Happy Late Kwanzaa!

So I have two main things to talk about. #1, the trip to Hana, and #2, how we spent Christmas.

Oh, and a little background. Potato has come to live with us. he's been here about the past 3 weeks now. He worked with us at the Ponderosa, he recently finished school, and we somehow managed to talk him into his first ever airplane ride and, really, his first trip outside of the great state of Utah. It's been fun to have him here, altough things have been a bit crowded in our tinny place. Fortunatley I've been house-sitting a place for a co-worker of mine the past 5 or 6 weeks, so that's taken some of the pressure off.

These first two pictures are on the road to hana. yes, in the second pic Steve is standing on the wall.

This is our campsite. Barely a soul to be found. We went camping right after the huge kona storm that flooded the Maui coastal areas and knocked out power to a lot of the island (including Kihei) for a couple of days. I think most people were afraid of heading to the rainforest side of the island during that time, but the weather in hana was beautiful.


This is a picture of our part of our favorite trail in hana...


and this is Waianapanapa, one of our black sand beaches.

So for Christmas, Steve's boat captain invited us on a trip snorkeling around Lanai - purely a fun trip with no tourists. The day was perfect - sunshiney, warm weather, clear water, good friends. We got a lot of sun and a lot of snorkeling in.



Then as Steve and captain Dave cleaned the boat, Chris and Potato and I relaxed on the beach. Then we went to Dave's house for dinner. Man, the guy loves to cook. Everything was gourmet, including the table settings.

Here's a pic of the gingerbread house I helped make...


and here's one of the spread before the food was ready.


All in all, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful Christmas day. As always, there are too many pretty pics to post, but this'll have to do for now. Aloha!