A Merry Little Christmas.

Please enjoy an awesome performance by Zooey & M. Ward (She & Him) on the Conan O'Brien show the other night. Pure Magic.

Holli's Top 5 Holiday Hits.

This holiday season, 

may I suggest?

My top 5 Holiday Movies.

1.) Meet Me in St. Louis

2.) ELF

3.) Miracle on 34th Street

4.) The Family Stone

5.) A Christmas Story

My top 5 Holiday Songs. (and it has to be by the artists listed ;)

1.) Baby It's Cold Outside (Zooey Deschanel & Leon Redbone)

2.) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland)

3.) Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire (The Carpenters)

4.) Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives)

5.) All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey)

My top 5 Holiday treats:

1.) Peanut Butter Blossoms

2.) Chocolate or Peanut Butter Fudge

3.) See's Candy Mint Truffle

4.) Stephen's Mint Truffle Hot Cocoa

5.) Carmel Spice Apple Cider (Starbucks)

Halfway There.

Well, one thing on my "list" of things to do in Hawaii is hike to Sacred Falls. And...I did. Halfway. 

Turns out we left a little too late and it was starting to get dark. 

However,

I got some good pictures. Enjoy. 

A Happy Thanksgiving.

Today was wonderful.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it.

Thank you Uluaves/Duffins for inviting me to a Thanksgiving 

Brouhaha. It was truly a delight. Kari even recorded the Thanksgiving Day Parade for me, due to nostalgia of watching every early Thanksgiving morning as a kid. Unfortunately, it comes on at about 2 in the morning here, so I've missed it the past 4 years (since I've lived in HI). I wasn't ABOUT to miss it this year. Weirdly enough, it has kind of changed (as most things do) and there were just weird Jazz dancers...it seemed like the whole parade?? Regardless, I appreciated the olfactory senses of the bird cooking in the background and the announcers talking about the brisk weather in New York.

 Thanks Kari! 

After dinner we played a fun game of Ticket to Ride. 

I won.

Then I lost...horribly.

After I ate about 7 meals in a 7 hour period, I went to play some tennis with my roommate, Aubrey. In her family, it's tradition to play tennis on Thanksgiving. I felt like a stuffed turkey trying to run around the court. However, we managed to get some good action shots. 

After such a wonderfully eventful day, the food coma hit.

Hard.

AND,  I wasn't the only one.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how abundantly blessed I am.

Every time I have my drive to/from work, all I can think about is how happy I am. Life is good. Very, very good.

I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father, my family, great friends, a great job with wonderful people, my health, and to live in such a serene place. For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been listening to Christmas music on my commute and have literally grinned around every corner and bend. I.am.so.happy. I love the crystal blue ocean. I love the deep green mountains. I love the quirky people I see each day on the side of Kamehameha Highway. I love life.  

I am so happy.

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Energy/Drinks.

I don't care what anybody says.

I think windmills are gorgeous. 

I think it's funny when people think that they are an eyesore or that they don't belong. 

I have always been fascinated by them.

ENERGY.

Well, I've needed a lot of literal energy lately, but I will take this. Kahuku has finally developed a wind farm and the mills are HUGE. I didn't realize the vast size of them until I was driving past today and I actually pulled over to take a photo. 

The farm consists of twelve 400-foot-tall windmills, many of which are seen from Kamehameha highway. They are estimated to generate about 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to power nearly 7,700 homes per year.

Ah-maze-ing. 

On another note, my roommate brought home some large limes yesterday. All I could think about? LIMEADE.

With a twist...

I went to my old house the other day and scavenged around for the juicer that I paid six bucks for at Foodland last year. To my delight, it was hiding in the back of the cupboard and I nicked it. 

TRY IT! Don't be spooked by the leafy green floaties.

* one cup lime juice

* four cups water

* four packets Stevia

* one handful of Cilantro, chopped

You will not regret it. 

Mi Casa.

It's been awhile, but THIS is my new house.

After living 2 years in Hau'ula (and fearing for my life on several occassions),

I finally made the move back to Laie. 

 There is even a cute little yard...

 The couch in my room was a horrible floral design that looked like it should come out of a church building from the 1980's...so, I bought a canvas paint drop cloth, made a few stitches, attached one beige colored flower, and TADA! I have a new looking couch. If you don't like it now...you should have seen it before. Yikes.

 One more grandma chair in the corner. 

Although I now work in the "big" city, I feel like Laie is the place for me. I truly don't mind the drive most days. (MOST days.) 

To beach: .1 miles

To Foodland: .1 miles

To work: 35 miles

Which of these is more important?? That's right, the beach.

Website.

I realize that all I have been blogging about lately is WORK.

I apologize. 

I promise now that the Grand Opening is over I will get back to "normal" life and start talking about something new. However, please take a moment to look at how sexy the hotel I work at is. They FINALLY put real pictures up on the website.

The Waikiki EDITION

And seriously....I promise I will find other exciting things in my life to talk about. Thanks for bearing with me.

Happy Birthday Darling.

Sarah

You are so cool.

I love the person that you are and the friend that you are to me.

Thank you for being so phenomenal.

I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that we live so far away from each other. I hate that I never get to see your face and love the fact that I can call you at 3 in the morning when I'm having a spout of insomnia or a long drive home from work.

You are wonderful, beautiful, talented, fun, and spectacular in so many ways.

I like you lots.

Love you more.

Miss you daily.

Happy Birthday Darling!

The Catwalk.

Another amazing event EDITION arranged for our orientation was a fashion show that featured all of our uniforms.

They were styled by Freddie Leiba, who sometimes guest stars on Project Runway. Pretty cool.

I was chosen to represent Reception and it was actually SO much fun. I wasn't too sure about it at first because walking down a 46 foot runway in 4 inch heels is not necessarily something I enjoy. However, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  

Also....now that we are OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS...Here is a picture of our front desk.

Along with my wonderful team & our Ritz Carlton trainers. 

The surfboard mural in the background is designed and built by surfer & artist Herbie Fletcher. The desk itself is actually one piece of wood that was shaped the same way a surfboard is.

Popcorn Orchids.

I love Popcorn Orchids.

I saw them for the first time in the hotel on Saturday and I was instantly enthralled. This picture does not do them justice. 

Good News...Puppies are Cute.

And so are Shalye & Malia!

Countdown.

Today marked the first day of 'countdown' at The Waikiki EDITION.

It was AMAZING.

I have never experienced anything so unique & original, especially in the workplace. I FINALLY got to see the lobby where I will be working (after many weeks of keeping it under wraps) and it completely exceeded all expectations that I had. In fact, the entire hotel is truly enchanting. Completely unlike anything I have ever seen. I am SO, SO excited to be working there and have the pleasure of seeing these wonderful people every day.

Honestly, the front office team is phenomenal. Each and every one of them is wonderful in their own, delightful way. I love you all. 

Today was like a party all day long. Seriously.

There was screaming, dancing, music, insanity, and profanity. People were storming the stage and I saw housekeeping dancing like nothing I've ever seen before in my life. 

It.was.awesome.

I can't imagine any job being as cool as this one.

I love my life.

Shoes.

My feet are little blister colonies.

This is why...

These are my new work kicks. 4 inches. This brings me to a whopping 6 feet tall. I'm a monster. 8 hours daily. That's how much I will be wearing these babies. Standing up...the whole time.

HOWEVER, this past week I got to wear these babies. 

And guess what? They also gave me blisters...I just can't win. 

More White Daisies.

For those of you who know me well, you know I love to quilt.

And even more, I love to quilt for people I love. 

I can FINALLY post pictures of this one because Audi & Sam have received it. 

Baby Chloe, I'm so excited for you to be borned!

The squares are made of forest green & camel brown corduroy. 

Hand stitched daisies on the corners.

Banana yellow & white striped cotton fabric for the backing. 

Jobless.

For 3 full days, I will be jobless.

I am so happy.

I also don't know what to do with myself!

I came home tonight from my last day at PCC and now I'm staring at the walls. 

Now I'm blogging.

I will miss PCC, in some ways. I'll miss working with one of my best friends everyday.

I'll miss all of the Koreans coming up and asking to take their picture with me. (Even on days when I wasn't feeling particularly lovely.) I will NOT miss people looking at me like one of those dirty, filthy timeshare salespeople. I am SOO tired of people ignoring and giving me sideways glances when I give them a cheery "Hello!" or "Aloha!". Seriously people, I was just really bored and wanted to talk to SOMEBODY, ANYBODY! It's hard to sit there and stare at my feet all day! I'm also glad I don't have to hear "Wow, you have the easiest job here!" No, I do not have the easiest job. It was hard. 

EDITION, here I come!

Pushing Daisies.

I'm hooked.

Netflix "Watch Instantly" has become the death of me. Or at least the death of my social life.

I've been watching the show "Pushing Daisies" (which only lasted 2 sad seasons before it was taken off air) and I LOVE it. It's about Ned, a pie-maker, who can bring people back to life, but only for 1 minute. After that one minute, somebody else in the near circumference will perish. He brings his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles "CHUCK", back to life and decides to leave her alive. They are in love, but they cannot touch or else she will die, again. 

I think one of my favorite parts of this show is the witty banter of the narrator, Jim Dale, who is also the voice of all the Harry Potter books on audio. 

If you have Netflix, this is a must watch. I promise you, if you love dark humor, bright colors, great set design, and quick wit, this will leave a toothy grin on your face for days. Or at least until you finish the two seasons...

...and another one gone.

Well, it's happened again.

The mainland has seduced another one of my friends to it's land of milk and honey. 

Teren, I hope you enjoy Utah. I'm glad we stayed friends for so long.

Who knew we'd become such good friends? An unlikely duo we were, forced together by a church calling 4 years ago. We resisted, but were pushed into a friendship of unexpected Haole/Japanese happiness. I'm so glad we ended up getting along. 

Aloha Teren!