Merry Christmas...........

We love Christmas! Of course, at our house, it practically lasts an entire month - what with starting with Sinterklaas (Dutch Santa Claus Day) and all. Then you add in the fact that the kids also spend time during the holidays with their dad. You would think that people would be on gift overload here, but that doesn't seem to be the case - at least not as far as the kids are concerned.

Here are a few of the highlights.....

Wendy and her flat iron! Now maybe she can actually straighten her hair here at home instead of needing to go to Camille's to do her hair! Oh, seriously, what am I thinking - she'll still go to Camille's!

Tyler loves anything spicy! When Mrs. Claus came across this set of hot sauces, she knew it would be a hit!

Tommy loves the outdoors - hunting, fishing, playing, etc. UglyStik is the brand of fishing rod - it's not what we actually hit him with (tempting? yes, but we don't)!

Ryan is the sweets lover in the family. Any chance possible, he is wanting to bake a dessert (which is usually brownies - and heaven forbid if there isn't a brownie mix in the pantry). His facial expression shows his excitement! And guess what? We did NOT have a brownie mix in the pantry! Oh, the horrors!

Not that Monique needs help when it comes to beauty, but she did want a new curling iron. She was a little frustrated the first couple of days using this new contraption - she claims she needs help with coordination. She must have mastered it, as she was able to get ready for work today and looked beautiful when I came home from work this evening!

I was spoiled this year and got a Kindle! I believe that the serious expression on my face is me contemplating which book to download first!

I love spending the day with the family. It was great to be able to speak with Steve that day, too.

Most of all, I love reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas and the gift that has been given to all of us by our Savior. One of my favorite CHRISTMAS THINGS is the story about the boy practicing to be the gruff innkeeper and turning Joseph and Mary away from the inn. As they are walking away, he cries out, "Wait! Joseph, come back! You can have my room." If only we could all be as giving and selfless as Christ wants us to be. I think we need to have more of Christmas throughout the year to help us remember. I really don't see anything wrong with singing Silent Night in April!

Sinterklaas................

As one of the very important members of our family was raised in the Netherlands, one of our Christmas Traditions is to celebrate Sinterklaas. This is usually celebrated on Dec. 5th, but with everything going on at our house this weekend, we postponed it until tonight (Dec. 7th). (I'm sure Sinterklaas, himself, didn't mind - he probably need the rest, what with the jet lag and everything, coming over from Europe). We draw names to exchange gifts. The favorite and challenging part, is to disguise the gifts. The kids do a great job with this, and we look forward every year to see what they come up with. I was taught that the gifts should be disguised along the same idea as what the gift is, but that doesn't necessarily happen. This is what we came up with this year............

This was Ryan's gift for me. This is a man in a bathtub! (Notice the hairy chest - something the kids still have a hard time getting used to). Inside was deodorant and body wash - I hope he's not trying to subtly tell me something. It was a HUGE surprise, as I was with him when he bought it the other evening.

Tommy drew Tyler's name, and instead of disguising the gift, he had Tyler do a treasure hunt! He played Hot/Cold for a couple of minutes, and then informed Tyler, "Oh, wait! It's not in this room!" He then brought the gift out from his room (new white t-shirts).

Wendy's gift for Ryan was hidden inside the pillow! Ryan was very excited to be able to rip into the pillow to see what was hidden inside.............

A very happy Snuggie recipient!

Tyler drew Monique this year. The box was wrapped (excessively) in toilet paper, with an innumerable amount rubber bands securing the paper to the package. Once the unveiling was done, there was a very nice crystal candy dish inside. (Quite the change from the usual body lotion that she usually receives)!

Monique had Tommy's name this year (and she does have a slight advantage over the rest of us). She created a bunny out of new t-shirts (this was part of the gift) and inside was a mini SD memory card for him to use with his cell phone. (I had to point out that the shirts were new when he commented that he got laundry! Silly, silly boy!). The bunny is the white one, not the gray creature with the disgusted look on his face.

That leaves me with having Wendy's name! Yes - this is a purse made out of a brown paper bag. The gift was a new wallet (an item that was needed to hold the newly acquired drivers license (an event that is still too traumatic to talk about)). But to help hide the gift inside of the purse, I borrowed some things from Wendy's room that would typically be found in a real purse, i.e. a brush, gum, makeup, a half eaten pop tart, lip gloss, etc.. Inside the wallet was a mini SD memory card for her cell phone.

I must inform you that this year things were pretty mild. We didn't have gift cards stuffed inside squid. There were no earrings hiding in the litter box. We didn't have any balloons filled with shaving cream that needed to popped in order to find a gift card inside one of the balloons. Nor did we have cold mushy oatmeal to dig around in, or gift cards frozen in blue kool-aid with red swedish fish! I guess there is always next year....

Blessings That Come From Service..........

This past year, I have spent an insanely amount of time helping out in Primary. For a ward as large as ours (800 + members), we have a shortage of people that can play the piano! I have helped out by playing the piano in either of our two primaries (yes we have two primaries in our ward) off and on for about five months. I was getting accustomed to actually attending Sunday School and Priesthood Quorum again, when Sunday, somebody hunted me down to see if I could help in Primary A. When I walked in, the chorister was quite relieved. She mentioned that she really appreciated my help and decided I needed to be the recipient of more blessings. See below...........

We all thought that these little reindeer cookies were quite cute. Maybe we have been out of Idaho and Utah too long, but we had never seen something like this before.

Oh the blessings we receive from service!

Hawaii - Saturday (Day 7) or Happy Birthday Tommy...........

Saturday morning - the last morning of vacation. And what could possibly be better than to celebrate Tommy's birthday?! Tommy had been asking us all week what we were doing for his birthday. We kept telling him, that with getting ready for vacation, we completely forgot about his birthday (like that would ever happen)! He had mixed emotions - he was excited to be able to have his birthday in Hawaii, but on the other hand, he would be spending the majority of his birthday on an airplane on the way back home. Oh the sacrifices that kids have to make these days!

And, even on vacation, the Sticht Family Robinson Choir still performs! This was a pretty dang good performance, too! (Maybe the choir should go on the road more often)!

Tommy not quite awake yet!

Tommy, definitely pleased with his birthday gift!

We got home last Saturday night, so there wasn't any cake and ice cream that day. Monday evening, we took Tommy out for his birthday dinner. We were all too full, so no cake and ice cream then, either. It wasn't until Tuesday night that we finally had cake! How would it be to celebrate a birthday for four day?!

Happy Birthday, Tommy! We love you!

Aloha and mahalo!

Hawaii - Friday (Day 6).................

Friday we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Not knowing for sure what to expect, we headed to the other side of the island for this adventure. The drive provided an opportunity to see a different aspect to the island other than sandy beaches, palm trees, and ocean. We were inland towards the northern part of the island. It was rather interesting here at the pineapple plantation. After the usual potty break, the first thing we did was the pineapple maze. We were all given little maps of the maze and off we went.

This is the maze.

Monique and I went through the maze together. The kids all took off individually (apparently, it was a race to see who could get done first). We got turned around a couple of times, and we also backtracked a couple of times, but we eventually made our way through. Come to find out, the kids all took shortcuts (cheaters).

We were all able to see how pineapples actually grow. Some thought that they grew on trees, others weren't exactly sure, or hadn't given it much thought.

Pineapples

After completing the maze, we cooled off for a minute inside the gift shop, then we went on a self-guided garden tour. It was interesting to see the different flowers, banana trees, coffee plants, papaya trees, and everything else.

The kids by a pond in the garden.

Lily pad - notice the frog!

After the self-guided tour, we cooled off with pineapple dole whips (pineapple flavored ice cream) - YUMMY! Then since we were on vacation, we decided to get some lunch - notice dessert first, then lunch!

Our next stop was on the western side of the island - Ko Olina! We heard that the snorkeling here was incredible. The place we went to had some lagoons, or coves that were open to the public. The kids snorkeled for a few hours and saw turtles, puff fish, squid, and jellyfish. They were having the time of their lives. It was a great way to spend the last afternoon on the island, and they even all walked away with free beach towels!

Friday evening was spent at a friend's from school. I went through elementary school all the way through high school with Anne. They invited us over for dinner, and what a feast it was. Joe had barbecued ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats. Anne (and Joe) had made a couple of salads. When we were almost done eating, Joe grilled some fresh pineapple (this was very good, and I would recommend that people try this at home). Anne made a caramel apple cake for dessert. It was a very enjoyable evening just relaxing, eating and visiting. If anyone is looking for a great host and hostess on the island of Oahu, I can hook you up.

Hawaii - Thursday (Day 5)................

Thursday was another very nice day. Apparently some of the other islands were experiencing more rain, and some even had snow, but on Oahu, we had warm, sunny weather! The kids wanted to do some snorkeling, so we headed off to Hanauma Bay.

We waited in a long line of cars to get into the parking lot. We waited in another line to pay for admission to this National Park after making our way from the parking lot. While waiting in line, Monique noticed signs warning of jellyfish. She was no longer interested in snorkeling (maybe it had something to do with the idea of somebody peeing on her if she happened to get stung by a jellyfish - I don't know)! The kids were still determined. And it does have a very nice beach!

Ryan, Tommy & Wendy all set for snorkeling.

Even though it was warm and sunny, the water was extremely rough. This made for the water to be murky and the kids were not enjoying the snorkeling as much as they had hoped (I guess murky water prevents you from seeing things under water, maybe even things like jellyfish). We decided to head back to Waikiki and along the way, experienced real Hawaiian cuisine by stopping at the local Costco and getting a pepperoni pizza!

We went to the Waikiki Aquarium that afternoon. It wasn't a real big aquarium, but it was still interesting. Here are a couple of things we saw............

Some kind of shrimp (can't remember the name)

These are giant clams. We saw some that were bigger, but these were rather colorful.

We actually spent a couple of hours at the aquarium. That evening we just relaxed and walked along the main street across from the beach at Waikiki.

Another pleasant day!

Hawaii - Wednesday (Day 4)............

We had been enjoying beautiful weather while we were in Hawaii. It sprinkled a couple of times (or rather, misted). We weren't exactly jumping for joy when the day we planned to go the Polynesian Cultural Center, they were predicting flash floods and major rain. The tickets were already purchased, so we had no choice but to brave the weather and make the best of it. It was a very nice, scenic drive going up the eastern coast of Oahu. Extremely gray clouds, and just downright blustery weather. We even saw a couple of houses with sandbags in front of their driveways! When we got to Laie, however, it was no longer raining. We were early, so we went to the Laie Temple. It is closed for renovation for the next year or so, but we were still able to tour the temple grounds and even the visitors center. This temple, along with two others, do not have a statue of the Angel Moroni on top. At the top of the temple, there are carvings, and Moroni is part of the carvings! There are 24 palm trees in front, 12 on each side. Those on the left represent the original 12 apostles, and the 12 on the right represent the 12 modern day apostles (interesting tidbits that I thought I would share)!

On our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center, we drove through the campus of BYU Hawaii, and then went to McDonald's for a quick lunch! McDonald's is right next to the cultural center, so it was rather convenient. And one of the perks to arriving early - front row parking! The cultural center was very interesting. There definitely is not enough time in one day to do everything. The pictures below show a couple of the things that we did..........

Ukelele lessons

Tribal Tattoos

Learning how to climb a palm tree, and I swear these Polynesians can climb these trees faster than monkeys!

There was a luau for dinner! They had entertainment throughout dinner. The food was really good, particularly the pork. And there was A LOT of food!

Dinner!

After dinner, we went to the big show - Ha, A Breath of Life. The kids all enjoyed this. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it weren't for the man sitting next to me taking up half of my seat, and also for the guy in front of me that kept showing me his camera! Okay, maybe he wasn't exactly showing it to me, he kept holding it up in front of me while recording the show! Lucky for him, I was on my best behavior and was able to refrain from slapping him silly, and from taking his camera away from him. Both were certainly tempting.

It was a great day. And the best part is, we didn't have any flash floods! We had some rain as we were leaving McDonald's and driving to the cultural center. By the time we got out of the car, the rain had stopped, and we had great weather for the rest of the day!

Hawaii - Tuesday (Day 3)................

On Monday, Jared and Kate heard about this trail to this waterfall by a local resident. This was an easy, flat trail, through part of a rain forest, and would lead to this beautiful waterfall where kids could jump off the edge and play in the pool at the base. This sounded very intriguing! This would be a part of Hawaii that most tourists wouldn't see! We decided to check this out on Tuesday. We drove to where the trail began and this is what we saw......

The trail was in here and would lead us to the beautiful waterfalls! The trail was great! It was fairly flat, and paved - in the beginning, anyway! It soon turned to this.....

Yep! Muddy, rocky, terrain with tree roots thrown in for us to step over. Part way through, however, we came across this - something that you don't see everyday (unless, of course, you live in this part of Hawaii)!

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!

Hah! We had more muddy, slippery, ankle twisting trail to follow in order to get to the waterfalls! Oh, and also, you might need to cross a river bed about five different times along the trail. We were informed of a shortcut (never fall for those words). It was like climbing up a slip and slide! I think the local resident also forgot to mention the stairs - steep stairs. We are almost there and we get to this point......

This is the trail for the rest of the way. We started out wearing tennis shoes, but at this point, we opted to go barefoot. We finally got to the waterfalls and the kids had a great time!

This little adventure took considerably longer than we had anticipated, and we were completely exhausted by the time we got back to the car. Monique was supposed to be doing another class at this point, and we still needed to get back to the air force base where all of her school stuff was. When we got to the base, she had decided to not even worry about class - she would catch class via the archive instead.

After relaxing for a couple of hours we went back to the hotel and then walked around Waikiki. I believe we all slept extremely well Tuesday night!

Hawaii - Monday (Day 2).............

After a good night's rest, the kids came down to our room early Monday morning (okay, maybe it wasn't really very early) and had breakfast so we could begin our day's activities. First up on the list was Diamond Head . I'm glad we went as early as we did, because it gets warm (mildly hot) pretty early in the day in Hawaii! Also interesting to find out, was how young a person used to be. While the kids were way ahead of us, we were leisurely (rather painstakingly) making our way up the trail. Thank goodness for modern technology, as the kids eventually did text and call us to see where we were (not to make sure that we were okay, mind you, just to find out where we were)!

This is at the beginning of the trail, but we had our picture taken when we were done!

This is what a lot of the trail looked like. The beginning was paved, but then it transformed to this, and throw in a mere 76, and then an additional 99 steps and you've made your way to the top!

In these pictures, Tyler is walking down the trail. In the other you can see Wendy texting (most likely Camille) while making her way down!

This is a view of Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head.


This is the inside of the crater as viewed from the very top.


This lighthouse was at the base of Diamond Head.

When we were done at Diamond Head, we headed back to the air force base so we could play in the water (what else are you supposed to do when you go to Hawaii?)! On our way, we came across Halona Blow Hole. Even though we didn't see it blow very strong, or very high, it was still pretty cool.

Just after getting back in the car, we saw this flying above us.....

The kids all found this to be rather interesting. This is Wendy's favorite photo, because it looks like the guy is looking down at us.

We finally made it to the base, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon playing in the water. Monique had to do one of her classes and was able to do that online. She actually told one of the kids to log her off when the professor ended, so she could go out to the beach!