Aaron's X-mas Eve Extravaganza

On Christmas Eve, Aaron and Naomi hosted a great holiday party complete with good food, holiday decorations and even a gift exchange. Despite 90 degree temperatures, for this one night, it actually felt like the holidays. They even had a Christmas tree! Everyone brought a dish for the potluck and we ended up with an awesome spread. I made broccoli souffle, which is my favorite thing about Christmas dinner. I had to make a few adjustments based on island ingredient availability, but it turned out great. Aaron even fried a turkey, which was awesome. After dinner, the gift exchange got underway. Each person brought 2 gifts--1 in the $20-25 range, and another in the $2-5 range. We drew numbers, started picking gifts and then the stealing began. There were a few hot items including an American Samoa flag and a eukelele from Western Samoa. I walked away with the eukelele and a cooler. A pretty fantastic haul. Others were not so lucky. Ned ended up with 2 floppy fisherman type hats. Aaron got a collage photo frame that he was not happy with. And Naomi got stuck with a callous shaver. Dr. Dave & Maria scored a hamper set after some serious stealing back and forth with Nunu. There were also a couple of bottles of booze that kept getting stolen by Ben and Erick. All in all it was a fun evening and everyone walked away with a little something. Below are Aaron and Naomi explaining the rules and having people draw numbers to begin the exchange.

Here's Siri waiting for the present show to get on the road:
Voj chillaxin:
Julia & Liz:
Everyone waiting for the games to begin:
Melissa & Siri opening the eukelele (which I went home with...bwahahahaha):
Nunu opening the cooler (which I also went home with).
Voj unwrapping the hamper set. You can see Maria eyeing it off to the side..."Those will be mine...oh yes, they will be mine."
Ben in his reindeer gear:
Alden digging in:
See how happy Aaron is with his frame:
Ned and his floppy hats. Sweet.
Nate got LTM an extra special gift...it's Sport Action Lisa, complete with black eyes, a broken leg and Doug's drilling field.

Church Decorations

Some of the villages go all out with the decorations around the holidays. The Catholic Church in Leone has one of the best displays. There are all kinds of decorations plastered on every square inch of this place. Everything from your traditional baby Jesus in the manger scene, to Santa's of every size, shape and configuration, to penguins (and lots of them) and palm trees, candy canes, ferris wheels and merry-go-rounds, geese aglow in lights, Disney characters of every kind, reindeer parachuting with umbrellas, Christmas presents all tied up in bows and just about every other sort of decoration you can imagine. It was definitely worth the visit. Below you can see Ned, me and Nunu (Sean) in front of the church at night. Awesome...

Reindeer parachuting with an umbrella:
The church all aglow:

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus along with Santa's, palm trees, Mickey Mouse & Whinney the Pooh:

Pese

Every year at Christmas time, all government employees in American Samoa are called upon to gather with their various offices, agencies, and organizations to perform Christmas carols and variations thereof for the governor. Some in English, but most in Samoan, these carols take on all forms. You've got your standard Oh Holy Night, Jingle Bells, and the like. And then you've got other tunes such as Osana Ma Pepese sung to the tune of Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin. Yes, that's what I said...Ricky Martin. The performances are broadcast live on TV to the whole island and this is such a big deal that for weeks leading up to the three-night extravaganza, every agency has daily practices that last most of the afternoon. For most of the offices, these practices are mandatory. Yes, mandatory practice for government employees to sing religious Christmas carols during the work day. Don't even get me started on the separation of church and state. The practices in our office, however, were voluntary. I think that may have had something to do with the fact that we are a bunch of lawyers and actually know a little something about the Constitution. Below is Afa, the AG, watching as we perform. In between each song, the Directors of the various departments would give speeches, thanks, etc. and that is usually what takes a 2 hour show and turns it into a 5 hour marathon. Luckily, the AG kept is short and sweet. Thank you Afa!

Below are the palagi lawyers after we finished singing--Sean, Clif, LTM, Aaron & me. Lisa was so "animated" that the camera was apparently on her for half the show and the next day I swear she must have been recognized by at least 100 people, many of whom asked if she was drunk, which she actually wasn't--she just really got into the performance. I've got the whole show on DVD, so if you want a good chuckle maybe I'll show it to you.

Cookie Day

Back home, every year around Christmas the women in my family get together for what has been termed Cookie Day. We start early in the morning and for one solid sugar filled day we bake hundreds and hundreds of cookies. We've been doing this for nearly a decade now, and since this is my first Christmas away from home, I was going to miss it. That is, until the women here on Tutuila decided to get together for our own version of this holiday tradition. Sara was kind enough to volunteer her air-conditioned house, all decked out in Christmas lights and along with some yummy drinks, holiday music, good friends, and lots of dough, for one night it actually felt like the holidays. Sara sent us all home with a fun holiday themed oven mit as well as a tray or two of yummy cookies, grandma's balls, and chocolate salami.

Above you'll find me making some hand-cut candy canes as well as some anatomically correct cookies. I am sooooo becoming my mother. Below, Amity and Barbara man the frosting station.

Here is Kim with her lovely blue frosting:

And Naomi searching for just the right cookie decorative toppings. Notice the palm trees outside the window--Christmas in the tropics.

Thanks to Julia, Sara & Liz (I think) as most of these shots were stolen from their various blogs and facebook profiles. Thanks girls!

Office Decorations

Everyone on the island gets into the spirit of the season and goes all out for Christmas. The Attorney General's Office is no exception. Here are a few shots of our office lobby all decked out. Above is our office sign complete with flashing lights and giant candy canes. Below is our reception area:
And what office decorations would be complete without a Christmas tree...
Look a little closer, and yes, those are full boxes of ornaments hung on the tree.

Only in Samoa...