A group of carolers just went past our house … they’re in a wagon being pulled by an SUV. They’ll go to the top of the street, turn around, and come back down. It looks like a group of students from the university, but it’s quite dark and difficult to tell. The other night another group came around the neighborhood, this time a group of teenagers. It’s a lot of fun for them and quite nice for us.
We have seventeen Christmas Trees at the Center this year. Five of them were decorated by the missionaries at the Center. The other twelve have been decorated by the twelve family stakes on the Island of Oahu (there are in addition two single adult stakes at BYU-Hawaii). The tree in the picture was decorated by the Kaneohe Stake. Each tree has a theme and decorated appropriately. Several of the trees are worthy of a picture, so they could end up on my blog sometime.
We also had the third of our Christmas Firesides at the Center this evening. Tonight was the Ko’olauloa Children’s Chorus (note: they do singing telegrams! This is a fund raiser for their planned trip to Germany and Austria in 2017). This group also came over during Easter this year to put on a program. They’re very well known here in Hawaii and have traveled not only around Hawaii but elsewhere on the mainland as well as overseas. They put on a very nice program. I’m not sure how many children are in the chorus, probably somewhere around 50. The Center was packed, standing room only, with people spilling out the doors into the courtyard. We turned off the fountain and the courtyard music to cut down on the interference. I video’d their final number on my iPhone and uploaded it to YouTube:
The size of the crowd is quite visible in the video, which is about 4 minutes long.
It was a nice evening. It’s feeling very much like Christmas over here … thankfully no snow. As I’m writing this, a major winter storm is dumping snow and rain in Idaho and Utah. I can seriously say that I’m not missing the snow!
Ta ta for now!
Kentucky has no snow or consistently cold weather this year. Weird. Glad you are having a wonderful Christmas!
Your mother wants to write you a letter so much but with her eye sight it is not possible – so she wanted me to tell you for her how much she enjoys your blog. She loves hearing about a stolen bike, bed bugs, the people you meet and just all that you do. It makes her day! She has up and down days but has decided that going out at times is good as even if she doesn’t feel great, she won’t feel any better staying home so we took her to the Ward Christmas Party last Thursday and she enjoyed seeing people and it was a good party. We also took her to the annual Christmas Concert Sunday evening and took her on a short ride to see some of the Christmas lights on the way home. I am taking her to her ‘Home Maker’s Club’ Christmas Dinner on Tuesday evening at Cedar View Restaurant by the golf course. She misses you but is so glad you are doing what you are doing and is so proud of you both. She loved talking to you on the phone a week or so ago.. She is so happy that you are feeling better and that you are taking care of yourself. She wants to wish you a Merry Christmas and tell you that she loves you very much. We also wish you a Merry Christmas – we are going to drive to Illinois for Christmas but anything you write while we are gong, we will read to her when we get home. Sincerely, Gloria