Long lost blog. Christmas. Yes, it's february.

Oh, hello.Was my last post really about Thanksgiving? Oh dear. Sorry, sorry. Here's the recap since then:
1. Thanksgiving.
2. Christmas
3. New Years
4. Matt's Birthday

See, this is why we have holidays. Without annual celebrations, we would lose sight of the larger cycles of life-- passage of time, reaffirmation of our connection to our communities, ethnicities, and species. Also, cameras. If I don't have a picture of it, then it never happened.

So here are some pictures of things that, apparently, happened:


Rosie is a very patient big sister and puts up with a lot of abuse. Focused, sharp-fingernailed abuse.

We went to the Kauai Coffee Christmas thing where Rosie rode a horse around and around and Santa creeped us all out, Rosie and Maile both in hysterics but Rosie determined to get close enough to the guy to earn a candy cane from the attending elf-lets. It's enough to turn me into a Santa-hater.

Helping me make bread.

And sinterklaas came! His horse even took a big bite out of a carrot. (Yes, I like Sinterklaas more than Santa. More Chocolate).

Hm, where's RJ? Ah yes, the mini-gaga in green with the orange hood, and the bold intersection of black and purple ribbon. That's her.

A friend has the genius Christmas tradition of a kid cookie decorating party. Sheer sugar-maddened genius.

Oh, and here's our would-have-been christmas card! If we'd ever gotten around to it! Sorry ya'll, merry Christmas!

Maile loves other babies. Sometimes she pats them nicely, but often she gives them wet open-mouthed kisses that turn into 4-toothed chomps.

Christmas at the beach! The kids all dressed up and we put on a Christmas pageant at a pavilion at the beach. :) :) :)

Little Mary and baby J

Rosie as an angel

And SANTA CAME!!!! To the beach! In a canoe! With that great beard and those hard core tattoos! All the kids got candy canes and they blasted tinny "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" from an on-board boombox. Best Santa Ever. So much for my, "Santa is based on the story of a man named Nicolas who lived a long long time ago, and who was very nice to a poor family." No, now Rosie knows the Truth.

Thanks Santa.

Christmas morning face:

The boxes are the best part!!!

This is perfect RJ: princess crown and gumboots.

Cats and babies, in the cupboards...

Our newest Christmas tradition: after the morning excitement was done and the green eggs and ham were discussed and not eaten, it was 80 degrees inside. So we drove up to Kokee where it was so cold and arctic that I probably should have brought a sweater! Like, 60 degrees! Heaven! But it was nice to cool down a little bit on Christmas day, we'll try it again next year.

An auspicious sign: Christmas day Fairy rings.