Happy New Year!

This year we are missing out on the fun and craziness that is New Year's Eve on Oahu.

Instead, we are in northern CA and took the kids up to see the snow. Heading to the snow was right up there with Christmas on our boy's list of things to look forward to this month. We begged and borrowed and got everyone in the family outfitted for winter and headed up to the mountains.

We had planned to find a nice spot not too far off the road to play in the snow, but my uncle offered to take us all out in his snowcat which was quite the adventure. Definitely not your typical day of playing in the snow.

We took turns riding in the snowcat, riding on top of the snowcat and riding on his snowmobile. The first time we stopped to play in the snow our boy plopped himself on the snow and made a snow angel. This is the first snow experience he is old enough to remember so I asked him how he knew how to do that and he said, "I don't know. I guess I saw it in a book."

Wishing you peace and joy in 2010. Happy New Year!

The Reason for the Season

A live nativity seemed like the perfect way to finish off our holiday events, and we went to one at Faith Baptist Church in Kailua the weekend before Christmas. It was complete with live animals, Christmas carols and even some hula.

Merry Christmas to each of you!

Catching Snowflakes in Hawaii

We went to Windward Mall last week to hear a musical performance and see the snowing Christmas tree.

At the beginning of every hour the tree "snows" for 15 minutes. The "snow" looks exactly like big giant flakes floating to the ground but it's really little bunches of bubbles. It was amazing how authentic it looked!

It was neat to see and all the kids (mine included) loved playing under it and trying to catch the "snowflakes," which quickly evaporated after landing. We were there long enough to enjoy two snow flurries.

If you live on Oahu and want to see the tree, it "snows" hourly from 1-8 PM daily, except Christmas Eve which will be from 1-5 PM. If you live on the Mainland somewhere that has recently been covered in snow, you can laugh at us and our fake snow or be jealous that we didn't have to bundle the kids up to play in it.

This 25-minute post is part of the Mom's 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom

Trolley Ride

We have been busy this month with one Christmas activity after another! Our most recent Christmas adventure was a trolley ride to see the city lights. This year we went on a trolley chartered by Hawaii International Child. Our ride began and ended at their office where we had hot chocolate and cookies and got to take pictures by the Christmas tree.

Our city lights tour took us through downtown, past Iolani Palace with its beautiful glowing paper lanterns hanging on the palace and throughout the grounds, past Honolulu Hale with Shaka Santa and the other decorations there,

past the Board of Water Supply and their lights and Washington Place with its multiple trees inside -- twice. Yep, we had a very basic route and we did it twice, but that way anything we missed the first time we got to see the second time around.

The trolley was playing Christmas music and our girl (who was supposed to be on my lap the whole time, shhhh, don't tell) stood next to me and danced for most of the tour. Our boy enjoyed shouting Christmas greetings to pedestrians we saw and both kids enjoyed waving at people and seeing all the lights.

Do it yourself on Oahu:

As I mentioned, we went on a chartered trolley, but anyone can book tickets and go on the Waikiki Trolley's City lights tour. Information can be found at the Waikiki Trolley website. If you are military, tickets are available through the MWR tickets and tours offices and their prices are lower I believe. Call your MWR office and ask about the City Lights Trolley Tour.

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge over at Steady Mom.