Mele Kalikimaka

(Apologies for being gone for so long... much to catch up on, as my mom reminds me.)

Going from Christmas in Germany to Christmas in Hawaii is really something of a culture shock. We lived in a remote village that was accessible after winding up hills thickly covered with pine trees, and by this time they were always covered with snow. It takes very little imagination to understand why fairy tales were written around here. Driving through villages centuries older than our own country and decorated with traditional Christmas ornaments and lights, well... it was really quite magical.

Meanwhile, John and I went shopping for more Christmas decorations to make up for ones we've never had and ones that were stolen by our Movers From Hell. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I'm very used to the "welcome candles" that are lit in the windows and just love the soft glow they cast on everything. It was only when I got a "You Know You're from Pennsylvania When..." email in my twenties that I realized leaving them on year-round is a PA-specific thing. Whoops.

So I was on a mission for these candles. Eleven stores. ELEVEN. Not a candle in sight. But I found eleven places in which I could buy a 9-foot inflatable Santa with a surfboard. Oh, brother. I went along with a green lighted spiral Christmas tree because John got really excited about those last year. I figure that, with a toddler, it's time to do festive as opposed to classy. There's plenty of time to do that when we're old and boring. But I also got a lighted grapevine angel that Emily is now obsessed over in a big, big way. The angel is greeted good morning, good night, bye-bye, hi, and generally fussed over throughout the day. When she lights up at dusk, Emily practically turns inside out.

She did the same with the Freedom Tower down by Pearl Harbor. It's a large tower by the elementary school (I need to post a picture of it) that was avoided by the Japanese during the attack because they thought it was a religious structure. I get a kick out of that. Anyhow, she's recently been crazy about "da-dow" (tower) and can't understand why her Daddy can't make it play music at his command. We're trying to explain to her that it only plays at certain times--reveille, National Anthem, etc.--but since her father hung the moon, she doesn't get it. Well, now it's strung ground to top with multi-colored Christmas lights and it's just blowing her little mind. The nightly walks with Azzie require a trip down to the tower and will probably remain that way through the Christmas season.

It's hard to get used to palm trees bedecked with lights as opposed to pine trees, but I'm doing my best. It's nice not having to pay for utilities while living in base housing, so I'm doing what I can to re-create the magic that I remember from my own childhood. That said, some of the houses around here may, I worry, bring the planes coming into Honolulu International to land in the middle of base housing. HOLY COW... there are some amazing displays around here, and it's hilarious! I need to get some photos.

Speaking of which, I'm trying not to think about what happened to our pictures. When Emily was born, John moved our pictures onto an external hard drive. Long story short, it died and can't be resurrected (without about $2,000). Most of the pictures taken since moving to Germany and having a baby are gone, which is devastating in ways I can't put into words. Then our new Nikon D80 erased the pictures I'd been taking when John took out the storage card; we didn't anticipate that. So I'm basically starting from scratch. Yes, my heart hurts over this, but hopefully I can at least partially make up for it by getting some decent pictures of our lives and family from here on out.

Those of you who have snow, make a snow angel for me, will you? Frohe Weinachten and Mele Kalikimaka.