Here is our top ten list from our recent twelve days in Hawaii:

10.  Having two Christmases!  Our kids jaws hit the floor when the saw the Christmas tree surrounded by so many gifts.  Christmas Eve — when Eric’s family opens gifts — was chaotic and fun as sixteen family members gathered in the living room to open gifts.

9.  Special gifts!  Annie and Olivia loved their “MyTwinn Dolls” from Grandma and Grandpa:

Owen and his cousins went around the house with the nerf guns (my favorite was the glasses that came with it):

Tina, our sister-in-law- gave us the most amazing present for Owen and Annie.  Over the past year, she has worked hard and beautifully to make them scrapbooks that cover the first year of their lives.  I knew I would never get to it — this was a gift that will last forever!

We loved the new waterproof, shockproof Canon camera that Eric’s family gave us –finally a camera for our family!   Look at these amazing photos:

Even the non-water photos had beautiful color — this one was taken by Owen at the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

8.  Sharing about our ministry two different weeks at West Oahu Christian Church.  We made a new video (woohoo!) — coming soon to a blog or website near you.  It was a really good process to think through what we want to share and to put it into a video and into a message that we could share with people who really care about our ministry.

7.  Time at the beach — even the grumpiest person would become happy by being with our kids when they get to go to the beach.

6.  The food!  I’ve learned that there’s no shortage of delicious meat when eating with Eric’s family… New Year’s Eve was an amazing spread of food that provided leftovers for the next few days.

5.  New Year’s Eve fireworks — I don’t think our kids have ever stayed up until 12:30 — but they did this year as they joined the rest of Hawaii in smoking up the skies with the most amazing assortment of pyrotechnics.

(Can you believe how big those boxes are?  Costco Hawaii sold these…)

4.  Watching Eric work REALLY hard all week with help from some family on a challenging undertaking… and finishing it finally on Saturday night:

3.  Being with and praying with Auntie Noriko and Uncle Dennis.   They are close family friends;  Auntie is struggling through cancer with much courage and hope.

2.    Getting in some fun reading.

a) My favorite vacation magazine “O” (true confessions!) – two good things I gleaned:  a) Michael Pollan who said he never buys anything from the grocery store with more than 5 ingredients in it (what a novel concept!):  “My mantra is seven words:  Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.” ;  b) baby steps for New Year’s resolutions — maybe i’ll blog about this one later.

b)  Organic Church by Neil Cole.  My favorite quote (you’ll hear it again in our new video):  “If you want to win this world for Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section.”

c)  My first Jan Karon novel — her new series, Home to Holly Springs – the main character quotes Chesterton:  “There are no words to express the abyss between isiolation and having one ally.  It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two.  But two is not twice one;  two is two thousand times one.”

LOVE this quote.  Who in my life needs an ally right now?

1.  Being with family — it doesn’t happen enough, and it’s been so fun for our kids to get closer to their aunties, uncles, and cousins who live far from us.

We leave on Thursday and get back to Japan Friday night (we lose a day).  We pray that all of us are ready to return to Japan and all that the Lord has for us this New Year .