Army-Navy Game, Parade and KV Party

Well, this was a full weekend so I am glad to be writing again so soon after the last post. I just need to get into the habit of posting regularly.

Friday we had a 1/3 Holiday Party at Bellows Air Force Base. Bellows is used now only for training and recreation and it is located right on the beach. Daniel had a half day at work and the party started at 2:30 so we had a relaxing afternoon. We made our way over to Bellows and enjoyed chit-chatting with other couples from 1/3 and watching the balloon sculptor make incredible things for the kids. They hired two sculptors and they were creating everything from rainbows to monkeys and fairy wings. It was fun just watching them. The odd part of the afternoon was watching the skinny Santa (probably a Marine) have children come tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The image of children in their swimsuits with Santa was odd for me since I am so used to cold weather around Christmas. We spent the evening relaxing at home with pizza and movie.

Saturday morning we met up with several Naval Academy grads at the Officer's Club on base to watch the Army-Navy game. Kick-off was at 9:30 am so people were eating breakfast and watching the game. We met up with a couple of our friends, Fred and Jen. Here is Daniel and Fred watching the game and Jen and I close behind. We cheered the entire game and Navy was victorious with a 42 to 24 win. We were glad we were able to catch the game. I was very happy to not be freezing to death watching the game in Philadelphia. It was a beautiful sunny day here in Kailua.

Saturday afternoon we met up with Phil, Amanda and Rhiannon for the Honolulu City Lights Parade. It is the annual parade downtown Honolulu with several organizations, bands, companies and clubs participating. My favorites were the Celtic Pipers and the high school marching bands. There was only one band with regular high school band uniforms. Most of them wore aloha shirts with shorts. It was very Hawaiian.

The parade went on for about and hour and half. Rhiannon was pretty happy the entire time even though Phil was getting tired. We had a great evening watching the parade with them. Towards the end of the parade we met up with two couples from Faith Baptist, the church we have been attending.

After the parade we went by the Honolulu Hale, or the City Hall. Hale means house in Hawaiian. There was a giant Santa in front as well as a Mrs. Clause, of course they were Hawaiian style. Santa was barefoot with his shirt open and his hand in the air with the "hang loose" sign.

We had a great time downtown with Phil, Amanda and baby girl.

Sunday morning we went to the late service at church and heard a fantastic sermon on the mystery of Christmas and Christ in general. The music minister at the church now is leaving to help with a church plant so Faith is in search of a new worship leader. Today they had a candidate visit and lead worship. Daniel and I were both impressed with his leadership and style. We just have to pray about the decision of the church.

After church we ran a few errands and came home for lunch. Amaya dropped by after lunch and Daniel had to show off his new winter/rain gear the Marines have given him to use in Afghanistan. The excellent part of this is Daniel gets to keep all of the gear. Looking through all of the items, it has to be about a couple thousand dollars of intensive cold gear. Here he is looking rather intimidating in his camouflage snow jacket and pants over his feather down pants and jacket. He quickly took it all because he was burning up. He has two sets of giant gloves and one set of mittens. They are like snowboard gloves. Amaya has most of the same kind of gear because she is an avid outdoor girl. She was raised in Idaho. She loves to snowboard, hike and snowshoe hiking so she has quite a knowledge of all the gear Daniel has. She was impressed that the Marines are finally taking these steps to reach comfort and warmth for the Marines in cold weather.

Well, it started thundering and lightening outside so Daniel had to test some of his Gortex gear. It was actually the worst storm I have seen here on the island. The thunder sounded like cannons. It was really incredible. There was water everywhere. Here is Daniel in the downpour:
Here I am tightening the hood on his jacket. It was letting in too much water. It was neat to see the water bead up and just roll off, like rainex on car windows. Our backyard is thoroughly flooded. At least it is nice and green now and not dead and brown.


After Daniel got in from the rain we a had a couple of friends call us from the base Marina. Their car had flooded and they couldn't get home. Fortunately, they got a hold of us because we were getting ready to head out the door for the KV Christmas party. Daniel ran to pick them up and take them home. They are friends from the musical and they live on the other side of the island. It took Daniel awhile before he was able to make it to the party. The party was quite a bit of fun.

We did a white elephant gift exchange. I had bought a two-cup teapot and wrapped it with a box of gingerbread cookie tea. That gift was a hit and was stolen twice, once from the woman who opened it and once from the first thief. I opened a picture frame with pineapple on it, but ended up leaving with 2 Hawaiian tree ornaments. I was glad when Daniel showed up because there were not many husbands there. He was very helpful and funny when he was coaching me about which gifts to steal. Here are the KV ladies of 1/3 with the chaplain.

We are home now and Daniel is still playing with all his gear. I can hear him walk around the house because the rain gear is making "swishing" sounds as he walks.

We are looking forward to Daniel's parents visit this Thursday. It is going to be a great time with them.

Daniel is on the pistol range for Monday-Wednesday so he will be very busy this week. It is my last week of Bible studies so we are choosing our studies for January. I look forward to more growth with the wonderful ladies I have come to know.

Have a wonderful week!