Mele Kalikimaka!

Merry belated Christmas!  We've been busy.  First, we went to Santa's Village on base, where Xander thoroughly enjoyed the toddler bouncer.  So much so, in fact, that he jumped himself exhausted, tried to lie down and take a nap in the bouncer, and I had to have an attendant retrieve him.  I guess he figured he would wake up and bounce some more.

After that, we that saw a Christmas boat show.  Bobby has all of the pictures, but it was fun.  The boats paraded around Hawaii Kai marina.

Then we went to the beach, secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of the president.  No such luck.  Apparently, when he does go to the beach, everyone else has to leave.  He has been hanging around the base a good deal since his home is close by.  I guess the secret service folk prefer for him to be on a military base with controlled access.

Then there was Christmas Day.  Christmas day was a blast with Xander.  He didn't see it coming, and was deliriously happy to suddenly get a bunch of new toys.  The cookies and sugary cereal we let him eat helped.

Bouncy house!

I love this shot.  It was our private stretch of beach!

Total beach hound!

OMG!  Another train set!

Christmas morning.

Blocks!

Another train!  He's in choo choo heaven!

Xander's loot lined up and waiting for him to wake up from his nap (which Dad joined).

Living in America

I miss Korea sometimes.  I really miss some of the friends we made there (here's looking at you, Uncle Jin), and I miss the financial security.  Money certainly isn't everything, but Hawaii has significantly humbled us.  Life without a housing allowance in the most expensive state in the union is hard.  And as a new adult, I feel a little like a failure having gone from complete financial security to living from paycheck to paycheck, and watching the balance on our credit card climb.  Here's the thing, though. When you live abroad, particularly in a place like Korea, nothing feels permanent.  People constantly come and go.  No one ever says, "I'm going to buy a house and settle down here."  It's just not possible. Once a person retires, the work visa disappears.  Living in Korea was a little like dropping out for awhile.  We enjoyed not having the day to day worries of working folks with kids, but we knew we couldn't stay forever.  When Hawaii came along, we saw an opportunity to continue the adventure of living in a different place, but in our own country, and we took it.

We question this decision constantly.

On Saturday, we saw the Kaneohe Christmas Parade.  It was a short walk from our apartment.  It had all the pomp of the small city parades that I have seen, with floats and bands, but with a little Hawaii thrown in.  There were hula floats and fire twirlers.  Xander was ecstatic.  He loved the music, he loved the trucks, and he loved the people waving at him.  As I watched him, I was happy to be here.  We didn't have Christmas parades in Korea.  And despite what my disaffected friends say about the commercialization if Christmas, it's still a lot of fun.  Particularly when you have children.  I am glad to be back in the land of Christmas lights and parades and concerts.  Most of which, by the way, we can enjoy for free.

My husband.  He's no millionaire, but what a great daddy.

When it rains, we go to the mall.

Hiking the Judd Memorial trail.

This one didn't come out right, but that's the Marine Corps band.  The man in front of us is military.  You can tell because he stands at attention when they play the Marine Corps anthem.

The low riders.

Hula float.

Fire twirlers.

Santa!  It was hot; he must have been uncomfortable.

I never saw so many shaka signs.  I guess it's easier than waving.

Wooow!

Ukeleles.

A dude on a motorized picnic table.  The true spirit of aloha!

It was Pearl Harbor day, so the theme was "honoring our military."

I failed to get a picture of the veteran of the 442nd infantry regiment, which is a shame.  That guy was a badass.

A question for the ages

It has not been a stellar week.  First my car wouldn't start.  We had it towed to the Toyota dealership (no general mechanics for this baby, it has to be serviced at the dealership).  The person assigned to our car said that it needed a new battery, and would be repaired sometime that week.  I have a Prius, so it's not the simple battery job that you would think.  We were wondering how I would get to work, but they said "no loaners unless it's a high dollar repair."  Three days later, after much checking back, the guy told Bobby that he needed a work order for the car, signed by the owner.  Okay...so we took care of that.  The person at the dealership apologized profusely for our previous handler, who is the owner's son and pretty bad at his job.  He also mentioned that the car needs new cables, since the previous owner tried to MacGuyver a non-standard battery into the car by splicing and stretching the cables.  Oh, and would we like a loaner?  Bother.

I was surprisingly more upset to lose our ergo baby.  The ergo has been our companion since X was born.  We now use it for hiking.  It has a lot of sentimental value, and even a used one is costly.  Since Wednesday was my birthday, Bobby bought me a used Beco butterfly II.  It promises to be a better toddler carrier than the ergo.  We'll try it out when the weather clears up.

X just came up to me and reminded me that there are bigger problems.  He thrust his dump truck jammies into my lap and indicated that he wanted to wear them.  I told him that we don't wear jammies during the day, and he got pretty upset.  Why, oh why can't we wear jammies during the day?  That's a question for the ages.

Farewell, ergo.  I hope you make another baby happy.

Gobble, gobble!