Six More Dodos...

Christmas is among my favorite time of the year, but it is not for everyone... plus, as we are getting older it is not the same.  My mother is now a snowbird, and she doesn't come back just for me.  Hubby's father is... well... we don't see much of him.  Hubby often offered to escape at Christmas time.  We did it once, to Napa, and it was nice.  It didn't feel like it was Christmas, but the time away sure felt good.  This year we had not, yet, really taken any vacation.  I did go spend a two days at a cousin in Québec City, but other than that, we we pretty much home bodies.  Hubby worked a lot. We had talked about going to Europe, visit with friends back in August, but the scheduling wasn't working out and the funds were low, so that didn't work out.  When we talked about escaping at Christmas we did think of Europe - I would love to visit the Christmas markets in Germany or Poland, but then it would NOT be a relaxing vacation for Hubby since there would be places to see and lots to do.  Given that he's the main bread winner in this household, he needs (and wants!) to relax some.  So, rather than going someplace where we would feel guilty about crashing and doing nothing, we thought why not go some place we know.  We won't feel the need to visit or the guilt of crashing. Plus I wanted some warmth.  When we started talking about it, it was for the week of Christmas leading to New Year's.  We thought of using this damn timeshare of ours, we pay for it so might as well try to use the damn thing, so Hubby started to explore different options.

In mid-August (one hundred twenty-seven days exactly from our departure date), Hubby booked us a Christmas escape, just the two of us. We are heading back to Hawai'i... again.  A part of me feels like the luckiest girl and another part feels like the old broad who hates to travel.  The twelve freaking hours in transit are not exciting me, but, come on!  It is Hawai'i after all!

We dug out our snorkel gear and went to a dive shop.  Man we care good consumers!  Let's leave it at that!  While on the Big Island, I would love to go snorkeling daily.  I will admit, I'm not the most confident swimmer, and the thought of those big winter waves is somewhat worrisome,  especially when our local friend texted us to let us know they had to close a surfing competition on the North Shore (of Oahu) because the waves were too big... nothing to warm my insides, let's say.  But I do love to see marine life, and being in the  water, so hopefully we will manage to get some days in the blue waters of the Big Island.

This year, again, I kept up my tradition of sending (a lot!) of Christmas cards, both folded and postcards. To my pleasure, I've been getting some back.

One the first weekend of December, this is how it started:

Then, the following weekend, I had a little more...

And then, this weekend, it showed that a nice load came in... I manage to almost fill out my first door. Check it out:

I'm hoping to get a bunch more this week, before we leave, I just love it!  Last night we had friends over and the man thought those were cards accumulated over the years... come on!  These are all cards received for this year's Christmas!

Remember a few years back I used to adopt a family in need at Christmas?  That was such a thrill and emotional thing.  I loved to do it.  When a friend of mine mentioned that she was going to be an elf  for a kid this Christmas, I jump on that bandwagon, I wanted in too.  I got assigned a little eight years old boy, who wrote me a letter telling me what he wanted, etc.  I had to buy him a gift, and write him back.  I wrote him a cute letter, as an elf, wrapped my gift and dropped it off at the assigned location.  I've been following the evolution of the project, organised by a teacher in a poor income area of town, and it is so touching and fun to see everyone's excitement.  Looking forward to seeing the kids'.  Hopefully she will post about it too, even if she's trying hard to keep the kids identities under wrap.

Tomorrow, since we will be missing the family gathering with Hubby's cousin at either Christmas or New Year, I thought of taking the kids (the three of them) shopping for their gifts.  They chose the stores they want to go to, so I will pick them up, drive them there, let them choose (in our set budget, of course!) and pay for it all.  The only thing I'm not certain of right this moment, is if I'm going to be nice or naughty... Nice if I let them take their gifts home with them, or naughty and take the gifts away and ask the parents to give it to them on Christmas... hmmm... decisions, decisions...