There were several Christmas activities on the island this year that we got to attend!
The first activity was Noah's school Christmas program at Shenanigans. The base had a tree lighting ceremony and asked the CDC kids to sing a few Christmas carols before the ceremony began. The CDC did not spend very much time working on the songs with the kids beforehand, however, (I believe they started practicing two days before the ceremony) so the program was a bit crazy! Most of the kids didn't know all of the songs they were supposed to sing, including Noah, so they just stood around on the stage and goofed off. It was pretty entertaining!
Mr. Cheeseball
The toddler and the Pre-K class combined
Noah pretty much just stood around during all of the songs until the last song when he finally got to hold the microphone! However, once he got the microphone he didn't actually sing into it, he just waved it around! I will try and get the video uploaded later :-)
I don't know too many places where you can end your Christmas program by playing on the beach as the sunsets!
We also attended a couple of Christmas parades again this year
Lights on Rice
One of Noah's favorite floats
Lucas was very excited about his first parade...
Noah was very excited about his balloon on a stick!
The Navy float with the SEPTAR boat carrying Santa
MWR had several holiday activities this year, and one of the activities was a scavenger hunt for the
Menehune Santa. Each day they posted a clue for the location of the Menehune Santa, who was hidden somewhere on the base. I had been reading the clues every day but none of them were really detailed enough to narrow down a place to look and since Ely was gone, I decided not to bother just randomly wandering the base (but there were still a ton of people searching all over the base around places they thought would be good hiding places). However, the clue on day 5 mentioned something about "not all being as it seems" which made me think of the fake tanks near Majors Bay, so while Ely was out of town and Noah was at school, Lucas and I decided to head out and look for Santa.
Not to toot my own horn, but it turns out I'm a genius ;-) I found the Menehune Santa on my first attempt and won $300!
I was pretty shocked that I actually found him!
Noah's class went caroling to the assisted living facility and the hospital in Waimea :-)
Luckily, this was a couple weeks after their Christmas program so the kids did a much better job singing!