Back home again...
Got in today around 1 pm. Left Hawaii last night at around 11 pm (which was about 3 am here)... so a 10 hour trip not counting travel to and from airports. Not bad.
We did Christmas on Christmas Eve, since we had church Sunday morning at 10 and I was leaving at night. We *never* open gifts early, so that was a big break with tradition, but it worked out okay. I got the Veronica Mars soundtrack, a DVD set of the BBC miniseries version of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, some books and a graphic novel, a cool little t-shirt and a sweater... and other fun stuff. Now that I'm back in Chicago, I'll be going over to my sister's sometime this week to do our gift exchange with her girlfriend and her girlfriend's daughter. Of course her gifts haven't arrived yet... I didn't want them to be delivered while I was gone so they should be showing up this week sometime. *fingers crossed*
The big highlight of the trip was a whale watching cruise. It was a gorgeous sunny day but not too hot, and there was a nice breeze out on the water. Not only did we see a pod of four humpback whales, who were obligingly hanging out near the surface for a good long while, but there was also a beautiful view of Oahu and Honolulu the whole time. I've been going out to Hawaii around Christmas or in February for years now, and this is the first time I've seen the whales, so I was really excited.
Otherwise it was all family time. I feel like if I'm only going to see them for a week during the year, I should really hang out with them rather than going off to lay around on the beach. Plus I don't tan well anyway unless I'm outside for hours every day, so I just enjoyed the view of the mountains from the house and watched the surfers as we drove by on the highway. Mom and Dad both had to work a bit and my brother is not a "lay around on the beach" type, so we watched Firefly and Cowboy Bebop until all hours of the night, and played video games (we got my mom Need for Speed: Most Wanted for Christmas, so we spent a good chunk of Christmas day trying to evade the police), and did jigsaw puzzles, and ate a ton of food. My stomach never did catch on to the time change, so I was never hungry at meal times, but we still went out anyway. I got all my local favorites (chili with rice, kalua pig, chicken teriyaki, Portuguese bean soup) and Mom made our non-local favorites (West African groundnut stew, Haitian rice and beans) and our favorite Christmas cookies... so we ate and ate and ate.
Now I'm back at home and the little bits of food I had around have mostly gone bad... so it's back to peanut butter on a spoon and popcorn until I can get to the grocery store. That's nutritious, right?
Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I'm glad to be back home with my kitties and the Pretty. I've got Dark Angel to watch, and Devour is still around... good thing I did my unpacking right away because I have done nothing else since I booted up the computer, and I still have lots to catch up on. I missed you all!
We did Christmas on Christmas Eve, since we had church Sunday morning at 10 and I was leaving at night. We *never* open gifts early, so that was a big break with tradition, but it worked out okay. I got the Veronica Mars soundtrack, a DVD set of the BBC miniseries version of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, some books and a graphic novel, a cool little t-shirt and a sweater... and other fun stuff. Now that I'm back in Chicago, I'll be going over to my sister's sometime this week to do our gift exchange with her girlfriend and her girlfriend's daughter. Of course her gifts haven't arrived yet... I didn't want them to be delivered while I was gone so they should be showing up this week sometime. *fingers crossed*
The big highlight of the trip was a whale watching cruise. It was a gorgeous sunny day but not too hot, and there was a nice breeze out on the water. Not only did we see a pod of four humpback whales, who were obligingly hanging out near the surface for a good long while, but there was also a beautiful view of Oahu and Honolulu the whole time. I've been going out to Hawaii around Christmas or in February for years now, and this is the first time I've seen the whales, so I was really excited.
Otherwise it was all family time. I feel like if I'm only going to see them for a week during the year, I should really hang out with them rather than going off to lay around on the beach. Plus I don't tan well anyway unless I'm outside for hours every day, so I just enjoyed the view of the mountains from the house and watched the surfers as we drove by on the highway. Mom and Dad both had to work a bit and my brother is not a "lay around on the beach" type, so we watched Firefly and Cowboy Bebop until all hours of the night, and played video games (we got my mom Need for Speed: Most Wanted for Christmas, so we spent a good chunk of Christmas day trying to evade the police), and did jigsaw puzzles, and ate a ton of food. My stomach never did catch on to the time change, so I was never hungry at meal times, but we still went out anyway. I got all my local favorites (chili with rice, kalua pig, chicken teriyaki, Portuguese bean soup) and Mom made our non-local favorites (West African groundnut stew, Haitian rice and beans) and our favorite Christmas cookies... so we ate and ate and ate.
Now I'm back at home and the little bits of food I had around have mostly gone bad... so it's back to peanut butter on a spoon and popcorn until I can get to the grocery store. That's nutritious, right?
Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I'm glad to be back home with my kitties and the Pretty. I've got Dark Angel to watch, and Devour is still around... good thing I did my unpacking right away because I have done nothing else since I booted up the computer, and I still have lots to catch up on. I missed you all!