Christmas in Paradise

Last year for Christmas, my entire family on my mom’s side spent the holiday season in Maui. There were 20 of us there, and we had a great time spending some quality family time on the beach. The place we were staying at was right on the beach, and our whole family was in the same hotel. There was a shopping center about a 2 minute walk down the boardwalk from the hotel, and it had lots of designer outlets and shops, as well as a whaling museum. My cousin Erin and I walked to Sephora at least once every day to do our makeup with all the samples they had out. When we weren’t at Sephora, we were at the ABC store or at the self-serve frozen yogurt place eating as much as we possibly could. In between shopping sprees, Erin and I would tan on the beach with our other cousin Sarah. On the beach there was a sand volleyball court, and it would be an off day when we didn’t start at least one volleyball game with almost the entire family playing. It was so much fun to play the sport that I love with the people that mean so much to me in a warm, sunny and fun place. My older cousins Matt and Greg would spend the whole time chirping each other about how much beer the other had had that day. This amazing experience was a result of my grandparent’s generosity, as it was my Grandan’s 79^th birthday present to the rest of the family. It was originally supposed to be this year for Grandan’s 80^th, but he had a run-in with cancer last year so we decided to push it forward by one year. (Don’t worry- he’s now cancer free!) I feel very lucky to have shared this amazing vacation with my family and extended family over the holidays because of all the fun we had and because who doesn’t love Maui!