A Thanksgiving to remember!

I don't actually have any pictures of our Thanksgiving this year, but it was an unforgettable one, so read on. I was actually really dreading this one because Travis was working the day of, the day before, and the day after Thanksgiving this year. So we couldn't even have our own dinner early or later than the real deal. I truly feared out fate might be eating a make-shift turkey dinner with just the three of us at home...alone...in Hawaii.

But alas, my good friend Jesica got us into the coolest gig in town. She is good friends with a big family in Kalaheo. The Grandparents, mother and father, their 3 children and 7 grandchildren live in 5 houses on the same land (3 acres). They have a community center on the land with an outdoor kitchen and picnic tables and eat meals together often. Talk about one big happy family! They always have a big party on Thanksgiving and invite tons of friends, extended family and anyone else with nowhere to go (aka, us). Far from the traditional turkey dinner, they have a Crab Boil each year. They set out tons of yummy appetizers, then started the huge pots of water boiling. They boiled King Crab legs, Dungeness crabs, shrimp, artichokes, corn, potatoes, onions, and sausages. They had lined the picnic tables with plastic, then butcher paper on top and proceeded to dump the strained food right onto the table. No plates, no utensils, no nothin! You just grab what you want, eat with your fingers and don't stop until you can't eat no mo'. It was really fun and REALLY good.

Mind you, I wouldn't give up the opportunity to spend the day with my own family and eat my dad's turkey and stuffing for anything in the world (see my sister Carey's blog), but given our situation, we were happy to be with good people having a good time. We wish Travis could have joined in the festivities. We saved a plate for him and called to wish him Happy Thanksgiving. A small price to pay for a week off for Christmas, I guess. :) Yay!

Now for Christmas preparations and celebrations! Tis the season!

Mississippi Stop-Stop

Any Suzuki kid would recognize the above phrase. I have taught dozens of kids Suzuki Violin, but this is my most important student ever.

Veda had her first violin lesson 4 days ago. I really put if off because I knew once we started it would be a huge commitment and I wanted to make sure we were both ready. We have been listening the Suzuki recording for almost a year now and she can sing along to all the songs.

This is Veda's first violin. It's a Box-olin. It is just a box of Macaroni and Cheese. I gutted it out, fixed the innards for dinner, put some treats inside of the box, wrapped it in cute paper, put a focal point in the center, and taped a ruler on the back for the fingerboard. When she masters the technique of holding the violin with her chin and shoulder and keeping her eyes focused on the sticker, then we are ready for the real thing.

We practice daily at 3:00. Our lessons last about 5 minutes now. I consciously end the lesson before Veda begins to lose focus. The lessons will gradually get longer as her attention span broadens.

We both agreed that during violin lessons, I am Miss Kaycee, and she is my student. We want to maintain a level of respect for each other while practicing that a Mother/Daughter relationship might lack.

We start out our lessons with the traditional Suzuki bow to each other. We work on the technique of holding the box-olin, clap some rhythms, go over the names of the violin anatomy and that's about it at this point. She is doing very well. She will naturally move more quickely than a student practicing at home with a non-music parent because she is essentially having a lesson everyday instead of once a week.

This is our Box-olin:

Niihau Shell Lei

An amazing thing happened to me today. First let me give you some history that will make sense of this story

There are many beautiful crafts specific to Hawaii. I have admired many, but one is more wondrous then them all,the Niihau Shell Lei.

Niihau is a tiny Hawaiian Island about 17 miles off the coast of Kauai (nicknamed "The Forbidden Island"). It is the smallest of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands and is home to a mere 226 residents. No outsiders are permitted to visit. The people of Niihau (pronounced "Nee-ee-how") have long been renowned for their lovely leis of seashells. The shell most treasured by Niihau's lei makers is a minute turban shell known as Kahelelani only found on the shores of Niihau and rarely on Kauai. It is a mere two-tenths of an inch long and even smaller in diameter. The colors range from brown to reddish-tan and occasionally pink. The reason that the kahelalani shell is so highly prized lies in the fact that the ladies of Niihau insist on perfection when making their shell leis. Each day one may collect a thimble-full of kahelelani shells, perhaps two dozen or so shells. These must be cleaned and then bored or drilled to make a hole for the thread. The extreme fragility of these shells results in large numbers being broken as they are prepared for stringing. So great is this loss that three or four usable shells are considered a very good return on the day's work. Collecting is a slow process, unbearably slow sometimes. The usable shells produced by a day's searching can often be counted on the fingers of one hand. This is the only shell that is insurable and can be considered a gem. Ornate shell leis are worth thousands of dollars. There are very few woman on the island that know the art of stringing the shells and this is passed down through the generations of women.

I have been admiring and shopping longingly for a strand of Niihau shells ever since I heard about them. Niihau and it's people are such a mystery in itself that I have really gotten very curious about it all.

Today I got a call from my friend (yes, my one friend) Jesica who invited us to meet her at the beach with some other friends. We parked ourselves at a picnic table under a canopy. At the table next to us I noticed some Hawaiian people sitting around a table working on something. On closer examination I saw that they were making shell leis. I recognized the tiny Kahelelani shell right away and wandered over to observe. I could tell the people were from Niihau - you can just tell. I started talking to the woman stringing the shells. I recognized her from some pictures I had seen in a book about Niihau shell leis. The people were very nice and invited us to stay and watch. They speak mostly their own dialect similar to Hawaiian so a young man with them did some translating for us. I was complimenting her and commenting on the beauty of her art. We went to swim and play a little and came back an hour later or so. She tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around she took my hand, placed the shell lei in it, closed my hand and said "For you and your daughter". I gasped, my eyes immediately swelled with tears. I said "I can't take this!" She said "Please". I hugged her and told her how grateful I was. I was completely overwhelmed with the spirit of giving these people have. They have very little and this is their only means of income on their small island. She could have sold the lei to a jewelry store for hundreds of dollars. But she gave it to a hauli girl - a white stranger on the beach.

I have heard about the open hearts of the Hawaiian people my whole life. But today I experienced it in it's fullest. As I wear the lei around my neck I will always be reminded of the giving spirit of Hawaii and try to live my own life with Aloha.

Milne side Ren-de-voux

We had visitors from the mainland this weekend. My mom, Kathrin (Taylor's wife) and daughter Emma flew in on a Wednesday afternoon and stayed 5 days. We had such a great time. Veda and Emma are best buddies and had been talking about this for weeks.

Here are some highlights from our time together and some other recent stuff I want to squeeze in.

Just the adults went out one night to a fabulous restaurant in Poipu - The Beach House. We were right on the beach on a moonlit night, amazing food and good company (and no kids). Perfect night!




My friend Jesica and her little boy Pheonix met us at the beach one day. These are 4 of the cutest little mermaids I've ever seen.


Veda and Emma have to be the cutest little cousins ever. They are very best friends. Silliness filled the air.






Grandma of the year! How many grandmas do you know that play Twister? She is so much fun! I love you Mom. :)


Evie and Haui have a special bond. She loves him! She cuddles right down with him in his bed, gives him kisses, sits on him, and he doesn't seem the least bit bothered by it. I think he actually likes it.




Wouldn't YOU stop sucking your thumb for this little cutie? If Veda completely stops sucking her thumb during the day, she can bring this little furball home. She still sucks her thumb to fall asleep at night and that is fine as long as she's not sucking it any other time. We have tried many things to get her to stop - if this doesn't work, we might be in trouble.

Halloween Hawaiian style

This was an extra special Halloween for us this year. We had our dear friends from Redlands visiting. Amber, her daughter Sydney (3) and Heather came for four days and we had a blast.

Here is our Spider Fairy and Princess Belle. They were soooo much fun to dress up this year.

Beauty and the Beast



The girls plus our Hula dog, Haui

As soon as the camera comes out, Eve pulls this gigantic cheezy smile. While hilarious, it is really hard to get a good, cute smile out of her. You have to have a quick steady hand and catch her off guard.




And finally we have a winner!




Sydney the kitty cat

Amber and Sydney

Me, Heather and Amber. No, we didn't plan to be matching purple witches.



After trick-or-treating in the rain we came home tired. So we poured all the candy on the floor, assessed the loot, sugared up, and had a crazy glow stick techno dance party thanks to Super Travis DJ 3000.




This one will definitely go down in history as being one of my favorite Halloweens ever.

Paradise

We drove over a half hour on a BUMPY dirt road to get to this remote beach. It was worth it! On the west side the sun sets in the water (on the east side it sets behind mountains) and we have heard that you haven't really lived until you have experienced a sunset at Polihale beach. It was truly surreal. I felt like we were in a different universe. There were very few people there and I have never seen a more beautiful beach. The white sand went on forever. This is the longest beach on Kauai, over 17 miles. It is hard to get to so it's very private and secluded.




This is where Travis has a weekly appointment with his golf buddies. Not bad ya?

We've got a swimmer (and a screamer)!

We had our first series of swim lessons this week. Mind you, these aren't the "swim classes" we were used to in California where the kids pretty much learn to blow bubbles and play with water toys and they giggle and splash and leave wanting more. Oh no - this was a whole different experience. We knew that living here meant we would need to have good swimmers and we are fully aware of the water dangers here on the island. So Veda and Eve completed a 5 day course of intense private swim lessons. INTENSE! Did I say intense? They both screamed through the first two lessons, then Veda had a break through on the third day. She was doing really well - jumping into the pool by herself and swimming to the other side. She was so excited and pleased with herself. But poor Eve. By the third lesson I couldn't take it any more. We both cried through the whole thing and I told the instructor that I didn't think she was ready for this. Travis felt really strongly that she should finish the last two days so he took her the next day. I took them both yesterday, graduation day. Veda still cried before she got in, but was smiling when she came out. She really learned a lot and I am confident she could hold her own in a pool should anything happen. Eve was so panicked and terrified that she absorbed very little of the technique and I feel like she was just tortured the whole week. I really feel terrible about it. I won't give details because I'm afraid someone will turn me into CPS for letting her go through it. I'll just say that the instructor would simulate a "fall" and then let Evie struggle through it. I know - I can't sleep at night.

She teaches them how to come up from under the water and swim on their back. After they master swimming on their back, she has them roll over and practice swimming face down. She had Veda practice jumping in the pool, coming up, putting her chin up, head back and floating on her back. Then she would swim to the side until her head touched the edge and reach up with one arm, grab the side of the pool, flip over, and climb out of the pool. I think it's a genius approach (for a four year old) because it teaches survival first.