Christmas in Guam

Visitors,  traditions, time with friends, Abe back home and Christmas...what a wonderful week.  Last Sunday we met for a devotional down in Merizo.  We have come to love these gatherings and this one was my favorite.  The children reenacted the Nativity and then we took turns sharing and singing our favorite Christmas carols.  As we sat there in the warm breeze of the night with the palm trees swaying and heard a few dogs and a distant rooster a friend pointed out this was probably a similar setting to when Christ was born.  (I hope for Mary's sake it was).  We have missed the usual weather of Christmas, I think because it is what we are accustomed to, but enjoying Christmas in shorts and no worry over slick roads has its perks we have realized.   

Nativity cast

For a few weeks we have enjoyed the occasional company of a childhood friend of Abe's.  Abe and Johnathon knew each other when they were 10 years old living in Puyallup, WA.  They bumped into each other while attending BYU and then last month, a serendipitous meeting found them both of the tiny island of Tinian.  Abe was there for work and Johnathon, a Marine, was conducting an exercise there.  Johnathon is a fabulous cook and  he shard his talents with us while we became acquainted and caught up on the last 30 years.  We were thrilled to find out Johnathon was able to fly his family, who is stationed in Japan, to Guam for a week and we loved getting to know them while we showed them around our island.  We went swimming, snorkeling, the girls went caroling with our mutual group, we took them to Chamorro village, and visited the Inarajan Pools.  It was so fun play hostess and get to know their family. 

Carabao at Chamorro Village

View from up above the pools

What a spot to watch the waves.  I might come back with a book. 

Inarajan Pools

Jumping off the diving board

Suzy and Penelope taking the plunge

View to the south

Since we moved here with only our suitcases and shipped out a few boxes, Christmas decorations did not make the cut.  Actually, we did bring our stockings, but that was it.  Knowing our traditions of cutting a fresh tree from the lot right by our house was not an option and the trees they ship over are expensive and half dead when they get here, we had to settle for a fake tree.  Now  for ornaments, after scouring pintrest for ideas and hitting the only thing one could consider a craft store on island and not finding much, we were happy with our creations.  The girls and I had fun making ornaments to adorn the branches of our tree.  A generous friend who was spending the holidays in Australia let us borrow her decorations.  With her beautiful nativity and a few other things, it actually felt like Christmas here.  We carried out a few of our traditions like Christmas stories in the evenings and even though the thermometer registers in the 80s, we drank our fill of hot chocolate.  One event we enjoy during the holidays is making and decorating gingerbread houses and men.  We invited a family we met here from Pohnpei, and their 11 children, who had never heard of gingerbread to share our tradition this year.  We had a great time with them.  Abe and I loved watching the parents work together to construct their house.  One of the teenage girls told us they had never been invited over to dinner at someone else's home.  

Some of our ornaments

Suzy always a help with the kiddos

Albert family working on their house

"Teen table"

On Christmas Eve Abe, Isaac and I joined a group from our ward for a sunrise hike.  We hiked Mt. Lam Lam, the highest point on Guam, which isn't saying much.  I read somewhere it is actually the tallest mountain in the world because it starts 7 miles underwater in the Marianas trench.  Problem is 95% percent of it is underwater.  I am not trying to say this equates with scaling Everest in any way, but it did give us some pretty views. 

View inland

View of the ocean

On top of Guam

Christmas was superb.  As usual, in preparation for the big day, there was a fair amount of shopping (thank you Amazon) and baking.  We were busy making home made gifts, Addie was the champion this year coming up with fun creative ideas for everyone.  On Christmas Eve we had friends over for a fondue dinner and then after reading the Polar Express, we tucked the younger kids in bed.  Abe and I, aided by Isaac and Savannah finished the wrapping, homemade gifts and making the breakfast casserole to be all ready to eat in the morning.  We were all excited to see Santa makes deliveries in Guam and had fun opening gifts with the Sandels, a newly-wed couple we have become good friends with.  The missionaries joined us for breakfast and shared a wonderful message with us.  We skyped with my family living in several states as we gave my parents their gift.  We decided to go snorkeling, when else are we going to be able to snorkel on Christmas?  Then we enjoyed a fun evening of games, movies and hot chocolate. 

Look at Abe's smile, he is delighted to get hugs from Suz

Addie's homemade bookmarks for Sierra

Addie and the pillow she made for Isaac

Isaac's light sabers he made for Bugs

David made necklaces for Suzy

Sierra made a camo backpack for Bugs

Christmas Day snorkel

 What a wonderful day.  Once again, I am reminded of blessed I am.  I love my life.

A few things...

It has been difficult to post, Abe is in Hawaii for a week and has the laptop with all pictures, but I have some things to report.

First of all, Suzy and I got Scuba certified.  That is a HUGE accomplishment for me.  I have issues with water and had terrible time taking my mask off underwater, but I was finally able to do it and I am so excited to explore the underwater world.  Note to Santa- underwater camera please.  On our first dive we caught a puffer fish and saw two sea turtles.  Hoping many more underwater adventures are to follow.

Also, Abe found a snake in our toilet and it was not a small snake!  I don't know if any of you know about Abe and snakes, but let's just say he was ready to book flights home the same day.   Luckily, the snake disappeared after Abe slammed the lid down while we were all panicking trying to figure out what to do  and he has yet to reappear.  We had the plumbers out the very next day and none of us have lingered in the bathroom since, I can assure you.  

We are enjoying the Christmas season, although it doesn't seem very seasonal since it is a beautiful 85 degrees everyday.  Tonight we attended a Christmas Devotional where the kids dressed up and acted out the nativity scene and we sang carols.  We also watched a short movie about the birth of our Savior.  It helped me remember where the focus of our Christmas should be.  I love this season and opportunity to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. 

The Things We Do

As Thanksgiving was drawing near, I was a little worried.  It was our first big holiday away from home and our family.  The ward had coordinated a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at the church, not our usual routine for a Thanksgiving, but we decided to attend.  Not having enough food was a concern of all of us.  We planned our menu contributions and teamed up to prepare the food.  As I looked around the kitchen, I was delighted.  Everyone was in there helping.  Abe took on the turkey and kept washing the mounds of dirty dishes, Isaac tackled the green salad, Suzy was a huge help with everything, especially pies and rolls, Sierra, Addie and David all teamed up to peel about 20 pounds of potatoes.  We loaded up all the food, took it over to the church and had a wonderful time with the members gathered there.  The day turned out great, I enjoyed so much about it.  Delicious food, time with family, the associations with good people all topped the list.  As I thought about the day, I realized I truly have so much to be thankful for. 

Great helpers

Isaac has been able to play on the Guam High School soccer team this year.  He was the only freshman to make the team.  Although he had an injured foot for a while and they have not had a stellar season, it has been great for him to play.  It has given him a chance to improve as a player and have something to look forward to every day.  We have enjoyed going to watch the games as a family.  As I was looking at the photos of his games, some of my favorites are of what happens on the sidelines.

Very Guam soccer- opponents, background, weather

Notice the cute ball girl, Suzy and Sierra were troopers chasing balls at the home games.

All eyes on number 9

 

 

 

 

Great kid on and off the field

Isaac with his game face on

Beautiful ending to a great game

Side line show

Are they watching the game?

One very cute, but slightly silly girl

Oh the things they do...

Someone has been taking notes

Did I mention goofy?

Big sister explaining the finer points of soccer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a spot on the island known as Spanish Steps.  A short hike leads to a fabulous snorkeling spot  with crystal clear water surrounded by high cliffs sprouting flowers.  It is normally closed because it is near some ammunition storage, so when it opened for the weekend we took advantage of the opportunity to check it out.  Needless to say, we were not disappointed.  

Crab party we saw on the hike

Perfect Date

Hard to capture it all...amazing!

 

 

Beach at Spanish Steps, we had the place to ourselves.

Parting shot- "Pool" at Gab-Gab. We like to swim here.  Not a bad place to take a dip.

Best of Guam

We hit the two month mark, hard to believe.  On the way to church we were discussing our favorite things about Guam.  Answers were plentiful for some, harder to come by for others.  I, for one, am so glad we came.  Getting settled took a bit, but as we were reflecting on what we have enjoyed about Guam, it made me realize all we have packed into two months.  The most common and obvious responses for those living on a tropical island, the beaches and snorkeling.  We have been fortunate to make it to the beach about once a week since we arrived and most often we go snorkeling.  David said he loves "all the fishes in the huge lake." 

Curly loving her beach time

The fabulous weather ranks high on my list.  I have yet to tire of shorts and flip-flop weather every day.  I was discussing this with a friend as he was saying he was missing fall.  "Really, when you have this?"  He said well this weather is like having prime rib every day, even if it is your favorite, you could go for fried chicken once in a while.  I see his point, but I am still loving the prime rib for now. 

Being a lover of flowers, there is much to appreciate here.  The plumeria and hibiscus are plentiful.  There are also lots of other colorful varieties I have yet to learn the names of.  On a run this week, I ran under some pretty flowering trees (not sure what they were) but the smell was absolutely heavenly. 

The people we have met also top the list.  We have gotten to know a few military families, mostly in our ward and have really enjoyed our associations with them.  We live in the southern part of the island.  This area seems to have a lot of islanders living here.  Most of them are not from Guam.  They come from other near-by islands.  We have met several families from Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap.  It has been fun to learn more about their culture and way of life.  They are so warm and friendly.  It is humbling to see they are happy, yet have so little of what the world often thinks contributes to happiness. 

Sunsets also rank pretty high

 Abe pointed out he loves the stars and ocean views.  The colors of the ocean are amazing.  It ranges from bright turquoise to a deep navy.  Sadly, pictures do little to capture the vibrant hues of the water.  The best part is it changes from day to day.  I never know quite what the water will look like from one day to the next.  

Best attempt to capture the color of the water

We have also loved what it has done for our family.  We have had to work together to figure things out.  Being able to see and experience new things together has been so great.  One of the fortunate consequences of not knowing a lot of people is that we have spent more time together and done a lot of activities as a family. Without the kids all going in opposite directions, we spend more time with each other.  We are looking forward to the next few months to see what Guam has in store for us.

Veteran's Day

What a way to spend Veteran's Day!  We did a short hike to a beach with some friends.  It was spectacular!!  The views, the ocean, sun, snorkeling... 

Hike through the jungle

Quite a beach!

View from the water

Fresh coconuts!

Addie and the white crab

Most of the kids

Mermaids

All this in November, I think this is something I can get used to!