The Seavey 'Ohana Happenings: december...through christmas

December is upon us, and so is the feeling of Christmas in the air!

Well, not really considering the temperatures are still hovering in the 70's but with the Holidays comes all the festive decorations and music.

We visited the Honolulu City Lights at Honolulu Hale with my sister Elika and her family.

Here's the kiddos.

It may not feel like Christmas, but once you see all the Christmas lights and decorations, it's hard not to get in the spirit of the season!

Once school let out for Christmas break, I knew I'd be hard-pressed to find some activities for the kids to do to keep them occupied and away from the computer or the iPad.

I found this giant coloring page on the internet and decided it was worth a shot.

I think the kids enjoyed coloring it! It took a few days and the girls all played quite nicely together while each took a different corner and started coloring.

Yay for cheap and easy indoor activities!

And, with the Holiday season comes the Christmas train at the mall. We let the kids ride this every year and they all love it! Although truthfully, I think Kela's getting a wee bit too old for it!

(Though between you and me, she loves it just as much as the younger ones.)

It was my first time allowing Kaden to ride it. While I was a tad nervous for him, I worried for nothing because he absolutely LOVED it! The only time he fussed was when they were waiting to start. Some other little kids were fussing and taking too long so they had to wait an extra few minutes to start moving. He got antsy and wanted to move around...but as soon as the train started forward, he sat still and enjoyed every minute of it! Yay!

Oh, and he also fussed when I had to pull him out at the end of the ride. :(

He did NOT want it to end!

To get a bit more in the Holiday mood, Mrs. Neil (their preschool teacher) brought a shave ice maker to class one day. She wanted the kids to make their own SNOW!

How fun is this?

Jojo with her snowball.

Kaden took a bit longer warming up to the idea of playing with a snowball...but once he discovered it, he kept going back for more and more!

Hopefully he'll get to experience REAL snow in the next few months when we visit the mainland... Hopefully!

Oh, and how cute are these? A mom in the class made these cute little gingerbread men for each child!

Unfortunately, my kids aren't big on gingerbread cookies so they didn't get eaten...but still.

How cute are these??

And then...onto Christmas Day.

My parents were trying to fly here to spend Christmas with all of us in Hawaii this year.

We booked them some buddy passes and crossed our fingers.

Unfortunately, with the flight loads being SO full, they were unable to make it out on the 23rd. So, Mitch being the super guy that he is, decided to fly out to Seattle to meet up with them in hopes of raising their chances of flying out on the 24th. They still didn't make it! :(

Which meant that we spent Christmas Eve with my siblings...but not my parents and NOT Mitch.

The girls were pretty sad, but truthfully, I was even sadder.

Here we are on Christmas Eve, Skyping with my parents and Mitch...hoping and praying that they can fly to Hawaii on Christmas Day at least!

And, thankfully, our prayers were answered!!

Christmas Day, my parents and Mitch arrived safely to spend Christmas at home with us in Hawaii!

Here are my parents with the girls just after arriving.

My girls even waited until Daddy came home to open their presents...they were so patient!

I was super proud of them.

And they were super happy with all of their Christmas presents. :)

After opening up their gifts, the girls wanted to make some of the "poppin' kitchen" candy food that Mitch had gotten them from Japan.

My Mom helped the girls make the food and assemble the "candy sushi."

My girls LOVE this stuff!!

Seriously..this is made out of CANDY!! And they made it themselves!!!

I'm convinced that Japan has the best candy and food EVER! :)

After my parents relaxed for a bit, it was off to meet up with the rest of the Sakumas.

The reason why my parents came in the first place...was to meet their newest grandchild, Nixon.

Elika's baby arrived a week early so they didn't get to see his birth, but I think it all worked out okay in the end! Baby Nixon looks so tiny in Ojichan's arms!

This is grandchild number 23 for my parents.

Look how alert Nixon is after only a week!

My kids (and I'm sure most of the other kids as well) were most looking forward to the new pajamas that Obachan always makes for them. Well, some got pillowcases instead, but most of the kids got brand new PJ's...which is SO much work when you think of how many little grandkids there are!

Thank you Obachan!

And as a thank you...I decided to put together a quilt for my parents this year.

I passed out a quilt square to each grandchild and had them decorate them however they wanted.
And then painstakingly assembled the quilt with ALL the grandkids personalized squares.
It was my first attempt at such a quilt...and I'm sure there could have been many improvements in the colors and sewing and such...but all in all, I thought it turned out pretty good!
Hopefully, my parents were happy and can have a tangible reminder of all their posterity.

Well...most of them.
Baby Nixon wasn't included and there appears to be one more Sakuma baby on the way later this year, so I suppose in a couple of years I may need to make another one with ALL the kids!

Christmas Dinner was sushi. And some left over BBQ from Christmas Eve (which, I did NOT take any noteworthy pictures of. Sorry...but with Mitch and my parents stranded in Seattle, I wasn't really in the festive picture-taking mood)