Merry Christmas 2014

 The Saturday before Christmas, we visited the city lights at Honolulu Hale. We knew we were going to see the shaka Santa and the big Christmas tree. We didn't know we were going to stumble upon a major carnival, complete with rides, crowds, and tons of things for sale. I was grateful that I didn't spend all of my cash at the farmer's market earlier that day. X got to ride the swings, merry go round, and helicopters a few times, calling "hi mom! hi dad!" as he went around and around. Other highlights for him were the fountain where shaka Santa was and the fire truck Christmas tree. The entire city hall was filled with trees, one made by every municipal department. It was incredibly crowded. I think next year we will go on a weeknight!

On Christmas Eve, we went to see the local lights show on Namoku drive. No pictures, we forgot. The yards were all done up with light displays, and we drove through slowly while X shouted "Merry Chmistmas!" at passers-by. We watched the Polar Express yet again before bed, and X went right to sleep, leaving us ample time to set up for the next day.

Santa brought X a bicycle, a cement mixer, some DVD's, and a book. X received plenty of additional toys from his family. He savored unwrapping every present and playing with each toy, so they weren't all opened until early afternoon. We kept prodding him to open his cement mixer, and eventually had to tell him that he couldn't have his bike--parked behind the cement mixer--until he opened it.

Between playing with his toys, he has been watching the Polar Express nonstop. He drives his trains around his table, narrating parts of the story. He even pulled the microphone off of his piano so that he could sing the hot chocolate song. Christmas night, he fell asleep while I was reading him the book.

Honolulu Hale

Hi mom!

X rides the swings

X rides the helicopters

Carolers?

Shaka Santa and Mrs. Claus in a mumu

in front of the fire truck tree

another shot of the fire truck tree

Christmas morning

It's a cem mixker!

eating a play cookie

setting up his Thomas and friends track

trying out the bike.

Using construction tools to (sort of) eat Christmas dinner.

The meaning of Christmas

Edit: Wow, David Wong said this so much better than I did. Please take a look at his article here.

I am not one of those people who thrives on working seven days a week. That's why I nearly lost my mind after working ten days in a row--sorry to those who have to do that on a regular basis.

I'm trying to collect my wits and figure out what to do with my entire day off without Xander (hint: shopping and chores).  Since I can't seem to get up from the breakfast table, I'm going to write a bit about the holidays.

Full disclosure: Christmas is my favorite holiday. I know that is frightfully uncool for people of my generation. It's so commercial and wasteful, the last thing we need is more things, it's overdone and starts in October, blah de blah.  Here's the thing: we Americans have very few traditions. We're a young country, and thanks to our diversity, have a very fluid identity. Traditions ground us in history, bring us together, and give us a reason to celebrate during, let's face it, the worst time of the year. Even here (hey, it rains and the water is too chilly for swimming!) Young folks like myself have tried to come up with new, guilt free holidays to fill the void like "friendsgiving" and "day of service," but new holidays are, by definition, not tradition. Sing me one friendsgiving song.

One more thing and I'm off my soapbox. Christmas can be a secular holiday and all Americans can celebrate it.  Feel free to click away now. Christianity is the most popular religion in South Korea, and Christmas isn't really a big thing there.  The things many of us associate with Christmas--the tree, Santa, presents, stockings, lights--are totally secular. I really love the Christmas story and am moved when I go to midnight mass, but when we start screaming at each other about "the reason for the season" (Saturnalia?) and "the war on Christmas," that pisses me off. Christmas is not about war or smushing your religious beliefs into someone's face (little known fact: puritans, the original American religious fundamentalists, did not celebrate Christmas). It's about being nice to each other, giving, and shared experience.

On a lighter note, we had a discussion in my household about whether Santa wraps presents. Bobby was all for not wrapping the presents and, even worse, not even taking the bicycle out of the box. I told him that Santa wants to watch X unwrap his presents, and that bicycles are to be assembled and left next to the tree. Duh. Christmas morning is for me, too.

This is what happens when you tell him to smile.

He doesn't love the "snow"

Dancing Boy

His favorite songs are currently "The Frigate that Flies" from The Pirate Fairy and "Hot Wings" from Rio.

Happy Birthday to Xander, Happy Thanksgiving/Birthday to Me

X's birthday was so much fun. I keep thinking that he's the best age he'll ever be, then I love the next age even more. Now that he's three, it's like he's enjoying all of these holidays for the first time. Being three and self-centered, he was ecstatic about his birthday. Bobby and I were ecstatic too, to be honest. We dragged the event out for three days. On Saturday, we let him open one present. On Sunday, he got his big gift, a giant tow truck with a backhoe. We went to Kapolei and rode the train. On Monday, he had a party at his daycare and got to open the rest of his gifts.

He loved his cupcakes, and we had to sing "Happy Birthday" to him every time we pulled one out. He played with each of his birthday toys religiously for about a week, and was on some crazy birthday high during that time. It was a joy. Having a small child during a holiday is a joy.

My birthday was on Thanksgiving, which used to be kind of a drag but suits me now. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and because it was my birthday, I didn't even have to do any dishes. I made the pie, stuffing, and salad, and Bobby cooked his best turkey yet, some rolls, and the potatoes. X is a picky kid and only ate some turkey and the rolls. We sang "Happy Birthday" to me, but X got to blow out the candles. I'm sure he'll be expecting Bobby's birthday next week.

We watched the sun set at Kakaako Waterfront Park, then saw the lights of Waikiki come on. I am very thankful.

The big truck that Bobby couldn't wait until Christmas to give him.

Choo choo!

Riding the choo choo

Dinosaurs!

His garbage truck

His duplo set

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween

Okay, I have no pictures of us in costume. I know, I know! That's really half of the reason to dress up. I have good reason. See, X refused to wear his pirate costume, even after Bobby and I dressed up as pirates and tried to bribe him with candy. He wasn't having it. We ended up going trick or treating at the mall anyways. I figured that Bobby and I being dressed up was worth something, even though our son in plain clothes got some perplexed looks. He enjoyed handing his pumpkin to people and saying "trick or treat", and he loved the candy. Next year, he doesn't get to go with no costume.

We anticipated this, and selected what we thought would be the least offensive costume to him. X is very particular about picking his own clothes, and he won't wear anything with long sleeves or pants without a fight. He grudgingly wore his costume for his day care party, probably moved by peer pressure, but cried when he saw it that evening. Maybe next year face paint is the way to go, though the way he cries when I put sunscreen on him makes me doubt it.

X has grown into quite his own person. I admire his unabashed need to be himself, frustrating as it is at times. He loves all vehicles, and will watch long youtube videos of large trucks driving down the street and no music or dialogue. He holds conversations with trucks on the road, supplying the answers for the trucks in a gravelly voice. He has to haul as many trucks as possible with him wherever he goes: to the playground, to the beach, in the bathtub. Often, I'll nudge him out the door while I surreptitiously put trucks back inside. He'll get big kids on the playground to play trucks with him.

His favorite color is yellow, and his personality is usually sunny to match. He's an ebullient kid, greeting everyone he sees with an "I'm Xando!" Most people in our building love him, and he tries to have conversations with aunties about "nice Halloween. Nice playground. Nice beach," which I think is toddler for, "I had a nice time at the beach."

I have loved every age Xander has been, but I think this is a particularly neat age. His imagination has grown in leaps and bounds. All of his toys have voices and converse with each other. I usually can't tell what's going on, but it's really cute. He'll act out scenes from his favorite movies, which he watches obsessively for weeks, then never again. His current favorite is Toy Story.

He's approaching three, and I have good feelings about it. He's potty trained now (hooray!) and has the presence of mind to remember household rules, though he doesn't always obey them. I think it will be a fun year.

This is his go to construction site. It's also a smoking area. So far, the adults are pretty tolerant of it.

Kaniakapupu

Today we visited the ruins of King Kamehameha III's Summer Palace. He picked a nice place for his summer home. Nu'uanu Pali is tucked in the Ko'olau Mountains in a dense forest. There are abundant breezes and enough shade to bring the temperature down significantly. The ruins are pretty intact, probably because they are relatively young, and include a kitchen and a heiau, or temple.

The rumor is that there are a lot of spirits here, so we got ourselves pretty spooked. It is the week before Halloween. We were careful not to let X steal any rocks.

The plaque says there was a luau with 10,000 people here. That must have been crowded.

Heiau

Kitchen house