maui

Well, we are home and back to work again. And we had a really great time in Maui for a week. My parents, my older brother Cale, Sam and I, my sister Bethany and her husband Glen, and my younger brother Eton - as having the whole family together was really all my parents wanted for Christmas and so we all made it safe and sound from five points of North America.

Some highlights and lowlights:
-Sam and I had our first connecting flight cancelled due to lots of snow in Vancouver and so we scrambled to find another flight out that night. Ironically, it was back to Los Angeles for a night's stay ... a much sooner visit back than we ever expected!
-I stubbornly didn't put any suntan lotion on my legs the first day out at the beach. So not too surprisingly, I burned beautifully and painfully. 33 and I still haven't learned that lesson.
-Best night of the week was definitely going to the first class Luau, set right against the ocean and with a 5 course meal prepared by a Master Chef. The photo of me with my 'fun drink' was actually only Mai Tai #1!
-We continued our Chambers Christmas tradition by decorating gingerbread cookies together (actually this year it was Joy's Spice Cookie recipe) and what we didn't devour on that first day was greatly enjoyed by the tiny ants all throughout the night!
-Just because you travel to a tropical location doesn't mean you'll have tropical weather. Ok, I'll clarify. There was tropical weather but it was the flash floods, high velocity winds, roaring waves, and ferociously pelting rain kind. And except for that one crazy, condo soaked, street flooded day, the rain didn't dampen (ha!) our spirits at all as it was always so warm. Now that was the weather treat we had come for!
-We brought our Christmas stockings! Again, a Chambers Christmas isn't complete without those.
-And my brother Cale is right: Maui sunsets are spectacular!