Manuia le Kerisimasi!

Christmas in American Samoa is a bit different. The governor has a multi-day Christmas song thing that all the government agencies sing in. It was broadcast on TV at the time and now they are doing re-runs, just in case you missed it! The AG's office had these festive shirts and red lava lavas made so they all matched.

It was a little weird to spend the 23rd at the beach, but we always have fun! We went to Utulei and then Clif and I got to dive at Faga'alu. While we were at Utulei one of the kids with us found a pipe in the water. She picked it up and dumped the sand and water out, and out came a baby octopus! It was so neat! Of course, it was the one day I had left my camera at home. I only wish I had been able to get pictures of it!

Then Clif and I went diving and saw three trumpet fish - an adult, a juvenile, and a baby. It was so neat to see all the different stages. The baby one looked a bit like a pipefish at first glance. We also saw a jellyfish. We spent about five minutes just watching it float in the water. It was really neat to watch it from underneath and see the sun shine through it. We've heard that they are really rare here, and I had just told Steven on the phone that morning that there really aren't any.

It's not just the weather that makes Christmas different here. It's also the decorations. We went to Leone to check out the outrageous church decorations. Pictures of this church are showing up everywhere because it's the most overly-decorated church on the island, at least when it's not lit up. Although they only decorated the front. There is nothing on the sides and back (I think we should complain!). The churches are pretty fun to see, and we still need to go see the pyramid and Eiffel Tower in lights. That should be amusing.