Christmas vacation review

I know, it's practically the middle of January. Time to move on from Christmas vacation to a new topic, but I'm still trying to organize photos from the last month, which reminds me of some things that we did that I want to remember. Maybe one of my resolutions should be to have a better memory, especially since I took the time to read that Joshua Froer book on memory champions.  I have thought of a number of other things I’d like to write about lately, but the inspiration expires as other events crowd our time.  The happy side of this busyness is that we’ve had some quality family time the past couple of weeks.  

So in the interest of aiding memory, here is a list of some of our recent memory-making moments:

1. My second son put in a lot of time organizing a giving tree project for his Eagle Scout project.  He was inspired to do something for foster care children by our friends who are foster parents here, but his initial idea, sponsoring a 5K fundraiser run, was too complex. He tried out a couple of other ideas, before settling on the giving tree idea. He contacted the shelter run by Catholic Social Services and the Sisters of Mercy here, who gave him a list of gifts for the kids. He invited a group of kids from the chapel and some of the scouts to make tags and decorate a tree with them. Then he gave a nice little speech at each of the Masses and the Protestant service about his project. The response was generous. For broader outreach, he went to the mall one Saturday with some other scouts to collect gifts and hand out flyers. They raised donations there, but the biggest gift came from the Navy spouses’ organization, which donated $1000 to the shelter from their craft bazaar the weekend before, after the president heard my son’s speech at church. That was nice.

It was also nice to play Santa. On the Saturday before Christmas, we gathered up some cookies and snacks and stuff to make s’mores and delivered the gifts to the shelter. The sister in charge had thought it would be nice to have the scouts demonstrate making a fire and tying knots, but the kids were a little too young for knot tying, and several had special needs. The oldest was an 8 year old girl who seemed self-conscious at first, but one of the scouts brought his ukulele and got to playing Christmas songs, which ended up being the best entertainment of the afternoon. He had everyone singing. And a big reward for my son was a nice hug from one of the little girls with special needs – a great confirmation for all the work he did getting out of his comfort zone calling people and asking for help.

I left the party feeling a little depressed. A sweet chubby baby boy was one of the new arrivals at the shelter. The sister said she couldn’t believe he was neglected because he was so fat.  I have toyed often with the idea of signing up to be a respite care provider for foster parents, but thus far have not because it requires going to the court and to the police station for background checks and we only have 5 months left.  But here are these children with no home to go to, and a shelter that is partly boarded up. The water pump had gone out that week – the $1000 was just in time for repairs. 

2. I wonder if we should be doing more than just helping at outreach events. For instance, we also helped at the Christmas dinner for foster families at the Baptist church, with our foster parent friends. There were so many volunteers there that I had little to do, except hold a foster baby for one of the parents who wanted to help her own daughter with a craft.  I had come earlier in the week to help organize some of the donated clothes and toys, and again felt blessed with the abundance that our family has.  I wanted to take that foster baby home.

3. Meeting the new family with six adopted kids who just moved in down the street seems to be another sign. After seeing them drive up, my 10 year daughter asked if our next car could be a big white van. I don’t think that is on my husband’s wish list. My younger kids love playing with them - they've had lots of play-in-the-street time lately with their new ripsticks from Santa. And now they also want a baby sister from Africa.

4. We have met another family with adopted kids in the neighborhood who home school. She set up a field trip to the National Park on the north end of the island to see some caves with pictoglyphs.  We signed up for a guided tour by an anthropology student at the university, who actually is studying languages of one of the other islands, but she was knowledgeable about the caves and the drawings, perhaps since her grandmother’s family had hidden in a cave during World War II, trying to escape capture by the Japanese.

Swarming butterflies

Blue banded king crow butterflies swarming. Hypolinas bolina?

House figures

turtles

Three fingered hand - thought to be that of a thief?

A Fish

5. Christmas Eve arrived sunny and warm, as usual here.  My husband wanted to go diving in the morning, so that we could get some good underwater photos, but our camera malfunctioned. Fortunately, we ran into a friend who took some for us. The boys saw a shark. The fish saw a photo op.

6. On Christmas Eve, I found myself making one more futile trip to the Exchange, although it was at the goading of my oldest who wanted to buy gifts for his siblings, and because I lost a bag of books I had purchased for gifts.  Of course, they turned up under a pile in my closet (they were supposed to be under a pile in my husband’s closet) – in time for Epiphany.  We went to Midnight Mass at the cathedral again, at the kids’ request. The music is beautiful, and the pageantry of the celebration is unparalleled on the island. The bishop sang “O Holy Night” at the Mass’s close, and then everyone adjourned to the lanai for bunelos dagu. While we were licking syrup off our fingers, the bishop came up to our family and greeted us. I think I flubbed the moment: “Thanks, Bishop, for a lovely Mass. We love it here.” I felt stupid all the way back to the car, but my husband assured me that the Bishop is very laid back here. Or he thinks the haoles are awkward.

7. The elves were busy VERY late Christmas Eve.  Presents still had to be partially wrapped and sorted, and a dollhouse needed finishing touches.  At a certain point, sleep seemed irrelevant. Fortunately, the kids were tired and slept all the way until 7. The teens would have slept longer, but everyone woke up in good spirits.  After last year’s bonanza – I overdid, because we weren’t going home to see family – this Christmas spread was more modest, but everyone seemed satisfied, except perhaps the oldest, who coveted his brother’s dive knife and machete, even though he has his own and his tent was more expensive. I liked that the older boys asked for “instant gratification” gifts (meaning a toy), so I let more Legos into the house despite declaring a moratorium on Legos some time ago. The girls at first seemed under-impressed with the dollhouse, but it quickly has become the most played with toy in the house – even the boys enjoy it.

8. After sipping coffee and enjoying the morning, we moved into get ready for company mode. A couple families joined us for Christmas dinner, although I’m afraid in our sleep-deprived state we messed up a couple dishes: undercooked the butternut squash risotto and overcooked the cherry pudding. The kids were happy to play with friends and new toys, and we shifted the focus from food by playing “Things” with the grown- ups. Always fun.

9. The day after Christmas was more relaxing. We caught up on sleep, caught up on Christmas cards, caught up with family via Skype.  We took a short hike down the Spanish Steps to one of the best snorkeling areas on the island and were rewarded with a view of an octopus. 

10. The next few days are sort of a blur. I know we went to a dinner and dessert party at the neighbor’s that was a lot of fun.  We watched a few Christmas movies, including Christmas Story and The Sound of Music, as we seem to do every year. The older boys went to see Lincoln, and on Friday they and their dad went camping with the scouts as a part of the “Order of the Arrow Ordeal.”  Meanwhile, I invited the daughter of one of the leaders to stay with us, since her parents were involved in the campout. The little girl down the street ended up inviting herself to stay, too. We had planned to watch “Anne of Green Gables,” which my 10 year old received from her grandparents, but the younger girls lost interest. It is a long movie, but I felt sorry for my older daughter, even though I was also partly angry with her, when she went to bed in tears because of the interruptions. I’m afraid part of her dramatic response is an early sign of puberty. Yikes.

How many horizon shots can I take? Looking at the northernmost tip of Guam.

10. For the feast of the Holy Family, we had a big dinner and played family games, which makes the kids happy even though they frequently leave the table angry or crying.  We continued the celebration New Year's Eve day, beginning with a long hike leading to a cove known as “Double Reef” because a second reef is located a couple hundred feet off beyond the close one. The hike was beautiful, although treacherous over mossy limestone rocks, and the cove was pretty, too. But lately there have been numerous weather advisories about high surf and bad riptides. I was very anxious about the boys swimming out to the reef with my husband, while I stayed back with the youngers.  I couldn’t relax, and the youngers picked up on my anxiety, although after a while they left me standing scanning the horizon for snorkels, counting them after each swell. I tried to wave them back, but they were busy watching dolphins and moray eels. I thought about a young Navy sailor who just died jumping from a cliff into the water – not a suicide, but killed by the waves bashing him into the cliffside. I thought of Irish fishermen’s wives living with the constant fear that they’ll be widowed by the sea.  I understood why most of the locals don’t swim in the ocean.  Come back, come back, come back! And come back they finally did, triumphantly full of reports about coral beauties.  My husband assured me they would have turned back if he thought the currents were too strong, but I still muttered prayers of thanksgiving on the hike back.

I think this is a Japanese morning glory.

Moss covered limestone.

Fresh water sinkhole where radioman George Tweed, who hid from the Japanese around here in WWII, got his drinking water.

Horizon with vines. The wave line is the second reef. We think.

We had promised the kids a trip to Yogurtland, the frozen yogurt place where you serve yourself and choose your toppings at a topping bar and pay by the weight.  Not a cheap place to eat for our family.  Then we popped into the Japanese food mart for rice balls that the kids learned to love in Japan, which are a cheap eat for our family.  The shop was lively, with a table set up at the entry for a little new year’s lucky game played with red balls and a dancing dragon robot doll.  We didn’t play the game, but it seemed festive, even though it is not the Japanese New Year.

We ended up eating out twice because our friends invited us to their church’s praise and worship concert for New Year’s Eve. We didn’t have time to cook after the vigil Mass, so we went to the ramen noodle restaurant for more Japanese food.  The kids were not thrilled about going to a church function for New Year’s Eve, and I was fighting a cough, so we didn’t stay until midnight. I played the party pooper and went to bed, but the kids stayed out in the street with the neighbors and their dad until midnight to welcome in 2013.

11. Since the week had the feel of a staycation, we accepted an invite to the waterpark New Year's Day. Great fun was had by all.