It was an odd Christmas this year. As the 25th approached neither Zac nor I were feeling much of the holiday spirit. This marks our third Christmas in Hawaii. The first year we had only been on the island for a couple of months and I was homesick, but decorating the house and technology made it easier to overcome the sadness. The second year (last year) we went out to California to spend the holiday at Zac's sister's home. From there I was able to continue on to Minnesota and celebrate a late Christmas with my family. This year we celebrated an early Christmas with parts of Zac's family in Nebraska and Colorado during our mainland visit but we found ourselves on the island for the actual holiday.
Though the house was decorated as usual, it just didn't feel like Christmas this year. I think it had to do with the flurry of activity that occurred in the two weeks between when we got back from the mainland and the big day. We got back, had to to clean the house for arriving guests, put together a Christmas card, write the accompanying year-end letter, cram in as many work hours as possible so I could have at least a couple of hours of paid work for the month, do the Christmas present shopping, spend time at the post office mailing said presents, and take care of a bunch of other little things that seemed to crop up. By the time Christmas weekend actually arrived I was tired, irritated and downright crabby and Zac's wasn't much different.
A couple of months ago some friends of ours invited us to go to a luau with them on Christmas day, per their tradition. Zac and I held off on making a decision until Dec. 24th. It has been raining here in Hawaii over the last couple of weeks, and not just the occasional, brief showers that pop up usually. I'd say that over the last 14 days, 11 of them have been totally overcast all day with consistent rain including bursts where we're getting 1.5-2 inches of rain per hour. It's wet and soggy out here with the ground so saturated that when the sun does pop out it gets incredibly muggy. I know most people on the mainland are dealing with lots of snow and cold temperatures, so maybe my gripes sound minor but day after day of rain (which traps you in your house) does take a toll.
Anyhow, Zac and I decided to wait until the last minute to get tickets to the luau because we were concerned that the weather might be bad on the 25th. We checked the forecast and as usual, it called for occasional showers. Luaus will take place even in gentle rain, despite the fact that almost the entire event takes place outside - include the seating for eating and the show which is uncovered. It takes a serious kind of weather to get them to cancel a luau. We decided that it was worth the risk (mostly because we were tired of sitting inside the house for the last week) and bought tickets. Our friends that are staying with us decided to come to, so between them, us, the other couple and a couple other people our group numbered eight as we lined up on Christmas Day outside the gate to Paradise Cove, one of the local luau establishments.
When the gates opened at 5pm, it was partly cloudy and muggy, but not bad. Paradise Cove is located on the Leeward side of Oahu and most often if there is one place on the island that isn't getting rained on, it's on that coast. I held out hope that the evening might work out. Our group walked around, drinking mai tais, enjoying the pre-dinner/show events. I dipped my toes in the ocean just so I could say that I was at the beach and in the water on Christmas at least once while I lived here. As the sun set the clouds started to fill in a little more. A few sprinkles started to fall. Pretty soon it was a pretty heavy sprinkle.
Around 7:00 it was time for supper. As they called everyone over to the buffet tents (at least they protected the food from the rain) the heavens opened and it started to POUR. It was the kind of rain where you were instantly soaked. Zac and I made it to the tent grabbed some food and ran over to the gift shop to try and eat in some relative dryness. On the way we heard from people that the luau had been canceled and that people were being escorted back to their buses to take them back to Waikiki. (Most attendees at a luau are tourists that are shuttled in from their hotels. Since we're "local" we drove ourselves.) Zac and I finished up some of our kalua pig and macaroni salad and headed out towards the entrance to meet up with the rest of our group.
We drove home, soaked, but pretty happy despite the sogginess. Once we got home we changed into drier clothes and headed out to a local bar where the guys threw darts and us gals played songs on the jukebox. It wasn't a perfect Christmas, but it was memorable. I am looking forward to the day when Zac and I can begin to develop consistent holiday traditions, but in the meantime I guess I'm content to accumulate these amusing how-I-spent-Christmas stories.
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