Easter 2009

What? You guys had Easter months ago? Overachievers.

a very merry Christmas

In spite of staying up until ten or eleven the night before, Everett and Simon were up at six on Christmas morning. There is nothing quite like the thrill of seeing whether Santa actually made it to our house to get our kids out of bed.

They were both so excited to give the presents they had picked out for the rest of us and to open their presents.

After the gifting, we spent the whole day lounging around the house, playing with presents, doing puzzles, and most importantly, playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I don't really love video games, but Mario Kart is fun!

We hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did - Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

Aaron had a Christmas Eve party again this year with lots of mulled wine, a traditional turkey dinner, and a hilarious gift exchange. It's been one of the highlights of Christmas on the island for us.

The gift exchange never disappoints. The Samoan flag and ukulele were in high demand, meaning they were stolen and re-stolen and re-stolen all night long - no lame "3 steals" rule here! Steal until you get it! Our kids managed to scoop up most of the toys - a light/sound sword, frisbee, star theater, and play-dough. They were pretty happy with it all.

Ned ended up with both floppy hats that made it under the tree. I'm sure that must mean something.
We had a great time - thanks Aaron!

Manuia le Kerisimasi!

When it's ninety degrees outside and all you can think about is how awesome the trade winds are and why, oh WHY, don't they blow all year long, it can be a bit hard to get into the typical Christmas spirit. In order to get there, you need lots of Christmas lights. And I mean LOTS of Christmas lights. I know I blogged about this a couple times last year so it's a bit of a repeat, but you really can't have too much of a good thing, can you? Especially when that good thing is Christmas lights!

This church in Leone is covered in Disney-themed characters, and just about every other holiday decoration you can imagine. I love how the nativity scene is surrounded by Mickey Mouse Santas.

There is a family here that does amazing Christmas decorations. Last year, they had the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge in lights. This year, they had a light show where different lights lit up to the beat of the music. It was really incredible. Simon was asleep by the time we got there, but Everett was mesmerized.

school Christmas program pictures

The kids Christmas program at school was interesting this year. Simon's class sang lots of songs about Hanukkah, which seems strange to me since in spite of all the religion on this island, I haven't met any Jewish people. At least he's getting exposed to it now though.

And Everett was learning about the Great Depression this quarter so they dressed up like hobos and sang some folksy songs including "Big Rock Candy Mountain." He was very impressed when I told him I had actually been there!

ARRRRRG!

On Halloween we hosted a pirate party. Simon, Clif, and I were pirates.

Everett insisted on being the Avatar instead of a pirate. Silly kid thinks he can make his own decisions - pffft. Being the Avatar and getting the arrow right required a fairly drastic move: a hair cut. He was willing to go completely bald to get it right, but I found some of that spray-in hair dye at the last minute.

I went a little overboard with the pirate party preparations. I wrote a pirate invitation poem and sent it out on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I spent months collecting pirate accessories, and sometimes those accessories just had to be upgraded when I found better things later on. I spent all kinds of time sewing knickers and waistcoats and old fashioned shirts with lace cuffs. The excellent thing is that this island is absolutely full of crazy fabric. Where else can you find black velvet with gold and silver glitter flowers?

So many pirates showed up to the party!

And to top it all off, Alden brought a Tongan fruit bat. I think it was just a diversion so we wouldn't make him walk the plank for not wearing a costume, but it totally worked. The bat was just a few months old so it couldn't fly yet and spent all evening hanging out on everyone. It was definitely the perfect addition to a Halloween party.

Not enough piratey pictures for you? Find more here and here and here and here.

Samoan Flag Day Fautasi Race

Flag day is the holiday in American Samoa. It marks the day in 1900 that the chiefs of Tutuila signed the Deed of Cessation, making it an official American territory, and the subsequent flying of the American flag (hence the Flag Day thing). I'm a little fascinated by it because the guy who was responsible for all this, Commander (at the time, Captain) Benjamin Franklin Tilley, became the acting governor and forwarded laws within the same month that protect the Samoan traditional way of life, mainly by protecting the communal land and matai systems. I'm so impressed that he had the foresight and desire to prevent the complete Westernization of the islands, and that these laws have worked so well to prevent displacement of Samoans from their native land. People can, and some do, live off the land here. It's a crazy concept for a palagi coming from US suburbia.

Anyway, April 17th is also the one Samoan holiday we've learned a lot about because, while watching our one channel on tv, occasionally the few US shows that are on will be interrupted and they will start broadcasting last year's Flag Day celebrations. Last week we were given both Thursday and Friday off, it seems almost a necessity because everyone -literally, everyone- is involved in the Flag day celebrations. There are two full days of speeches, singing, and dancing at the stadium, along with evening performances all week in the Fagotogo malae. Every village or group seems to make an appearance at least once.

I was most excited about seeing the fautasi race.


Fautasi are longboat canoes that used to be the main mode of transportation between islands. They hold up to fifty people and can be over 90 feet long. I wish I knew more details on them because it's pretty amazing to see them glide through the waves. The fautasi race begins out in the ocean and the rowers race the five miles toward shore.

We got out early to make sure we didn't miss it. We've gotten a little too acclimatized and were cold that morning, even though it rarely gets lower than the high 70's here. It might have been 75 degrees...

I had expected a huge group of fautasi boats to come up to the finish line, with a close exciting finish. Well, I should have known not to have expectations! There were only 8 boats in the race and they were so spread out that it seemed like there wasn't much competition. It was still pretty amazing to see them come rowing into the harbor. I love watching them all paddle in unison.

As an interesting side note, I later learned that the top 8 finishers won cash prizes. The top eight, huh? Convenient!

Happy Easter!

We spent Easter enjoying a delicious Easter umu, massive Easter egg dyeing party, and Easter egg hunt. We had a great time!

And, of course, Easter wouldn't be complete without loads and loads of sugar.

New Years

We had a few people over on New Year's Eve. The kids were so excited to stay up until midnight, and they really enjoyed all the glow stuff that came in a Christmas package. Those things provided hours of entertainment -thanks, mom & dad!

In the morning, Everett actually slept in.

We spent the first day of the new year at the beach in Vatia. We went diving, snorkeling, and kayaking - it was a great way to start the new year.

Christmas morning

We awoke at 1am to happy exclamations, "He came! Santa came!" In laying down the essential Christmas morning rules, we omitted one important detail. We told Everett and Simon that they could get into their stockings when they woke up, and they couldn't open presents until we woke up at 7. But we forgot to tell them a minimum sleep time before they could get into the stockings. Lesson learned. So we told them they had to go back to sleep until 4, but they actually slept until 6. They slept in the hall on the hard tile floor because they were so anxious to get back into the front room and get to those stockings!