Christmas in Hawaii

Hello, all! My hubby is officially home on R&R!! =D I am so, so happy to have him here with me for this short time. So, I will be blogging very little while he's here. I am going to enjoy these 2 weeks with him as much as possible. I have good news for you, though! I have some wonderful, amazing bloggers lined up to post for me while I'm gone! Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Chantal from A Blog A Day While You're Away! Chantal and her husband are also stationed in Hawaii and we've become good friends since we met a few months ago. I was a guest blogger for her a while back and now she's helping me out! 

Christmas in Hawaii sounds like a dream. Beaches, sunshine, palm trees, warm weather. How can you complain, right?

I will tell you, Christmas in Hawaii sneaks up on you. It’s surreal!

Last year was my first Christmas in Hawaii, and my first away from family. Since we had just moved a few months before, my husband and I decided to make it our own! I had grand dreams of a new decorated tree, a big feast with plenty of friends surrounding us, and of course, tons of presents.

Well, Brandon said our tree was just fine, so we never ended up buying another. You tell me if this scrawny thing is fine:

Right, I know.  And then we invited all the single soldiers from Brandon’s platoon over, and even some said they would try to make it, but no one came. We were eating my fantastic Christmas dinner for three weeks after Christmas!

Ok, we had plenty of gifts, I can’t complain about that.

Oh, the sneaking up part! Remember the beaches, the warm weather, palm trees, all that junk? Yeah, those are all great, except when the weather fails to change. Suddenly, it was Thanksgiving, and we were still in shorts. And then December rolled around and… we were still in shorts, oblivious to the approaching holiday. At the beginning of December I knew I had to get to work on getting gifts out to everyone, but the beautiful weather distracted me! Luckily, everyone got their gifts (at a nominal shipping price, of course). This year, it’s the same phenomenon. I can’t believe it’s almost December!

You know, I can’t complain that much. Our first Christmas away was great and really, we’re in Hawaii, enough said. The 2009 Christmas will definitely stay in our memories!

By the way, this year, I’m going back to Colorado for Christmas. Snow, here I come!

I couldn't agree more that this weather is making the holidays sneak up on me! It's like the warm weather makes me NOT want to shop for presents! It's a really strange phenomenon. 

Thanks again, Chantal! Back tomorrow with another great guest blogger!