Back to Life, Back to Reality

Vacation is over & it's time to get back to the real world. Last week was the culmination of my vacation with the Christmas holiday. I spent some real quality time with family. We did all of our favorite holiday traditions, but were able to make some new ones as well. 

It wouldn't be Xmas without my Mom's decorations. This year she decorated a tree with a spoon collection from my great-grandma 

Mexican train dominoes is a family favorite. This year we got to share the game with a new player. 

When the cards are out it's usually because we're playing hand in foot. This year when family friends came over we got to play a six person game. 

Sister had the genius idea to make Bloody Marys. I think this will be a new tradition for years to come. 

I wanted to share a bit of the islands with my family, so I made pumpkin crunch. I know pumpkins don't immediately bring up thoughts of HI, but the recipe was created by a local chef, Sam Choy. 

So now I'm back in HI and a thre song goes it's time to get back to reality. Luckily this is my reality:

 Just another pretty sunrise. No biggie. 

And now for the pic of the week:

Check out this cute family that accidentally color coordinated. Adorbs!

Mahalo!

Cocktails and Crafts

This week I've really settled into my vacation. Now some people I know might get bored with all this extra time on their hands. I, on the other hand, had no problem filling my time. This past week I rediscovered my love of crafts and whiskey (though not at the same time). 

Right now my drink is a Manhattan. This beverage is an excellent choice for multiple reasons: It's fancier to look at than a plain 'ol Jack and diet; All the liquor encourages me to sip slowly; And I like to switch things up, but don't stray too far from the brown liquors. 

In the Highlands I got a schmancy one with a big ice cube at Murphy's. 

Here's a lovely Manhattan from Midtown's South City Kitchen. 

Since a girl can't drink all the time, I turned to Pinterest to ensure I wasn't boreded. Now usually I pin food and recipes, but this week I started a craft board. To start things off I completed some holiday crafts. I made a festive wreath for my Mama, some gifts for friends and handcrafted boxes to wrap those gifts. 

Here's the 154 felt circles I cut by hand. Notice they're taller than my head!

Here's the final product. Ho Ho Ho!

My gift boxes are still flat in preparation for air travel; however, this is what they are supposed to look like according to the Pinterest directions I followed. I guess we will have to wait until next week to see if they are a success or a fail. 

Now this is the point where I'd post a picture of my other projects, but I don't want the recipients to see my gifts before I hand them out. Maybe in another post...

And now for the pic of the week:

I finally attempted making my own acai bowl. It was definately sweeter than the Blue Hawaii version, but it tasted delish. 

Mahalo!

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

This week my holiday vacation began. I've saved up a bunch of PTO and wanted to use it to spend time with my family. That means a trip to the mainland. Woot woot!

In the last week I've traveled through or stayed in the following states: HI, WA, GA, TN, KY, OH and IN. The changes in weather has been quite a shock to my system. I keep joking that I haven't felt my toes since Seattle... But seriously my feet ARE cold!

The positive side of all this travel is getting to see a bunch of my family. I got to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And of course I got to do the long car ride with mom, dad and sister. One thing I noticed though, is seeing so much family makes me aware of the ones I didn't get to see. 

Because I was focusing so much on family I didn't spend a ton of time taking pictures.  Here's a couple that I took:

 

This trip is slowly, but surely getting me in the Christmas spirit.  

The landscape and weather on the mainland is quite a contrast to winter in HI. 

One of my favorite parts of family time is seeing all of my cousins kids. It's amazing how much they've grown up in the last year. 

This truly is "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". 

So while I may be spending a lot of this trip complaining about the weather I truly believe that cold hands (or feet) are just a sign of a warm heart. And right now my heart is full of love and warmth!

And now for the pic of the week:

I snapped this selfie as soon as I stepped out of the airport. Watch out mainland, Penny's here!

Mahalo!

Good mornings

With the Winter Soltice approaching the days are getting shorter and shorter. The sun is barely up during my walk to work. By the time I'm done with the gym it's already dark out. Lately I've been feeling like I need a second cup of coffee. 

The drawback to the short days is it's still dark when I'm supposed to get out of bed making crawling out ever so hard. On the plus side I've been able to catch some beautiful sunrises. After 11 months of posting sunset pictures I thought I'd switch things up. Here's what Honolulu looks like in the morning:

 With the winter clouds it makes the sun even more dramatic. 

This morning picture has an ever so faint rainbow in the clouds. 

Here's the sun peeking behind the hospital construction. 

Crosswalks, palm trees and sunshine. That's what mornings in HI are made of. 

And now for the pic of the week:

My bags are all packed and I'm ready to go. In less than 24 hrs I'll be home and as my family says "I'm too excited to sleep"!!!

Mahalo!