Christmas Blessings (part 2)

It  SNOWED in HAWAII!! 

Well, it's as close as we'll get to real snow here! Our local shopping center hosted a snow day with fresh man-made snow for the kids to play in. It was part of an entire day of Christmas fun for our family. The kids threw some snowballs, and Shawn and I felt like kids giggling at everything...not to mention a few snowballs down the backs of t-shirts! We had super cold hands afterwards, but it was well worth it for the few minutes of fun in the snow!There were also tents set up with different activities and games for the kids. No pictures of that, though..Shawn and I both had our hands full! 

Something you don't see very often together....a snowball and palm trees!

 

We also got to meet a North Pole friend while we were there...Rudolph! I just love Ava's face in this shot!

Christmas Blessings (part 1)

One of the blessings of life in Hawaii is getting to know and love Pastor Harlan and his sweet wife, Dana. They are more seasoned church planters on the windward side of the island, and have adopted our families wholeheartedly. Their church, Fellowship Baptist Church, blessed us all during a dinner recently. They brought presents for each child, and presents for each church planting couple. They were so kind and generous and picked such perfect gifts for each of our children! After a yummy dinner of smoked pulled pork (by my amazing hubby!), we sat around the table and sang some Christmas songs. It's pretty weird to be preparing for Christmas while it is still 85 degrees outside! We are trying, however, to keep doing fun things to remind us of the advent season!

More to come later...

Pastor Harlan handing out gifts

Haleigh and her science experiment kid (she LOVED it!)

A perfect toy for Nathan...a phone!

A little fuzzy...but sweet picture of Elsy trying to eat her present!

Joshua loved his lego present and it was a sweet time

 for he and his dad to spend time together

Ava and her good buddy with a princess (they really know our girl!)

Joshua immediately made a ramp for his remote control truck

Haleigh opened up her gift right away and started digging for dino bones!