Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a joyous Christmas as well!!! Things were uneventful here...well, then again, I guess most days are uneventful here. Or at least, uneventful to most. Nah, we actually had a nice Christmas & a very calm New Year's Eve. The weather was beautiful, & I still can't believe how lucky we are to be in Georgia, as far as weather goes. My ohana up north has been dumped on a few times by snow, only to have a day or two of decent weather, then have is freeze over again....(MAN! I don't miss that crap!) but, then again, we missed our ohana as we often do, during the holidays. It was nice to go up during the Thanksgiving break & see everybody that we did, but it was very tempting to go back up for Christmas too ( until the snow hit...then we were kinda glad that we chose Thanksgiving over Christmas...) ok, ok, enough babble about the weather....cause what seems to be cold to one person, might be wonderful to another, so I guess it's really just a matter of what you like or can handle!

Anywho, some of us are battling a cold that has been a most "enjoyable gift" my eldest daughter has given me over this holiday break...which I am now sharing with my hubby & I think our middle child is showing signs of it too...so our youngest is trying her best to stay away from us "sickies" as we have been called!

Our daughters were SPOILED over Christmas & have been enjoying the buying power they have received from various family members (through gift cards they have gotten...) We decided to buy one "big" gift for all the girlies this year, & with the help of my mother-in-law (she went in halfsies with us on it...) we got them a Wii system ( now the girlies fell in LOVE with the Wii, after they played the one at Aunty Masae's house during Thanksgiving break....) so we knew we had to try our best to get them one! Well, I was able to do some volunteer work at the scholastic warehouse a few weeks ago & got them a couple games to go with the Wii & they have bought a couple more with their gift cards & have been playing it everyday since they opened it! They also got a plethora of books from scholastic too ( I mean literally BOX LOADS of books...) & so did all the little keiki's in our ohana. Books, klutz kits, stickers, pens & pencils, pretty much anything you could possibly get from a book sale at a school, I was able to earn from scholastic!!! (ok, actually, some of the little keiki's haven't gotten theirs yet, cause they're still sitting in boxes on our dining room table to be sent out.....but they'll get them soon!...I know, I know, BAD AUNTY!) The eldest also got a cell phone for Christmas ( we just added her onto ours...) & now thinks she's SOOOO cool!! (in fact it's rather scary...she carries the thing EVERYWHERE....) Anywho, the middle daughter got her promise FINALLY after about 5 years of BEGGING us for a puppy, my hubby broke down & is finally letting her get one, BUT!!!! she has to read up & get prepared on how to take care of it...so, (thanks to scholastic...once again....) I got her a book on how to pick, care for, feed, etc...a puppy. She (so far) used some of her buying power to get a dog bed, leash, & some other small toys for her puppy to be...(Santa also got her a bag load of doggie items for Christmas...) So she is in HEAVEN!!! The littlest monkey got an art easel, that has a chalkboard on one side, a wipe off board on the other & a roll of paper that attaches to it, so she can draw her heart out on it! She LOVES it!!! & they all got clothes, did I mention TONS of books??? :) & candy & all the usual junk...so like I said THEY WERE SPOILED ROTTEN!!!! Not to mention that even the neighbors, some of their classmates, the hula Aunties & of course the rest of the ohana added to all the SPOILING!!!! I mean these kids are too lucky!!!! So needless to say I think we had a very Wonderful Christmas.

ok, I think this seems to sound rather snob-ish to rant about what we got....but we kinda had a hard time for last Christmas. Without going into details, we didn't have such a wonderful one last year, so I guess I'm babbling so much about this year's one...but I also decided to kinda share the wealth this year (thanks again to scholastic....) with all the credit I earned, I was able to get things for my family, some of my extended family, our girl scout troop, & have gotten together 2 box loads of books for our school & public library ( which in my opinion, really needs to add more to their collection....) to kinda give back what I can. It may not be much, but it feels good to give to the school & to everybody else, through the library.

& did I mention Scholastic books??? Man, I wish I knew about this whole volunteer stuff YEARS ago....but if you go to their website ( I believe it's here ) you can find out more info on their warehouse book sales. They have locations pretty much everywhere. sign up for notices, & they also send you coupons for the warehouse sale. Plus this time, they asked for volunteers to help set up the sale & they offered credit to purchase stuff for giving up your time for working it! Oh MY GOODNESS can you say FREE BOOKS?!!!! That was enough for me, I think over all, I put in about 50 hours of work there. ( I even filled out an application for permanent work as well....who's it gonna hurt?) So if you didn't already know about it, check it out. Either way it's a great way to get books whether you volunteer to work & earn credit, or just flat out buy books ( most are at least 50% off cover price....some 80%-90%...)

Well, I think I am starting to make up for the lost time here...one of my new year resolutions is to get better at blogging, this year (another is to try to keep in touch with family & friends better....) I have a few reachable goals for this upcoming year, so I hope to fulfill them all (hmmm, maybe this could start my blog for tomorrow...???)

Anycrap...again, Hau'oli Makahiki Hou to all!!! Here's to the start of a WONDERFUL new year!
Peace & love to all!!
A hui hou,
Tina