manuia le kirisimasi

Filipo talking to
his family on
Christmas Day

Tafa Christmas tree
Little Alani aka Vito
opening our gifts on Christmas

Alani opening his
"community christmas gift"
aka
shoes in Chris's size so he can wear them too
haha

Finau getting his present!
Diapers!!
Hallelujah, those things are expensive!

It was our first Christmas as a family. We've been talking so much at church about starting traditions with your family and I wanted to start some but it seemed like everyone was too tired to do anything, we all just wanted to catch up on our sleep. There's always next year though! I do want to make it a tradition to read the Christmas story every year, open one gift on Christmas Eve, and find someone/family to give gifts to for the holiday because giving is the best part of the holidays!

I caved in three days before Christmas and bought us a 2 ft. christmas tree. It was the perfect size and since it was so cheap I would even be okay with chucking it in the trash and getting a new one next year :) Well Finau got a lot of Yankee baby stuff, dad's starting him early!! They also bought our family a new camera which was nice because the other one had the lense completely fall out and shatter at Iona & Nio's wedding so we were happy about that! They gave us board games too. I got clue and I had to smile because when I was nine, or about that age, I made my own clue game with cardboard and made all the pieces. It was kind of sad but I used that to play clue for so long. My parents offered to buy me a real clue game but I became attached to the homemade one I had for so long, I kind of miss it now.

Filipo gave me a samoan turtle shell bracelet that I really wanted and I love it. I printed off a picture of his entire family a while back and finally got it framed, it looks really nice and he was so happy about it. The best present for Filipo was the camera from my parents, for Finau it was his Yankee baby pacifier (and I think Filipo loved that too cos he didn't have to buy one now) but the best present for me was my parents paying my medical bills for my present. Thank you mom & dad, I love you.

Finau knocked out after opening presents
&
one of the first pictures we took with
our new camera

Our first Christmas as a family was nice enough but I did miss being around family members. I missed opening presents with all of the family and starting from youngest to oldest. I also missed eating my grandma's great cooking especially since Kulisi said we were going to have a mean as feed at his house after pixies and they had no food, what a BASTOS!! haha....As a sidenote Alani drew my name for pixies and bought me a toaster. As we're leaving he says "That's really good for the bagels yeah? I'll come and use it some time." lol, gotta love those boys.....

Our little Christmas tree
that we love

A Special Thanks to my mom:
Just in case you read this I want you to know how grateful I am for you. For some reason I have been thinking a lot lately about when you and dad were here and we all went to PCC to watch Filipo dance at the night show. You paid the $20 for each of our tickets so we could sit in the very first row that night. Filipo asked me to record so I spent the first half doing that. I went to change Finau and ended up staying up at the top. Filipo wanted the show recorded so I asked you to take care of it. I am sorry that I was selfish and I didn't even think about how you had paid for the extra money to sit down there and I spent half the show sitting at the top. I am sorry that you were there to enjoy yourself and I made you spend the time recording the show for us. I hope that you had a good time anyway. I love you mom, you're the best and I miss you so much. Thanks to dad and you for all you do for us, we love you guys and can't wait to see you again.