Christmas on Kwaj, 2012 Part 1

 

(Picture Credit Stephanie Finley)

 

Here we go again! As our first semester of college came winding to a happily anticipated end, Colby and I were ready to go home; Kwajalein. It was funny, really, because when Christmas comes along, college kids endlessly talk about what they are doing and where they are going all break! Some of our friends were talking about how they were going home for the holidays, and I remember one of our friends complaining about how they had a four hour flight, and I turned to them and commented about how our flights back to the Marshall Islands had to be over 12 hours. Yes. Jaws dropped. And that was when Colby and I realized, "oh hey, we have 12 hours of flying times and 8 hours of layovers before we get back home..." BUT, it was much worth it! Colby and I could NOT wait to get out of the below 0 cold that was DENVER. As beautiful as the snow is, sitting in the apartment all the time bundled up with hot tea and our cat can only be fun for so long! SO, we set off. Colby left a week before me, and arrived on Kwaj around, I think (I might not be right, because these are recaps) the 1st of December. His school has quarters, so his winter break started during Thanksgiving break, so he was off a full two weeks before me! I got to Kwaj on December fifth. Slowly, all our friends from our graduating class trickled in on flights, and even though there were a few missing, we had our class of about 18 kids all back together again! It was a much needed reunion, with our friends, as well as our little island. (Photo credit to Eva Seelye)

The BEST thing about being on Kwaj for the holidays has to be how funny Christmas decorations look on palm trees (the whole lot of coconut ornaments and sand "snow" men also adds to the laughs). But this is home Christmas, and being able to ride around on my bike to look at Christmas lights in 85 degree weather is something I would NEVER trade! There is an annual Christmas tree lighting festival that goes on during thanksgiving, and the whole half a block that is down town is lighted up with Christmas lights and giant ornaments, forcing everyone to feel festive because they pass through the area on a daily basis!

When living on Kwaj, there is really no place to go get Christmas decorations, like lights, ornaments, or even trees (besides the five boxes of lights they would SOMETIMES have at the AAFEES store), so people have to either come prepared in their pack-outs (HINT, BRING A TREE AND SOME LIGHTS IF YOU ARE MOVING OUT TO KWAJ), or start online shopping for festive décor before October (it takes a while for things to come in on a barge, like a tree). BUT, Kwajalein does provide Christmas tree sales, allowing people to order living Christmas trees to be sent to their doorsteps in time for the holidays! Ours arrived, being brought in by my sisters friends, and it made the entire house smell absolutely WONDERFUL. Something about the smell of salt water kissed air and pine needles will always get to me, there seriously needs to be a candle with those two combinations! Colby and our good friend Josh, along with my dad, hauled the giant tree into our house and somehow got it into the tree holder. THEN IT WAS TIME TO DECORATE! Now, my favorite holiday is Halloween, but Christmas on Kwaj is something I also go all out on, because the outside scenery with no snow and palm trees swaying in the wind can sometimes be a bit confusing. The tree looked fabulous, and we were all satisfied.

 

Now, not only is Kwaj a different place to be during the holidays because the scenery doesn't match, the breaks sometimes get weird too. School is out from early December until early January, and many families go off island during that time, so many people have work off too. But when you live on a two mile long island not everyone can leave, because there still needs to be people to RUN the island and make sure it doesn't sink ! (at least, that's what I think they do). So while some people are off island, the rest of the population sometimes works, but mostly gets festive. There are tons of holiday parties to make an appearance at, almost one every night! My dad's work had a holiday party for the rest of the people that were still on island, and it was a lot of fun. Not many work holiday parties consist of coconut throwing contests and riding around a tropical island on a scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun, as were many of the other parties. That said, it is always safe to say that Kwajalein becomes even more community oriented during the holidays, because the people left on island have to hang out with each other otherwise they go MAD!

 

 So amongst the chaos that was decorating, baking, and party attending, Colby, my family, and myself had a lot of much needed down time. After being in the United States for a whole five months, getting back on track with island time was extremely relaxing. There honestly is nothing like going home for the holidays, especially if your home has a population of palm trees that out numbers the population of people! Here are some pictures of parts of our Christmas break on Kwaj, there will probably be more posts on some other things that happened. ENJOY! *not edited by Colby, sorry for the grammatical/spelling errors!*