUTE!

And there was even MORE cuteness when we got home...

TY!!

"What up homies?"

Kylie & Ty were home for a brief visit with Kylie's family, but we still got to squeeze some quality time in.

Tickles with Grandpa...

Imitating kisses with Mommy (and kind of looking like he has a cleft lip in the process)...

Kissies from puppy cousin Kumeu...

"Praise Jesus!"...

Gingy houses!

One of my all time favourite G family Christmas traditions is decorating gingerbread houses together. Creativity + sugar = unequivocal amounts of fun! This year our traditions were all thrown out of whack because of our Maui getaway (NOT that I'm complaining!), but our dear friends Nicholas & Chelsea helped us keep the tradition alive! While Kumeu and his DBFF (doggie best friend forever) Maggie frolicked in the yard, we created our masterpieces.

Ready. Set. GO!

Nicholas had a minor setback when the sheer volume of his candy caused his roof to collapse...

... but it wasn't anything that a gingerbread reinforcer wall, MORE CANDY, and a can-do spirit couldn't fix!...

I think more candy ended up in Chelsea's mouth than on her house, but it turned out marvelously!...

Lowell pulled out the big guns this year...

Let's zoom in on that masterpiece...

And now for mine. My design was very similar to last year's. What can I say... the pre-decorating sugar ingestion must have killed the brain cells responsible for gingerbread-house-decorating-creativity...

Who WOULDN'T want to live in THIS neighbourhood??!!...

Continuing with our tradition, we gave the houses away to fabulous families with little kidlets (with profound apologies to the parents for creating sugar-buzzed kids).

The tradition lives on! And now that Nick & Chels have tasted the good life, I'm pretty sure they'll be joining us for years to come!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Aloha & mahalo... until next time!

I simply cannot believe that our 10 days of basking in the Hawaiian sunshine is OVER! It was far too spectacular to end so soon. And now for some final Maui documentation...

We- of COURSE- had tons of fun on the beach...

Some quality family togetherness all waiting for the same wave...

And all catching the same wave...

The waves at the beach across from our condo were a lot more manageable (and TAME) than the waves we sought out at other beaches. We got tossed around and beat up mercilessly. Pictures just don't do the waves justice... you really have to experience it to know what I'm talking about!

Still on the beach theme... (disclaimer: if the talk of nakeness and/or nude beaches makes you uncomfortable, skip the following paragraph (and consider yourself warned))...

Another thing Lowell and I did was go to a nude beach… and boogie board naked! In my head, I'm screaming this information in all caps, but in the interest of not drawing attention to my nakedness on this public blog, I decided to keep it all lower case... and sans pictures. It was too momentous of an occasion NOT to mention, so I'm hoping that these lower case letters (and the disclaimer) will do the trick. No? And what's that you say? If you google "Lowell and Julie plus nude beach", our blog comes up? Ah well... now I can cross that little experience off the ol bucket list (and hopefully never see another weiner as long as I live).

Back to the family-friendly fun...

The penthouse suite where we stayed had a rooftop balcony (WITH A HOT TUB!) that was 100% OURS. Everyone even took a turn sleeping outside- it was beautiful!

Well, beautiful for the most part. One day it rained ALL DAY (which was particularly ridiculous because it was Kihei's first rainfall in A YEAR AND A HALF). No skin off our backs though, it was still warm outside and we had the ocean to ourselves!

On the rainy evening, we were less exhausted than normal and actually stayed up past 9pm (which- believe it or not- was quite a record)! We played the most hilarious game ever which included doing charades under a sheet (which is incredibly challenging!)...

Oh my goodness, there was SO much laughter!

I don't know if this says anything about our brain capacity or function, but Kylie and I PARTICULARLY enjoyed playing 'Guess Who?'... what a FANTASTIC game!! Small things please small minds maybe? No no, I'm kidding (sort of)...

While we had tons of joyous family time, each couple also had some date time. Lowell and I went for a walk, enjoyed shaved ice, and re-visited our honeymoon condo (which was 300 metres away from our penthouse suite!)

Now let's flashback to our honeymoon...

Okay, now back to the present. On our walk, we got some treats at the grocery store, and came across this...

Is this some sort of joke? Macadamia nuts with SPAM? GROSS!!

Another thing all of us did was snuggle with and coo over little Ty. What a pop-can-lovin DOLL!

Tante Yulie loves you Ty! ("Tante" is "aunt" in Dutch, and my Grandma G (the Dutch one) always called me "Yulie". During our trip, Shareen constantly referred to me as 'Tante Yulie"... and it stuck!)

Nana & Grandpa are completely smitten (as are the rest of us). My Mom did what my Grandma used to do with us. She'd say "How big is Ty?" Then put up her arms and say "Sooooo big!" Before long, Ty was lifting his arms on his own while Nana said "sooooo big!"...

Before I sign off on our glorious holiday, let me point out our penthouse (which includes the top floor of what is shown in this picture- half balcony, half condo, all amazing)...

And the view...

Wow- what a fabulous time with family. SOOOO memorable! And boy oh boy do we ever want to go back! So long Hawaii- we miss you already!!