When "checking it twice" is not enough

After picking up Micah from school today, he was singing the "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" song. He sang the line ". . . he's making a list, he's checking it twice . . ." He stopped abruptly and exclaimed, "What! He only checks it two times!" Micah is apparently disappointed with Santa's standards. Haha!

Blindsided!

Okay, so those of you who have read my post of Micah's first day at school have probably gathered that he is a special child (LOL). As a side story, the older children have been fearful of Micah starting school, stating they were worried that he was going to get into trouble all the time. I would nonchalantly repy that he would be just fine. Other than his first week at school, Micah has been well-behaved in school. With that in mind, I was quite surprised when Leigh came home from school telling me that Micah's teacher said that Micah had to stay after school for 3 minutes with his head down because he had not been behaving in class. 5 minutes later, Micah and Kara came home. Kara was the one to give the full report. After hearing the story, all I could think was "poor guy" and that this was a story I needed to blog. So here goes. Micah's teacher was reading a story, (Micah said that it was boring to me). He saw some of his friends kind of not paying attention and playing a little bit during the story-telling. He joined in with them. Well, the teacher stopped in the middle of reading and said, "Who doesn't want to listen to the story, stand up?" (She totally set those boys up. Shame on her). Well, Micah, thinking that he was being given the choice to exercise his free agency without punishment, stood up with the rest of the boys. The teacher then told those who were standing to go to their desks and put their heads down. They were to remain there until 3 minutes after the bell. Poor guy. Kara said that he was crying when she went to get him. The teacher felt sorry for him and let him go. I did talk to him about his behavior, and doled out a punishment to fit the crime, but come on. You've got to admit, he was totally blindsided. LOL.

Christmas Trees and our attempt at our Christmas Card Picture

We'd been cooped up in the house all day today, so we went to the temple's visitor. They have a display of Christmas trees decorated by the different stakes on Oahu. It was fun to see the different themes that the stakes used. The student stake made this one, very appropriate I think.
Look, the Tongan Flag. We found the Japanese one later.




We went outside and tried to take some pictures for our annual Christmas card. We took great pictures, it was just too bad we didn't have enough light. We'll see if we get any cards out this year.

We went to the BYUH Campus to look at the lights and decorations sans the crowds. This picture above would have been perfect if we could see Leigh's face (LOL). Oh well, the kids had fun posing.

I'm all caught up now.

I think I'm actually up to date with everything. It only took me all year to do it. Hopefully, we"ll keep all major events like moving to a minimum next year. Enjoy. Our Thanksgiving post is up as well (you know the drill).

I Think It's Genetic

After a physical and a check-up at the eye doctor to confirm it, our little Kara has been blessed with an extra pair of eyes. LOL. Doesn't she look cute. The optometrist said she had an astigmatism. That's four out of six now with glasses. Kara picked out the frames herself and was actually excited about it all. She seems to be in awe at how much clearer things are.

Tree Lighting at BYUH

BYUH had their annual holiday tree lighting ceremony. The entertainment was provided by the local elementary school here in Laie. I have to say, they did an excellent job. Each grade sang and danced to a Christmas song. There seemed to be a rock-n-roll kind of theme. At the end of that, they had Santa come out. Santa was getting laughed at when he took the mic because he didn't realize that his stuffing (the pillows in his pants) were showing. It was kind of funny! They had a big screen that showed the tree in the little circle (another part of campus), and we did the count down and watched it light up. It was fun.



Afterwards, the kids were given candy and we strolled through the Aloha Center bumping into old college friends while admiring all the Christmas decorations in there. We had a fun time. Before going home, we picked up some pizza, ate dinner and went straight to bed.


Sorry again, the pictures are so dark. I think I was too preoccupied with finding food to try and play around with my camera, much less take more pictures of all the lights. Merry Christmas.

Is it December already?

So, I say this in all seriousness. Every time I go somewhere and I see Christmas decorations, I'm actually surprised and say to myself, "Oh yeah, it's Christmas." I think after living in AZ for the past few years, I'm so used to a drastic change in the temperature. It does get very cold there during this time of year (although I did here this year it is a little warm). Day time temps are about in 60's and 50's, while at night it would drop to below freezing on occasion.
My memory of Christmas time in Hawaii is that it did get cold here. I don't know if I haven't felt it because I live on the North Shore. It was a little colder in Mililani. Without that change in weather, my brain can't wrap around the idea that it is Christmas. Maybe I just need to throw on some seasonal music to get me in the mood.