We had long considered a joint trip with Melody’s friend Lisa, and this holiday season gave us the opportunity to make it a reality. We drove to San Francisco a day before our Hawaii flight to explore Chinatown. After slurping noodles and wontons at Chong Qing Xiao Mian, we lined up for fluffy egg tarts and pineapple buns, then wandered Portsmouth Square and nearby shops. Parking was pricy at Fisherman’s Wharf, so we quickly learned about lockpicking at the ISS and eye surgery at the AAO Museum before checking into our hotel for a nap. We skipped the lines at the Nintendo Store and Pop Mart, then passed the Christmas tree at Union Square for R&G Lounge’s signature Peking duck and salt-n-pepper crab. Our evening concluded with Stephen Sondheim’s delightful Into the Woods at the SF Playhouse, where a cow-costumed actor stole much of the show. Our Sunday morning flight to Kona was smooth, leaving plenty of time to pick up our Hertz minivan, enjoy Umeke’s fresh fish and poke, sip Big Chocolate Island’s frozen hot chocolate over MTG, and shop for cookies and sunscreen at Costco before picking up Lisa’s family to check into our boho AirBnb. We enjoyed the beef stew and spam musubi at Pine Tree Cafe so much that we returned next morning for breakfast musubis to kick off our drive to Volcanoes National Park, with stops along the way at Ka Lae for the southernmost viewpoint of the U.S., Punalu’u Bake Shop for plate lunches and malasadas, and Punalu’u Black Sand Beach for tide pools and sea turtles. With nowhere to park for hiking, we checked in early to our B&B and split up for dinner at a nearby bar, where live cams of the recent Kilauea eruption inspired us to return to the park after dark to see the splurting lava in person. We were greeted next morning by a dense mist obscuring our caldera view, which eventually burned off after we crossed the Nahuku lava tube and hiked the Ha’akulamanu trail down to the otherworldly Kilauea Caldera. After lunch at Volcano House, we passed the Steam Vents to get Westley’s Junior Ranger badge at the Welcome Center, then ventured back through the Sulphur Banks to rejoin our group for dinner at Ken’s House of Pancakes in Hilo under pictures of The Rock. We introduced our friends to Fluxx in our B&B living room, then headed to bed as we prepare to complete our circumnavigation of the Big Island.

After another busy year of travel and with colder weather setting in, we opted to stay indoors for the holidays. We warmed up with hot pot over Thanksgiving, and bought ourselves a new wok, wok chuan, and wok station to add some wok hay to my beef chow fun and chao nian gao. With BG3 on pause, we shifted gears to coach Westley through the Outer Worlds 2. This second installment of Obsidian’s entertaining RPG was his first FPS on the PC, and I was amazed at how quickly he learned to free-look, invert Y, and strafe. Black Friday took us out for fried chicken at Bonchon and soul food at Sharky’s, but we shopped mostly online for a new coffee table and patio furniture, replacement reef glasses for Melody, and a smoothie blender, bluetooth speaker, and leather skin for my laptop. Westley’s room also got upgraded with another Billy bookcase, puck lights, track lights, and a ceiling fan. We even gathered fabric and supplies to frame our Peruvian tapestries, and mounted a Frame TV to showcase artwork in the loft. My patience was tested by slow network speeds at home and a database corruption at work, but we also got to dance and teach uterine anatomy at our department holiday party, and watch children and turkeys at yard duty for Chinese school. Otherwise, we began mapping out our spring and summer travel while trying to maximize the dizzying array of benefits from our now-pricier credit card. For Christmas, we baked a hojicha-persimmon cake with our niece and hauled our wok set to our in-laws’ for stir-fried gailan alongside rib roast and an Overcooked rematch. Westley barely had time to enjoy his RG Sinanju, HG Hyaku-Shiki, Clue Escape, and The Guy from Carbot Animations before we were packing again for our next trip. As we approach the year’s end, we look back at our accomplishments: my new R01, Melody’s new deanship, and Westley’s milestones in starting competitive fencing, violin lessons, reaching level 10 at SwimAmerica, and completing COM level 3. I can hardly wait to see what new chaos and adventures next year will bring.