malak aleki maka*

Merry Christmas everyone!!! The G family of 3 celebrated our Christmas in Chilliwack this year by ourselves. We had a really nice week this week paired nicely with visiting and enjoying decorating our new house and eating the 3 C's. (I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 3 C's at Christmas- Chocolate, Christmas baking and Cheese!!!)

Lights at Minter Gardens
Visiting
"Come on Santa, let's go for a ride!"

Marc and I and Ty went to church last night then came home, put Ty to bed and had fondue and opened presents. If you look closely you will see what was supposed to be brie fondue transformed into a brie pancake. ;)
Before Church we attempted to take the obligatory in front of the tree shot with the camera. It's a good thing we have many years to perfect these!

On Christmas Eve, UPS came through and delivered the stocking my Granny knit for Ty. Thanks Granny, we love it!! You can't see it in the picture but his name is knit in green on the top.

For Christmas this year, Ty gave me the gift of starting to make faces for the camera:

*This post was supposed to be the second post about Hawaii but I got carried away with Christmas pictures. We are enjoying being a family of three this Christmas and feel very blessed this year!

**I bought Marc a remote control helicopter for Christmas and didn't realize it came with missiles and he is currently shooting me with them. If this post seemed hurried and disjointed, blame him!

Check this out!

Our friend Duane who took our great family pictures this summer is raising money for our brother in law Lowell. Lowell is legally blind and Duane is trying to experience what Lowell experiences by wearing modified glasses for two weeks. Check out Duane's blog and explanation of his initial plan here and updates here.


On another note we are back from Hawaii and entering Christmas craziness!!! Check back for more pictures soon.

tropical g family christmas

since our last post, the entire G family has arrived in maui. my parents, sisters and all of their husbands are all here and we are living as one happy family in the penthouse of the kamaole beach royale. it is a beautiful space with a huge rooftop balcony overlooking the ocean.
we have been seriously active here, with every day containing snorkelling and boogieboarding and walks on the beach. we have a longboard, but havent been surfing yet, as all the surfable waves have been huge and crowded with people who know what they're doing.


my dad is typically a pretty cautious guy, but give him a boogie board and he is out there getting pounded by the waves, even when the signs say, "caution! dangerous shore break."

i love this picture; my sister carlynne, arising from a tumble, taking a breath and not aware that she is about to be destroyed by 2 back to back waves taller than her.



yesterday we went snorkelling and rented an underwater camera.
we took a few pictures of fish, but mostly took pictures of eachother underwater. everyone knows what tropical fish look like.






a few nights ago we had our family christmas. my mom cooked up her classic christmas dinner and ty opened his first christmas present.

kylie put the entire dinner in the magic bullet and fed it to ty. it was a hit.

my sister julie is a great photographer and took some fantastic pics of ty on the beach. you can see more of her pictures on her blog.

this is tyrn immediately after he had been swamped by a wave but before he started to cry. pure surprise.

did i mention our balcony has a hottub? ty and i have enjoyed boozing it up while discussing fiscal policy and renal physiology with dan.

finally i have to make everyone aware that krups espresso machines can spontaneously explode, covering the entire kitchen in coffee grounds, burning your forehead and making you swear in front of your mother.

welcome to maui

i think i see hawaii mommy!

yep, definitely hawaii.

do we have to wait 30 minutes before swimming daddy?

with a relative paucity of randomized controlled trials on the subject of postprandial oceanic intestinal spasms causing accidental aqueous asphyxiation, i say go for it son!

ok dad!

ty loves the beach!

Fairweather Bloggers

We have been fairweather bloggers as of late, I was thinking about why tonight and while I can come up with many reasons - busy moving, putting our house together and many guests and visitors, I think the main reason is that Ty is becoming SO MUCH fun!! Both Marc and I are enjoying him so much right now, he is crawling and laughing and clapping and waving and both Marc and I are completely enthralled with him!

My dad came for a visit a little while ago and Ty really enjoyed his time with Grandpa. We enjoyed going for walks and my dad bought Ty a toy that he loves!




I made baby food with my friend Launa, her little guy is 10 days younger than Ty, he is pulling himself up to stand on furniture. Here is Ty trying to learn the basics.
Ty really likes blueberries. So does his chin.


And for some very strange reason that is only contained in his baby brain, he has started squinting his eyes and screeching.


We haven't posted pictures of our house yet, it is still a work in progress but here you can see our kitchen/living room area. We had a grambelkwaak dinner the other night (that is a combination of our last names, so fun!) and there were 10 people here for dinner. I love having a bigger room for hosting!



We are headed to Hawaii next week, whoo hoo!! We will think of you all while we are laying on the beach in the sunshine. ;)