Even in Hawaii...

It's Christmas

We've had to play a little extra Christmas music in our apartment, and in our car, and on our ipod this season to make it feel like the holidays have arrived in Hawaii. It's strange to see all the lights and decorations and not be bundled up sipping cider. Yet, even though it takes a little bit more effort to get the 'Christmas Spirit' into our lives here, we're really feeling it!

This Christmas will be our first Christmas away from home. Which is bittersweet- we'll miss being around family so much but we're excited to begin our own family traditions and be 'us'. The other night Nate and I got to talking about Christmases growing up and the traditions we had with our families. Here are a few we are planning on incorporating into our own (granted some will work better when there's more of us...)

-Throw carrots on the roof Christmas eve for the reindeer

-Incorporate a service tradition into the Holidays (still working on the exact service)

-Have a Christmas lights tour... drive around gazing and drinking cocoa/eggnog

-Watch THE Christmas movie. We want a specific one, but again that's a work in progress

-Have two trees: a nicely decorated one and another for the 'fun' ornaments and a little more eclectic in a separate place

-Have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with signature dishes (yum)

-Christmas Breakfast (same every year... we're thinking crepes)

It's quite exciting to be starting out and planning these things that we will someday be doing with our family. For now, we're going to be quite busy trying to get all this done...