Our Modest Christmas Tree

Ain't she a beaut?  Good thing I have never invested in a normal sized artificial tree.  We wouldn't have room for it.  This three footer is perfect, just in desperate need of a tree skirt.  A project I foresee in the next week or so?  We'll see.  

Nothing like simple tree decoratin' and Christmas Vacation to kick off the holiday season!

Zee best bread EVER

I just want to preface this post by letting ya'll know that shoveling snow is a great winter/fall workout.  It has been snowing since 3 am and I'm getting ready to shovel our walk again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I actually enjoy this responsibility and all I request for Christmas is a pair of insulated snow boots.

Anywhoo, I'm not one who typically posts recipes but I would be remiss if I did not share this one particular, mouthwatering, SIMPLE, bread recipe.  I have been using this recipe since well before Clark and I married and it happened to be my only contribution to this years Thanksgiving feast (a couple at Church took pity on our poor souls and invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Once again, I have evaded preparing and basting a turkey.  Whew.).

Anyway, this recipe is called Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread and any recipe that bears an East coast state's name AND pumpkin is a total green light in my book.   For the record, I will never try a recipe that has under 100 reviews and the recipe must also have a 4.5 star or above rating.  Well, Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread has over 4,000 reviews and basically a perfect 5 star rating!!  This bread is goooooooood.  I always add 1/4 tsp extra of all the spices.  If I wasn't out of brown sugar I would make some tonight.  Maybe if you aren't out of brown sugar you should make some on my behalf.  Just sayin'.

Sorry no pictures.  Don't be a slacker.  Just click on the highlighted recipe name to take you to the recipe link.

A very normal night on my own--Glamour Shots style

What do you do when your husband is at work all night and you are bored out of your mind and nothing is opened other than Wal Mart?  (Let's be honest here, Wal Mart is never fun unless you consider having fun standing in line for 40 minutes to purchase a simple item such as chap stick.)

I do what any normal 27 year old female would do:  

1.  I go to the hospital gym to run and work out.  Running in 10 degree weather turns my feet to ice and is just not feasible--or smart. 

2. I return home to watch Zombieland on Netflix whilst I eat dinner.

3. I consider playing the geetar but finish my current novel instead.  

4. Before I take a shower I decide to apply dark eye liner and poof my hair... for the hell of it, of course.  Man, black eyeliner, neutral eyeshadow and three bobby pins can really go a long way.  

5. Then I decide to capture myself on camera.  Because it is only natural to want to capture such beauty (????) on camera.  It retrospect I wish I would have had some wild colored eyeshadow, mascara, blush and lipstick at hand.  You know, to really play up my new appearance.  Out of those four items, the only one I own is mascara.  And it was downstairs and I was too lazy to fetch it.

Please don't think me narcissistic.  I was simply having a gay old time by myself and I was thoroughly amused by the pictures.  Ri-dic-u-lous!  Reminds me of waaaay back in the day when Whitney and I would dress up in ridiculous costumes and take pictures.  HA! Obviously I haven't outgrown that stage of my life.

 I call this one, "The Ace."

 I call this one, "Kissy Face."

 I call this one, "The Dilemma."

 I call this one, "The Nose-Picker."

 I call this one, "The Tourist."

 I call this one, "Sundevil Pride."

 I call this one, "The Face of Revenge and Distrust."

 I call this one, "Exasperated."

 I call this one, "Holding Still."

 I call this one, "Playful."

 I call this one, "Searching for Enlightenment in Bad Lighting."

 I call this one, "The Partial Profile and Poor Posture."

I hope you found some amusement in my glamour shots.  Thanks for browsing.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

...and it's not even Thanksgiving.  I couldn't help but take pictures of the first snowfall we have experienced together this season.  Apparently it snowed back in October as well but we were out of town. So that one doesn't count.

4-5 inches, me thinks.  (I need to get used to bitter, cold winters since I will most likely be in school in Pennsylvania next year.  I've been recently accepted into the University of Pittsburgh's Nurse Practitioner program!  I'm still awaiting responses from a couple of other schools but right now it looks like Pitt is the school to go with.)

Lovely tree branches after a snowfall.  

An afternoon hailstorm.

We thought a shrimp boil would be appropriate for a day such as this.    And we included our veggies.  But apparently we  prepared it wrong because our Old Bay seasoning did not penetrate the food.  Thanks Jeff, for the tip; we'll be sure to steam rather than boil our food next time.  Who would have thought a shrimp boil would mean steaming rather than boiling? Huh.

 
Now it's time to make Christmas lists... and watch The Wizard.  Remember that one?

Hawaii in all its glory

I think it is kind of impossible to condense a post about Hawaii into a brief description and a few photos. I am going to be candid: this post is going to be LONG! Get out now if you have no interest in wasting your time looking at our photos or reading my captions. With the Ellison photography powers combined we snapped over 1600 photos. I did my best to select only the most essential photos that would make our few readers feel as if they were there with us...

Clark and I had a blast in Hawaii! We spent the first 7 days on Maui and the last 2 days on Oahu. With no further delay I am going to go through our vacation day by day. Enjoy.

Day 1: Clark and I flew into Maui and arrived around 7 PM. Bummed we didn't get a view of the island on arrival since it was already too dark. We picked up our rental car--which turned out to be a minivan--which ended up being very convenient. We attempted to use our GPS until the damn thing makes us turn onto a dead end dirt road. I kid you not. I ended up calling my Dad in frustration, crying. Hey, it had been a long day of travel. He provided us with directions using landmarks because who actually looks at street signs anyway? We finally made it to our destination and ate a nutritious dinner of Taco Bell. No pictures.

Day 2: Picked up Scott and Dagmara from the airport and immediately drove to the Iao Valley State Monument for a hike and scenic pictures. Then we finally hit the beach!

The cell phone waiting lot at the Maui airport. We found it humorously makeshift.

The Iao Valley State Monument with Mom and Dad. And of course, Mom is distracted, possibly by a pterodactyl.

Action photos.

Very picturesque.

Finally on the beach!

Clark's poor white body. My Dad said Clark is blindingly white which I think is a bit of an exaggeration. He's just extremely fair skinned.

Poor Clark attending to his foot. Apparently something in the sand bit/stung/pinched him.

Pretty sunset.

Before the sun had set we drove down to the Ahihi Kinau Natural Area Reserve which is where the majority of the Island's lava rock is.

And go figure, the battery in Dad's rental died. And go figure we were in an area where the rental company strictly informs you not to take the rental. Thankfully, a nice gentleman local suggested swapping car batteries and the situation worked out fine. Whew.

Day 3: Road to Hana. The day did not start out well. I became increasingly irritable on the drive due in large part to the winding, twisting road on the way to Hana. Switching seats and not sitting in the back seems to help and my mood/stomach improved.

A friendship in bloom.
Beautiful scenic overlooks.

And another.

The occasional downpour.

Only 6 more miles, thank heavens.

Great looks of contemplation as we ordered at Tutu's. Who knew an ordinary hamburger comparable to a McDonald's hamburger could cost $6?

We drove beyond Hana to the 7 Sacred Pools. This definitely made the long twisting drive worth it!

Clark and Dad in the freezing water. Dad tried to help some people out by diving below to try to find a camera they had lost. He didn't find theirs but he found a different water proof camera--his souvenir for the trip!

Scott trying to usher me into the water. I prefer to take my time. Oh. my. gosh. This water was cold. But my Mom even got in so I had to do it, too.

Day 4: Big Beach! Awesome beach with larger waves that you could actually play in.

We headed home mid afternoon from the beach to get ready for a Luau! Scott and Dagmara are just a dashing couple.

And Mom and Dad look great, too! Both have their eyes open and they're looking at the camera-and Dad isn't even squinting as bad as usual! FRAME THIS ONE, DAD!

The beautiful dancers. Seriously. Beautiful. Need I say more?

Ready to eat and be entertained!

Enjoying the bottomless fruit punch.

The fire dancer. Very impressive.

The girls after the dinner and show.

Day 5: Nakalele Blowhole and beach/snorkel day. This is the day that I realize that I have a fear of snorkeling in few numbers. I guess I'm scared of sharks and anything that can potentially harm me in the water. And coral. My sister got stung by coral years ago when our family went on a cruise and I've had a fear of coral ever since.

Clark and I at an overlook on our way to the Blowhole. Don't ask what Clark is doing with his arm. I promise nothing fishy was going on.
A heart in the rock?

Certainly!

Blowhole in action!

Clark getting sprayed.

Clark and Dad body surfing. This beach on the Northern shore was perfect for body surfing.

Day 6: MY BIRTHDAY! Am I really 27!? I realize I still act like a 19 year old. And... the Molokini and turtle town snorkeling excursion! Also, parasailing!

We left for our excursion waaayyy too early in the morning. This picture cracks me up. I'm either giving Scott a saucy look beneath my sunglasses OR checking out Dagmara's boobs. I'm not sure which. IT WAS EARLY!

Enjoying our leisure swim after snorkeling. I must admit, turtle town almost convinced me that Clark and I should move to Maui. Then I contemplated the awful, minimum of 5 hour flight we would have to take to leave Hawaii. Nevertheless, sea turtles are incredible. And cute. I wish they were cuddly and not on the verge of extinction.

The Molokini crater is between our heads. I bet the snorkeling would have been incredible had there not been 8 other boats full of tourists snorkeling. Not that it was bad; we still saw lots of fish! And I didn't get too scared. Safety in numbers.

We didn't get any good pictures of us parasailing since the boat took us pretty far from land. But it was a great experience. On the way back to the shore after parasailing the guide drove the raft onto the beach, "like the navy seals." It was awesome.

Final picture of the day at dusk.

And later that evening, after some Vietnamese Pho (you know I used chopsticks like a champ!), birfday cake!

Day 7: Scott and Dagmara left for Honolulu. We had our flight booked to leave the next morning for Honolulu and we would meet up with them there.

After we dropped Scott and Dagmara off at the airport we drove to the Haleakala National Park in hopes of viewing the crater. Of course, when we got up to the top, visibility was poor and we couldn't see anything!

My Dad's face is priceless in this one. I love how Mom looks relatively calm with her eyes closed and Dad looks like he is going to freeze to death. Classic!

Uprepared, I resorted to a towel for protection from the cold, drizzly weather. Kind of looks like mars...
On the way down we stopped at a little market. They market had lovely flowers on display. I fell in love with the aloha prayer flags. I don't know what they really are but they remind me of Tibetan prayer flags. Too bad they didn't have any aloha prayer flags for sale. I would have snatched those up.
Day 8: Honolulu street vendor shopping and Waikiki Beach. We said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad and flew into Honolulu early. We met up with Scott and Dagmara mid morning and then went to a Ramen restaurant where I had another opportunity to fine tune my mad chopstick skills. We then ventured out to the main shopping district and found the international market and other street vendors. I purchased an orange glass Plumeria necklace but neglected to take a picture of it. Very purty indeed.
Clark was head over heels for these masks. I refused to let him purchase one. We don't need to put anything else on our walls right now. Plus, I can only imagine the price of a hand crafted mask. In Hawaii.
We also stopped at a store that sold Power Balance bands. I am almost sold on these bands. I'm about 85% there. Dagmara invested in one. I'll wait to see what she thinks.
Later in the day we strolled down to the famous Waikiki Beach. Diamond Head Crater is in the background. Next time we go to Honolulu we will have to hike the crater. Apparently you cannot hike the crater after noon. Oh right...because when people go on vacation they love to wake up early to do activities.
Aren't they just so cute!? I really love this picture of my brother and his wife.
This dude was searching for treasure. If you can enlarge this photo you will notice that he has rings on most of his fingers. I'm assuming all of the jewelry on his person was found with his metal detector.

The view from our hotel room. We actually had an ocean view but those pictures weren't nearly as clear. Sadly, we had to say good bye to Scott and Dagmara since they had an early flight the next morning. We had a good meal and fine conversation at the California Pizza Kitchen.

Day 9: Pearl Harbor and Red eye flight out of Maui.

We took public transportation to Pearl Harbor, and even though it took an hour to get to the memorial we were still able to get tickets to see the USS Arizona Memorial. This picture is part of the gun turret near the stern of the ship. It was so humbling to walk over the grave site of so many courageous men.

We had only enough time to see the USS Arizona Memorial, watch a short film describing the circumstances leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack, and walk around and view some missiles and torpedoes.

I really wish we would have had more time to spend in Honolulu. I don't think I got a good feel for all that Oahu has to offer. If we had stayed a couple days longer and rented a car I think we could have seen and done some amazing things like see the North shore and hike Diamond Head.

After Pearl Harbor we headed back to our hotel to collect our luggage and then took a flight back to Maui. We then had to wait hours for our red eye flight back to the states, so we ate a late lunch at Costco (gotta love that Costco prices are consistent anywhere you go!) and then picked up some snacks at Wal Mart. After turning in our rental and heading back to the airport again, we came to realize that our flight was completely booked and many of those flying were children. Under the age of 2. There was never a lull in shrieking on the way back to the states.

**I learned several things while on vacation:

1. How to eat properly with chopsticks (thanks, Dagmara!) This proved useful since half of our meals were Asian cuisine for some reason. Even a waiter at a Chinese restaurant IN Chinatown IN San Francisco could not teach me how to properly hold chopsticks. Interesting.

2.The Ellisons can accomplish almost too much while on vacation. I was exhausted after each day!

3. Hawaii is ridiculously expensive. Nope, you can't find any $5 footlongs at Subway there!

4. I am scared to be in open water unless there are a lot of people around me. Getting eaten alive is not the way I want to go.

Thank you Mom and Dad Ellison for allowing us to meet up with you both in Maui and share your timeshare :) Thanks for all the fun and memories. We can't wait to do it again!