Seventy years ago the Andrews Sisters had a hit record that raise the question, “How’d You Like to Spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” This year I am living that fantasy. Our extended family, fifteen strong, spent the holidays in a resort hotel on Maui.
The real Christmas Island is somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but Maui certainly qualifies as an appropriate substitute. We gathered there from Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, and China.
I flew from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, where my son John met me. The flight was delayed four hours before taking off because of fog at is destination. A nuisance but still much better than circling for hours like we used to do.
The next day we flew on to Maui, a perfect flight until we landed and discovered one of my bags hadn’t made the plane. It showed up a day later, complete with apologies for the inconvenience.
Our hotel is on Kapalua Bay, on the extreme northwest corner of the island. We have two luxurious four bedroom suites, with covered balconies overlooking the ocean. To the northwest we can see the island Molokai; to the southwest, Lana’i. The grounds are well groomed with a curving path leading down to a picture-perfect beach on a cove between two promontories. Four large irregularly shaped swimming pools interconnected by waterfalls wind through the grounds between the hotel and the beach.
With the exception of the octogenarian in our group, everyone enjoyed the ocean. Our cove was ideal for snorkeling, full of a wide variety of exotic fish and several large sea turtles. Paddle boarding was also a very popular activity on this beach. On two occasions they all went down the coast for surfboarding lessons at a beach where the waves were just right for beginners.
The octogenarian joined them for a charter boat voyage out into the channel between Maui and Lana’i in search of whales. It was not a difficult search; we are at the peak of the mating season for humpback whales and the channel is full of them. We saw dozens of them breach, one close enough that it brushed our boat.
A few days later we realized that we could see whales breaching in the bay directly opposite the balcony at our suite, using binoculars. The big thrill, of course, was seeing their tails come high out of the water as they dove.
One day we took a sight-seeing drive along the north shore of the island. We stopped at a beach where the surf was frighteningly high. Very few of the surfers were able to negotiate it. Ironically it was at this beach where we saw a large number of sea turtles asleep on the sand. We also visited Twin Falls, a tropical forest with bamboo, banyan trees, Bird of Paradise blooms, etc.
A highlight of this drive was a stop at Iao Valley State Park. Maui is a double island, two volcanic peaks connected by an isthmus. Each peak has remnants of a crater with deep valleys radiating in each direction. Iao Valley leads from the isthmus up into the northwest peak and is the only valley which can be accessed. It is spectacular, with steep heavily wooded sides. It also is the site of a bloody battle during Prince Kamehameha’s conquest of Maui.
I greatly enjoyed a pair of lectures given at the hotel. The first dealt with Polynesian navigation; it was given by a woman whose father is a master navigator who regularly makes the 2500 mile journey from Maui to Tahiti in an authentic Polynesian twin hull vessel, navigating without modern instruments. Instead he relies on stars, clouds, ocean currents, and migrating birds.
The second lecture was on Hawaii’s history. The gentleman giving the talk started up rapidly reciting a pat presentation. He quickly realized we were interested in what he had to say and began to talk with us rather than at us. He was quite knowledgeable about his subject, especially when he got into the twentieth century. He was very pleased to show us a series of original Japanese documents relating to the years leading up to Pearl Harbor.
The grand-children were the focus of the holiday, especially five-and-a-half-year-old Lai An. She is always thrilled to spend time with her cousins; combining it with Christmas was almost too much for her. The older children have matured enough to get as much enjoyment from giving gifts as from receiving them.
Christmas Eve we were sitting on the balcony watching a storm out to the west when we suddenly saw a “moonbow”. This was a first-time occurrence for all of us, as it requires an early evening storm in the west and a full moon just after it has risen. When I googled “moonbow”, the website included a photo of one from Maui!
For Lai An’s grandparents and great aunt a traditional American Christmas was a new experience. They neither speak nor read English; John and Victoria and an Internet translator made it possible for them to be involved. Grandpa Pan is an expert on Chinese poetry written in traditional style; I wish I could communicate with him. I gave him a book of Robert Frost poems in English, hoping it would help him understand what I like about poetry.
Opening stockings and exchanging gifts on Christmas morning in this environment was a unique experience. We all sat out on the balcony overlooking the remarkable tropical view and were rewarded by a series of spectacular rainbows in the channel due west of us. “Christmas on Christmas Island” indeed!
The girls did a fine job of producing traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners, a mean feat for such a large family in an unfamiliar environment. The turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, stuffing, etc. didn’t appear to have any complaints about being served in such an exotic environment.
One evening we had a chef and helper cater a fancy five course meal in our suite. It was impressive, culminating with Kobe top sirloin and molten lava cake, but no more impressive an accomplishment than what our girls produced. He returned a few nights later, this time bringing along a guitarist/singer who entertained us with a repertoire ranging from Willie Nelson to Neil Young.
Chef Jacob accompanied him on harmonica on several songs and then impressed all of us by playing the didgeridoo as well. He is a native of Australia who has mastered this unique aboriginal instrument, a long slightly tapering cylinder which produces a bagpipe-like drone. Son-in-law Jim quickly caught on to the concept and produced a few respectable notes.
Our family vacations always include board games; this year it was “Deal or Duel”, an interesting concept focused on the Alexander Hamilton historical era. I easily won the first game and was well on my way to a repeat victory when I was betrayed by Ian (alias Aaron Burr) and eliminated in a duel I was certain I would win.
Sara and the three older grand-daughters took ukulele lessons. Rachael’s musical background made them easy for her. Nora and Claire did well enough that Sara purchased a proper ukulele for them to take home with them.
We watched the end of the football season and the Steelers’ futile effort to make the NFL playoffs, as well as several successful Penguin hockey victories. Even here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean modern technology enabled us to retain contact with the world back home. Incidentally, Sara is officially on furlough, while our President and his Democratic foes behave like juveniles.
Our family has celebrated Christmas in nearly a dozen different locations in the past fifty-five years; the common factor that has made each of them special has been family. We hope this year’s rainbows are harbingers for a wonderful year ahead for all of us.