Our Mantel

I was so looking forward to hanging our stockings on our mantel!

You cant tell in the pic, but I had a small string of lights running thru the pine vine.

On the other side, that I forgot to take a picture of, I had the mantel clock with an artificial pine vine and a couple of cute felt birds that I found at target. I think it looked very nice, but then again I'm a bit biased.

All in all I loved how it looked and the cozy feeling it gave the mantel.

I still have that empty corner in the back that I don't know what to do with.

I guess that's something to think about for next year.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Our Christmas Tree

Hope you're Christmas was merry and you had a wonderful tree!

Originally I was planning on selling my Christmas decoration, but I just couldn't so I mailed a bunch of stuff over - glad I did because I was able to decorate!

Now I am a firm believer in an artificial Christmas tree. No mess, no watering, lights already in the tree. I loved the artificial 9' slim tree we had back when I managed the care home.

The ceilings are much lower where we live now, so I had to let it go....not to mention it would have been crazy expensive to ship to the mainland.

This Christmas Hubby wanted a real tree. Looked at me with those puppy eyes and said "I would really like to have a real tree. Can we have a real tree, huh? huh?"

How can you say no to such a heartfelt request?

That's right, you can't. So we bought a real tree, and she was a beauty.

I started with some lights and silver ornaments

and then added all of this:

Some of these I've had for years and some of them are new.

Put it all together and you get this

This picture doesn't do it justice.

The tree topper is also new, new to us, it is vintage and hope that over the years we can find some real vintage silver ornaments to match!

We watered the tree 2x's a day and it was really fresh to the end. It was sad to take it down and move it out side.

Looking forward to many more Christmas's and Christmas trees in our cozy home.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

My Christmas Gift

My husband and I met thru our passion - scuba. He was a scuba instructor for over 10 years and I thought he should have something to show for it, so I put together a book from the thousands of photos that we have from that time. This is the result (iPhoto also makes a slide show out of the photos - fun!).

I hope you like it, and I especially hope he likes it.

What did Santa put under your tree?

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours - Mele Kalikimaka

Photo Credit - my wonderful daughter

Aloha a hui hou!

Merry Christmas

My husband and I want to wish you all

Aloha Hui Hou!

Christmas Carols

Today on the Pioneer Woman blog, the big question was "What's your favorite Christmas Carol?"

I didn't have to think too long about it - it's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Growing up it was the Bing Crosby version that I loved. There's something about those low notes that sent shivers up my spine. Then last year, one of my favorite female singers - Annie Lennox - came out with an album of Christmas Carols. Here is her version of the song:

Enjoy!

Aloha Hui Hou!

12 days of Christmas

No new news today - but I thought I'd give you a little laugh. A friend of mine created this clip and it has become part of my Christmas ritual. Enjoy!

Aloha Hui Hou

Christmas and Childhood Memories

Coming from a family with a very strong German background a lot of my memories have to do with German/European traditions.

For the past couple of days, in my mind, I have been hearing a soft chiming sound  that reminds me of Christmases, oh so long ago and no, it's not time to get the straight jacket. It is reminding me of one of my favorite things -  my mothers Christmas Carousel Chimes.

Photo from Wikipedia

The first Christmas Carousel Chimes were  made in Germany before WWII and were made out of tin. After WWII they were being made in Sweden out of brass and they spread throughout Europe and the USA. Today they are made cheaply in China.

The science behind the carousel is simple. The lighted candle produces heat. The heat rises and causes the fan on the carousel to turn. There are angles attached to the fan that have little rods attached to them. As the fan turns the rods hit the chimes - DING! The more candles you light (one on every Sunday of Advent = 4 Sundays before Christmas), the faster the fan will turn and the more  the chimes will ring.

My mom's had angels on them, I found one with Santa and reindeer and am planning to order one for myself....Some memories are good enough to recreate :o)

from the Magic Cabin website

Aloha Hui Hou!

Today is St. Nicholas Day

According to German tradition, today is St. Nicholas day, and the tradition goes like this. On December 5th, before the children go to bed, they put out their slippers for St. Nicholas.

When the children wake up on the next morning and if they were well behaved children, he would leave them a gift. Back in the old days, way before my time., the gift was usually oranges and nuts as people were poor and those things were hard to come by. They were very special treats. In more modern times the gifts got bigger and bigger.

Oh but if they were bad children, they would find coal in their slippers and St. Nicholas might give them a beating with his bundle of twigs.

Photo from Radio Bremen

So, from our house to yours. Happy St. Nicholas day. May your slippers be filled with oranges and nuts and no coal in sight!

Aloha Hui Hou!

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

Christmas and decorating for Christmas has always been special to me.

When I had the craft store I had an endless supply of doo dads to decorate with. I would have a different tree every year.

In our apartment in Waikiki we didn't have the room for decorations. Then we moved to Waipahu and I bought a beautiful 9' lighted tree. I painted snowmen on stars and the tree was beautiful.

A new position brought us a new home, one with much lower ceilings and there was no way my giant tree was going to fit. So with a heavy heart I had to sell my tree and go for something smaller. This tree was different than any tree I ever decorated before. It was so full of "stuff", you could hardly see any green! But it was fluffy and glittered and was beautiful...

 

Now comes the time to sell it all again. I hope that the family that took our tree home today will enjoy it as much as we did....

Happy Turkey Day!

My latest computer scribble

It's already Thanksgiving? How did that happen? With Christmas everywhere you look it's hard to get in the mood for Thanksgiving. After Halloween, Christmas is my favorite holiday - being a Christmas Baby and all - but putting up the decorations 2 weeks before Thanksgiving? What the heck? I'm not thrilled with this new trend at all. It seems like it's all about the mighty $$ and not about the magic of Christmas. Not that it hasn't been about sales for years..it just seems they are pushing it even more.

For what it's worth, it's totally killed my desire to do anything for today and I've given Roger free reign of the kitchen. Looking forward to what he cooks up.

I do want to wish you all a Wonderful Thanksgiving and am thankful for all of you. I'm thankful that my husband and my son had no major physical damage from the auto accidents they each had. I'm thankful for my independent daughter who is level headed and goal oriented. I'm thankful that we are all over all in good health. I'm thankful that my Fireman son by partnership has stayed out of harms way. Bless you all.