Two more days, first four family members arrive…Interior photos of the house…

This sign is in our driveway. One must park carefully to avoid coconut hitting the roof of the rental cars and, more importantly, one’s head which could be dangerous.

As soon as we’re done posting for today, we’ll be on our way to Hilo to grocery shop for the arrival of the first four family members arriving on Saturday, son TJ,  significant other Sarah, and two grandsons, Jayden, 9 and Nik, 14.

The living room looking down from the loft level. There are two sofas and plenty of chairs.

To ease the dining situation with the remainder of the family coming on the 20th and 21st, we decided to ask each family to make a list of frequently used food items for all meals. They all complied and each family’s preferences are considerably different.

The large kitchen table can seat eight by adding two more chairs.  Most meals will be buffet style.

In two weeks before the others arrive, we’ll make the two-hour drive to Kona to the Costco store to purchase another round for TJ’s family and for the remaining two families.

The sliding door and window in the master bedroom overlooking the roaring surf.

Since we no longer have a printer and with my illegible handwriting the only way I could figure out how to take this long lists with me to the grocery store was to use the grocery app on my phone, Grocery Tracker, which you can download here for free on your smartphone.

The house is a tri-level with this master bedroom on the upper level.

With every item we usually purchase for ourselves already in the app, I named each of TJ’s family’s items like this;  TJ Grated Cheddar, TJ Cheese Puffs. This way the list for TJ’s family would be together under all the TJs in alphabetical order. 

The king-sized bed in the loft bedroom.

Soon, I’ll add the other items under the names of our other grown kids; Tammy, Greg, Richard each specific to their own requests. Then, by carrying my phone, I have access to each family’s grocery list at any given time when we’re out and about. Easy. Otherwise, this could get very confusing.  

Making meals will also be easy. Each family will make their own breakfasts and lunches with all their preferred foods on hand and will have the option of joining Tom and me in dinner each night. Or, if they prefer, they can make their own dinner as well. They only need to tell us in the morning if they’ll be joining us.

Another view of the living room.

Yesterday, we had an unexpected surprise when daughter Tammy, significant other Tracy, and grandson Vincent, 8, had a beautiful Hawaiian Christmas bouquet delivered to the house. See the photo below. These should last through the holidays since many flowers native to Hawaii if properly care for, can last for days.

Although we’d told our kids, no gifts since we have no room for anything, Tammy, Tracy, and Vincent didn’t listen. As usual. These Hawaiian flowers are much more beautiful in person. On this rainy and cloudy day, they don’t appear as lovely as they actually are.

Our lovely property owner Liv also left us a beautiful bouquet. We are definitely well equipped with flowers for the holidays especially with only a little shelf and table space in this house.

With our first load of laundry going in the washer in the garage, the bed made, the kitchen cleaned, I’m chomping at the bit to get out after the wash is done. Tom, of course, is always content to lounge and listen to his radio shows and play with his computer, neither of which he’ll do much once the kids arrive.

There’s a walk-in closet in the master bedroom. As you can see, we don’t have much in the way of hanging clothes.

I will continue to post each day while our family is here including on Tom’s birthday on the 23rd, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day with many new photos of our daily lives, our meals, the lava flow which we’ll visit as soon as the viewing area opens in a few days, and our visits to many of the other local point of interest on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

For online security reasons, I prefer to keep photos of the young ones to a minimum. Plus, it’s easy to tire of seeing photos of other people’s grandkids. Right?

May your day be filled with pleasant surprises.

                                           Photo from one year ago today, December 4, 2013:

On our second full day in the bush, two moms and seven babies (one mom and baby not shown in this photo) became regular visitors to our house in Marloth Park. The moms would stare me down asking for pellets, for which I couldn’t ever resist providing. The moms would let the babies eat first. They were so sweet, I fell in love with the warthogs as those of our reader know from our three months in Marloth Park, beginning one year ago. Please click here for details as I wrote, “Morning doesn’t come soon enough.”  So true.