After weeks of poor weather, we started the holidays off with huge waves and beautiful sunshine at Brennecke's beach Christmas Eve. Zac ate it up--as you can see below. He was getting as stir-crazy with the weather as we were! He kept walking up to the water line and falling forward as the waves came in, with a surprised gasp and laugh every time. We loved the turns in the water, especially since this beach is sometimes so rocky it's not worth it in the winter.
We rushed home to shower and pick up Steve and Natalie from the airport. We were so excited to have family here for the holidays!
If Cory and Kristen ever make it out to visit (or Natalie, Ang, Karen, any of you ladies who so desire!), I'm going to take her on a run with me to this destination. It's the best running around town, and close to three miles from our house. A perfect distance for a great view.
Brady called me from work on Christmas Eve Day, and said, "Santa is rowing into Kalipaki this afternoon. Do you want to go?" My reply? "That's the lamest thing I've ever heard of in my life." I changed my tune when I realized we could fit in some boogie boarding beforehand, and when Santa's canoe arrival showed up on the front page of MSN that day. I decided if it was good enough for national news, it was good enough for me.
Speaking of news, this picture ended up in our local paper. At least Zac's reaction is a little more favorable to the Hawaiian Santa.
Christmas Eve we sang some hymns, read Luke 2, and had Zachary open his first present. Actually, we opened the present for him. Apparently my chiding, "No, no, no" for the previous two weeks kept him from thinking it was ever okay to touch the wrapping paper.
I know sugar plums are only supposed to dance in the heads of children on Christmas Eve, but there was no way I could go to sleep realizing it was my baby's first Christmas the next day! I kept waking up over and over again, seeing the clock only 10 min past the last wake-up. When it hit 5am, I asked Brady if he was awake. Yep. We turned the monitor up to max volume, and the minute we heard a PEEP from Zachary (a full hour later), we booked it to his room to see what Santa brought.
As you can see from the picture above, Zac loved the biscuits Santa brought. He loved them so much that he wouldn't drop them to open any of his presents. Really, he was pretty apathetic about the whole presents deal, and it took some convincing to even play with them. I get that it will kick in about two years from now, but it was still funny how much of an anti-climax the event turned out to be!
We had a tasty Christmas breakfast with Matt and Megan and family, and Nic and Heidi and family, before heading up to Hanalei for the day--our Christmas tradition now two years standing. It was a spectacular day with sunshine and great waves.
Steve is the most athletic visitor we've had (at least that we've seen surf!), and he picked it up right away. Natalie had a fun time boogie boarding, and we all enjoyed the surf.
We even saw a double rainbow. How picture-perfect!
We ended the day with dinner at Nic and Heidi's. It was a refreshing day, and we enjoyed the time with friends and family!
9 comments:
What a beautiful Holiday. How exciting to share Zacs first Christmas...each year will only get better as he starts to understand Santa and presents and reindeer, etc. How exciting.
The double rainbow is crazy, great picture!
his first christmas!! it is fun (for the parents more so), but still. you have to celebrate anyway. andrew hadn't a clue about what was going on, and just wanted to carry around matthew's gifts. oh well. next year? or maybe even the year after that....
Christmas morning is so magical and with each year the kids understand a bit more and the excitement grows. By the time I was in high school we were getting up at 4am Christmas morning. My mom was as bad as us kids. Coleman's first Christmas with my family my Mom woke us up at 5am and my youngest brother was in high school! His family never made a big deal out of Santa so his Christmas mornings were not as magical --in the Santa sense-- as mine! But since I wear the pants --lol-- our Christmas mornings with our family will be more like mine than his!
I am glad you guys had a nice Christmas! We are so excited to see you guys soon!
This was Hazel's first Christmas too, but she's so little we weren't so excited either. We didn't even open presents until 11:00! How ridiculous is that?
Isn't Zac's birthday soon?
wow! love the pic of the sun's rays with the mountain in the background!!! your camera rocks! we're in the market for a new one.
also, i didn't know you were ranking visitors on athletic prowess - remember you didn't have surfboards yet when eric and i visited! ;) love you guys! happy
'09!!!
SO much fun!! Rob and I need to come visit you!!
Zac is definitely getting bigger! Congrats on your first Christmas as a family. Sure looks fun.
I'm really looking forward to seeing you this week!
You didn't mention how Zac loved that toy to take it apart more than anything. :)
Well, now Chris and I are going to HAVE to come out there just so he can beat the "most athletic surfer" record!
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