All I want for Christmas is a Trampoline

We headed down to the Zilker Christmas Tree one cold night in mid-December. The boys enjoyed their ride in on a bike taxi - it was their first. We ended up staying as long as the hot cocoa lasted and while Santa was not there, the boys were able to stand under the tree and look up to tell him what they wanted. Apparently, the Zilker Tree is a giant megaphone-like portal that sends their words straight to the North Pole. The boys asked for a handful of things, one of which was a trampoline. The next morning, there was a letter from Santa by the fireplace that told the boys there was one gift they had asked for that was too big to fit on his sleigh. He told them to look in the garage and lo and behold, we found a trampoline in there. Well, the parts at least. The letter said Mommy and Daddy would have to assemble. * Coincidentally * later that day, we were having friends over, so we thankfully enlisted help to put it all together. 4 hours and 4 sore adults later, the trampoline was operational. Since then, the boys have been using it in spurts. Dean was tentative at first, only going in if mommy or daddy was with him, but now he's got the hang of it, jumping with high knees and loud giggles.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Since Thanksgiving, we've been diving straight into the holidays. First with baking and decorating gingerbread men, followed by putting up the tree and making a gingerbread house. The kids had fun using the cookie cutter and making designs on the gingerbread men with the icing. I think they liked making them more than eating them. Check out the play-by-play here.

We were happy to have a real-sized tree this year. It was fun to unpack the ornaments we hadn't seen for 2 Christmases and Dean was old enough to help this year. He (and Stella) had a concentration of ornaments on the bottom of the tree while Morgan was intent on putting the breakable ones up high out of his reach.

 
A few days later, we got a gingerbread kit for the kids and again, they enjoyed decorating it and squeezing the icing out of the tube. Other than Dean trying to put candy in his ear, the boys did a good job and had fun. We even broke out some of the Halloween candy.

Fantasy Tennis Camp in Wailea, Maui

Ed and I welcomed the trip to Maui after a stressful move and knowing the boys were in safe hands. We had 2.5 days of free time, one and a half on the front end and one on the back end, to enjoy the sights of Maui before and after the tennis camp. We arrived mid-day and starving, so grabbed shrimp at a trailer (wait, are we back in Austin?) overlooking the ocean (oh yeah, definitely not). Then it was off to the hotel, which was drop dead gorgeous -- thank you Didit! -- And yes, they do give you lays when you arrive : ) That night, we had reservations at a traditional luau which had a pig that had baked all day in an underground oven as well as a buffet and entertainment.

 

hotel: The Grand Wailea

 

Luau

dinner!

With the time change catching up to us, we were in bed by 9:00 and up by 3:30 to catch the sunrise at the top of Haleakala -- a 2 hour drive and at 10,000 ft elevation. We had known about how cold it would be prior and it had certainly felt strange packing a winter coat to go to Hawaii, but we needed it! I was even wishing I had brought gloves! I have to admit, the sunrise was breathtaking -- a blanket of clouds covering the Pacific and colors changing by the minute. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel for a nap before exploring the grounds and then going to the cocktail reception for the camp. There, we met all the pros: Michael Chang, Taylor Dent, Tracy Austin, Edgar Gaffenig, Jamea Jackson and Tom Gullikson. Everyone was very down to earth and enthusiastic. As the week progressed, Ed got to know them a lot better and even got to play rounds with them. Ask him about his winner on Michael Chang : )

There it is!

Welcome Reception for Wailea Tennis Camp

For the next few days, I snorkled with turtles (1 beach away from last week's fatal shark attack, as it turned out, yikes!), went shopping, took walks, did yoga on the beach, read by the pool, took a tennis clinic and just relaxed. Ed would come back from his camp sore but glowing from the high of playing with the pros and learning new tips. They had the campers divided by level and despite having the same rating, Ed moved up twice because of his performance. The experience taught him that we have a good tennis center here in Austin and a lot of the pros even knew of our head pro here.

In the evenings, Ed and I had nice dinners, (one night with the pros), watched the sunset (and rise from our balcony in the mornings since we were getting up so early!), and took a scenic 3.5 mile bike ride to Maui's "Most Beautiful" Makena Beach (and peeked at the next door nudey beach : )

Ed playing with Michael Chang and Tom Gullikson

Jamea Jackson & Ed during a clinic

watching the pro exhibition: Taylor Dent & Tracy Austin vs. Michael Chang & Jamea Jackson

Taylor's 140 mph serve

At the Awards Luncheon

with Taylor Dent

with Michael Chang

with Tracy Austin

sunrise view from our balcony

Makena Beach

view of Makena Beach from the cliff

hidden nudey beach on the other side of the cliff : )

bike ride

sunset at the hotel

On our last free day, we checked out the artsy town of Pa'ia before having a waterfront dinner at Mama's Fish House, an island favorite. Then it was a red eye back to reality but we were ready to see the kids. Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this trip possible -- we had a wonderful time and Ed especially had a really great experience. He has already seen a difference in his game in the matches he's played since!

Pa'ia