Mele Kalikimaka Y'all

This is our second Christmas as a married couple! Last year we were able to spend Christmas in Georgia, but this year it was too expensive to fly home ($1000 per ticket!).

On Christmas Eve we went to Matt's Auntie Annie's house and had a little lunch with this Hawai'i family. It was nice to spend a little more time with his Hawaii cousins and to be with the Ho's and the Grahams. Then we headed over to my family's house- the Johnson's. These are the nicest people ever! I love going over there because it helps Hawaii feel a little more at home. Whenever I am homesick, being with the Johnson's helps cure it fast. So they had a huge Christmas Eve dinner and Santa came by- it was great fun! Matt and I even got drafted into helping set up the decorations. We stayed way too late, but it was worth it! When we got back to Laie, Matt and I exchanged pjs and watched A Christmas Story (our little tradition!).

In the morning, Matt and I opened our stockings from Santa. Then we cooked breakfast. We decided we wanted to start making Christmas morning breakfast. This year we invited our friends- David, Nana and their son Josiah to eat breakfast with us. I didn't take any pictures, but we had a lot of fun. I figured I didn't like to spend Christmas without family so I made sure another family-less couple was able to have a little company!

(Santa gave Matt the Star Wars Cookbook for Christmas! Please notice these one of a kind stockings my mother-in-law made! We love them!)

We went to church- we only had sacrament and it was a really good one. It was great to just focus on the Lord and what this day is really about. After sacrament- our friends Zach and Julie stopped by to grab some of the hygiene kits to take to India. They are going to be going for three weeks and working with orphanages and other humanitarian programs (this is a program we hope to go with in the summer)! Anyway, I can't wait to see pictures of the kits in India.

We opened our gifts and had a blast rocking out to Justin Beiber's Christmas album (well, I enjoyed the music- Matt just suffered through)

Matt and I did pretty well this Christmas- I think we went a little over board, but we didn't get to go home so I felt okay with spending a little money on each other! Our loot included all of the Harry Potter movies on blue ray, a kindle fire, a Xoom tablet, Toms shoes, and a few other trinkets! Plus, our families were very nice to us!

After presents, I made sweet potatoes. This is a dish my Abuela and Papa always make for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love it!!!! I have only made once- a couple of years ago- so I was a little nervous. And this year, I grabbed the purple sweet potatoes so I got a little nervous- but they turned out great! I am so happy I can make them close to how my Abuela and Papa make them!

Then we headed back up to the Johnson's house and had dinner with them and hung out. It was a great Christmas. I wish I was able to have flown home, but this was a great experience!