This Christmas was quite a few firsts for us: it was Lincoln's first Christmas, our first Hawaiian Christmas, our first Christmas as a family of four, and our first Christmas spent with just our little family!
We missed our extended family, but it was a great opportunity to start some of our own family traditions and it was REALLY nice to be together as a fam (Daniel was just getting underway on a sub last year at Christmas)! Daniel had a little over a week off, and we soaked up sunshine (protected by SPF 50+, thank you Stephanie!) and time with each other! Most of our days were spent like this:
How blessed are we to be able to spend our vacation week in December on multiple beaches around a Hawaiian island? I'll answer for you... EXTREMELY. Almost every day, we took our tent, found a beach (or went to our favorite little secluded one nearby that not many people seem to know about), and played! Or... tried to sleep and got attacked by a crazy little monster who thinks playing "nap" is the funniest thing ever and gets all up in your face or jumps all over your back. But how can this sleepy mama complain when the monster has a face like this:
?
Ok, now to our actual Christmas Day.
Our new "traditions" (I don't think they can count as legit, no-quote traditions until we've repeated them several years):
Christmas PJs
This one puts a huge smile on my face. We grew up opening one present every Christmas Eve that was almost always a new pair of PJs. My sister sent the boys these adorable Christmas jams:
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| Sweet big bro likes to share <everything> with his "be-be"... apparently li'l bro is catching on. Yikes! |
Christmas Eve Service/ Story of Jesus' Birth
We went to our church's Christmas Eve service with the big boys sporting brand new Aloha shirts!
Happy Birthday Jesus
We woke up and sang Jesus Happy Birthday as we ate muffins. In the future, we'll probably bake a cake the night before, but muffins worked great this year!
Oak Ridge Boys
Although not as cool as it was growing up, we still listened to the Koop classic "Jesus Was Born Today" by the Oak Ridge Boys. My dad has a pretty awesome vinyl collection (don't I sound so cool saying "vinyl") and we listened to this one every Christmas morn growing up. I'm pretty sure we also begged to listen to some Cabbage Patch Christmas album, if I'm not mistaken, but that is a tradition that will not be continuing down generations...
"Fancy" Breakfast
Let's clarify the Hogue definition of fancy: a pre-made casserole that we cooked and ate while sitting outside feeling a tropical breeze (wish that could be an annual tradition!)... I made a smoked-gouda egg souffle the day before (recipe from a friend here who's hubby is quite the chef!) that will definitely be a Christmas staple!
I have a few other traditions that I'd like to incorporate when the boys get a little older, like a nativity with baby Jesus not in place until Christmas day, cookies/milk and carrots left out for Santa and reindeer, and other general family Christmas Day shenanigans (football game? sledding? another beach trip like this year? It all depends on where we live!).
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| Kisses for brother! |
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| New paints for Christmas! |
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| Enjoying Daniel's Christmas present! |
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| Photo session with shirts from Lolli & Pops |
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| A more accurate depiction of how the photo session went... a giggling, rolling toddler |
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| A hike along Ka'ena Point State Park's north shore |
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| I call this one "Pleasant Jowels" |
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| That's right - sweatshirts in Hawaii! |
Hope your family had a very Merry Christmas, and we're ready to celebrate next year with grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins! Hope you're ready for us and our new traditions! ;)
Love the stories, pictures and especially the video! ❤️
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