Holidays away from home
Oh those stormy skies…
Hello again internet friends! Nice to see you so well in 2020 ;) (heh heh heh #dadjoke)
I would like to apologize for my unintentional hiatus over the past weeks. Robert and I both got sick multiple times over the holidays and time just kind of slipped by.
The holidays of 2019 were very strange for me. As I have mentioned before I spent my entire life in North Carolina until last year. My parents still live in my childhood home and the farthest I ever lived from them was about an hour away when I was at college. As you can imagine holidays were always spent at Mom and Dad’s house.
Mom and Dad's house from 2012
Over the past few years our family has been growing. We started as a family of four and then my sister and I got married and she had two kids. Now Mom and Dad’s house is a joyful family of eight, and all of the fur, feather, scale and water-babies of course. (I.e. all of my sister and my pets haha)
For holidays we would all converge on Mom and Dad’s house shortly before lunchtime with steaming and mouth-watering sides and desserts to die for in haul. The last-minute prep to finish on site was a challenge with six adults and two kids scrambling around the 9x5 square-foot floor space of kitchen.
Literally.
But somehow, we made it work. The meal always came together, everyone always fit at the table, and there was always plenty of love and food to fill your heart and tummy. And even if it required dogpiling there was always enough space for a good family cuddle and nap after feasting.
Because I mean, let’s be real, who doesn’t nap after stuffing their face as much as a turkey on Thanksgiving?
This year our Holidays were much smaller and simpler. We were blessed to be able to FaceTime with family and feel a part of their celebrations across the world for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. But really Robert and I just had each other.
The week before Thanksgiving I was really down in the dumps because it was hitting me that we didn’t even have a table to eat our holiday meal on. I knew it was going to be hard for me to be away from family and wanted our meal to feel special, especially since it was our first big holiday as a married couple. We have had a lot of setbacks since moving to Hawaii and to be honest furniture just hasn’t been a priority. All of our meals were (and mostly still are) eaten in bed, the only seating space we had. So, I came up with a plan, bought the supplies, and created our convertible table. (More on that to come in a later post ;) )
Our First Thanksgiving Table as a married couple
Robert, SO thankfully, was off of work Thanksgiving Day and helped with the meal preparations, which made for a fun time. We tried new recipes, some we liked and some we didn’t, and relaxed together all day.
Thanksgiving Day 2019 on our lanai
Robert and his mother started the tradition years ago of seeing a movie on Christmas, which we carry on, but we both knew that we wanted to start a new tradition to continue throughout our marriage.
Our first married Christmas morning together at Haliewa Beach Park
We woke up, SO early, to have a sunrise walk on the beach. When we got there, it was pitch black. You could hear the ocean, but you couldn’t see it. Slowly it started to lighten, and we realized that it was 100% cloudy.
Ok, so we didn’t get our sunrise, and we DID in fact get rained on, but it was still a beautiful and peaceful way to start the day. We decided that no matter where we are, our goal is to start every Christmas morning surrounded by nature.
What are some of your Holiday Traditions?
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