Welcome to the world, Betty Micheletti!!!!!!
Congratulations Nick and Allie :) I can't wait to meet your beautiful girl!
What a wonderful way to wake up this morning! That news definitely dwarfs anything I have to say for the rest of this post, but I'll go for it anyway.
So we woke up Christmas morning and it was very strange to open the lanai to a warm breeze instead of sitting around a fire. I was the teeeeeensiest bit hungover (stupid eggnog). However, my hangover was soon forgotten (or at least ignored). I won't go into a list of gifts (because that's kind of weird), but some highlights that will appear in the blog at some point are:
 |
| Matt's Telescope from my parents |
 |
| My Ukulele :) |
Later on, Matt and I decided go snorkeling. At the suggestion of our future dive instructor, we went to a small beach on the West side of the island. It's called something Hawaiian but everyone calls it Electric Beach. This is because there is a power plant across the street that uses seawater as a coolant. The pipe that recycles the water back into the ocean runs out into the water about 100 yds and the nearby reef grown and extended around the pipe. The water at the mouth of the pipe is very warm and looks like boiling water from the beach because of the strong current created. The dive instructor told us that we should definitely see turtles, maybe a white tip reef shark or two, and if we are lucky a manta ray. Here are some pictures of our day:
 |
| Matt by our bench |
 |
| I put up the wrong foot so instead of a quirky picture, it looks like I have a horribly deformed left foot...or that Matt meticulously maintains his right foot. Weird. |
 |
| Much better. |
 |
| The water was so clear! |
We ended up only seeing fish. The problem with that statement is that it implies that there wasn't a lot of wildlife. We were surrounded by schools of fish! Mostly cute stripey ones (that's the technical term) that hung out around our fins. We also swam in front of the pipe and got tossed out to sea in the bubbly water. The temperature difference was crazy, it was like bathwater. We'll definitely be back going there. Oh! There were also some divers there wearing Santa hats-it was pretty funny looking down and seeing yellow fish...blue fish...fish with long nose...festive diver.
FYI - Snorkeling cures hangovers.
That evening, we went and saw Sherlock Holmes (very fun), ate a (pre-cooked/pre-glazed) ham dinner, and had a relaxing night.
On Sunday, we decided to do something a bit different. We ran from our building to Diamond Head Crater (about 5mi), hiked 2 mi to the top of the crater, and ran/jogged/walked back. It was awesome! Check it out:
 |
| "Hmm," you wonder, "What are all those cones about?" I'll tell you! Those 12 cones are warning you that there is a crack in the sidewalk. Watch out. |
 |
| These sucked. (Spoiler alert: there were more.) |
 |
| Awkward crouching/stair/cave part |
 |
| At the top! |
 |
| Tired, but happy. Now for the run back.. |
Well, everyone the reason I've posted 3 times in the last two days is because I have been slacking and had to play catch-up. It's also because Matt and I are leaving in 6 hours for a mini-vacation to the Big Island! More on that later.
I also wanted to say that, while Matt and I are having a blast, the holidays here are seriously lacking without our friends and family. We think about you guys every day and miss you all very much. So get out here!!
Mom, this one's for you:
What language does Santa Claus speak?
North Polish
North Polish
ok, ok, one more...
Who delivers Christmas presents to little sharks?
Santa Jaws
Santa Jaws
