Christmas...

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful humans!  And another Merry Christmas to your wonderful pets as well!  It's the day after Christmas here on Guam and I'm stuck at work, trying to recuperate from the past two days.

For the past few years we've had a tradition of celebrating Christmas by having a Christmas Eve Parade in Merizo.  It was something that Joey's parents came up with as a fun way to celebrate the season with everyone in the village.  Each year we get together and decorate our cars and trailers with lights, Christmas trees, ornaments, garland, and inflatables.  As everyone got older, it has sort of become a competition to see who can decorate the best float.

Once the floats are decorated, we load buckets full of candy and parade around the village, throwing candy and yelling "Merry Christmas" to everyone.  The kids in the village have really gotten used to our parade, because they're always ready with plastic bags in hand to catch all the sweets.

After the parade is over, we all follow each other back to Joey's parents' house where the kids not-so-patiently wait until it is time to open gifts.  The tradition is that they get to open all their gifts at midnight, when it is officially Christmas, but each year we've been letting them open their gifts earlier and earlier.  I think we all just get tired of waiting and hearing the little ones constantly ask: "Is it time yet?"

Christmas this year was a very blessed one for the kids.  They got so much more than they asked for and even double of some of their gifts.  Aniyah even said, "This is the best Christmas EVER!!!"  Which was a defining moment because as a pre-teen, she's pretty much too cool for anything.  And what's funny is that we didn't get her any high-tech, super-expensive, might-as-well-buy-a-brand-new-car type of gift.  (Nope, no iPads, laptops, or tablets here...)

Joey and I usually don't get each other gifts on Christmas - we wait until AFTER Christmas, when we know we won't have to worry about everyone else.  That's sort of our own little tradition.  We're just happy that our kids are happy.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas this year!  I'm looking forward to reading up on how everyone else celebrated the holiday!

P.S. Because every Christmas post should have a funny little story, here's mine:  My 4-year-old son, Trace, had been asking/praying/wishing his heart out for the new Skylanders Swap Force game since it came out in October.  He even went so far as to buy one of the characters for the game before he got it just because he was REALLY sure he would get it for Christmas.  It was just about the only thing he asked for on his list.  

Anyway, when the time came to open his gifts from us, I told him that I bought him a box of underwear because he always likes to go without underwear.  Needless to say, he was VERY disappointed.  So disappointed that he didn't even unwrap the gift.  The unopened box of "underwear" was sitting at the top of his pile of opened gifts, so I handed it to him again and said, "Trace, why didn't you open this gift?" to which he replied (with a scrunched up face), "You said it was underwear.  I don't want to open underwear."  So, after we got a few giggles in about it, Aniyah said, "Trace, maybe Mommy's just kidding.  Just open it and check."  And sure enough, as soon as he saw it was his coveted Skylanders Swap Force game, he looked over at me, smirked and said, "Mommmm!  You just tricked me!"  We thought it was hilarious...until he stayed up until 4am playing that game. -_-

Got Crabs?

A few weeks ago, Joey and I took the kids to the Crab Festival held at the Merizo Pier.  The festival was a three day event (the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th) that  took place in March to promote the local Chamorro culture and celebrate Chamorro month.

We went on the last day of the festival, when all the special events were happening.  It was an extremely hot day and the whole area was packed full of people!  I was really surprised at the turnout of people since we go to several local events like this and have not seen that many people show up to an event in a long time.

My favorite thing about these local fairs, festivals, and events is the local vendors!  I am always amazed by the craftsmanship of their items.  I wasn't able to pick anything up because we were just so hot and the kids wanted to keep moving but I'm definitely gonna grab a few local items at the next event (maybe even a giveaway?) for sure!

There were lots of games and activities for the kids as well as those booths with the little toys and trinkets that make you go broke.  Trace ended up getting that silly string spray and accidentally sprayed some lady's hair.  I was about to tell her what happened but she ended up walking away before I got a chance to.  Plus I was kinda busy laughing because it was pretty funny.

There were also different contests for the adults to participate in like the tuba drinking contest, talaya (fishing net) throwing contest, as well as other traditional Chamorro contests.

 The main event of the festival was the crab catching contest.  There were over 1,000 crabs that were caught for this event.  Basically, they let the crabs go and everyone can go and catch as many as they can with a cash prize going to the person who catches the most crabs in their age division.

We didn't stay for the contest because it was too hot, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of it.  But can you imagine all those crabs running loose??  Craaaaazyyyyy!

My kids' favorite part was probably the local animals that were there.  They love being able to see different animals up close so it was like a little mini zoo for them.

 And of course, MY favorite part of every local event:  the food.

♥ Duckie.

In the Spirit of St. Patrick's Day... *an alcohol-related post*

I got drunk.

Okay, not really.  But I did drink all weekend.  And that's festive, right?

We spent the weekend on a little vacay from our normal routine because Joey surprised us with a weekend stay at the Marriott hotel.  It was a nice change of pace and allowed me to relax and unwind a little.

My grandmother's birthday was on Friday so we all got together and celebrated it on Saturday at Ladera Towers, where she lives.

 

Celebrating with the family.

Just some of the women in our family.  Trust me, there's LOTS more.  And can you spot the cups?

I had to squat on the ground since his leg is still fragile.  For some reason, he looks ultra skinny and I look like I have a huge head in this picture.  Annnnnd another cup.

There was tons of food on the table and lots of drinks to go around.  I had a couple glasses paper cups of Pink Moscato and Red Velvet Wine, both of which were delicious!  Our kids are great swimmers so they were in the pool all day, only breaking to eat and sing "Happy Birthday".

Saturday night we went back to the hotel and ordered in from Outback Steakhouse.  It had been a long time since we'd eaten there so I was finally able to get my Bloomin' Onion fix.  We stuffed our faces full and then called it a night.

On Sunday, we checked out early and drove down to Joey's mom's house and spent the day in Merizo.  The kids were still itching to swim so Joey's dad took them to the Merizo Pier and we followed.

 Joey and I watched the kids swim and hung out with his cousins under the shade.  We ate a little and drank a little.  I had a couple beers - and I usually don't drink beer because it usually gives me gas - but it was St. Patrick's Day so... #YOLO!

Joey had a baseball game Sunday night so we spent the evening at the field.  Since I had had my fill of beer earlier in the day and that's the only alcoholic beverage they serve at baseball games, I decided to sneak in some of my own drink.  I felt like I was back in high school pouring mixed drinks into an empty plastic bottle to sneak into a game...

Don't judge me!  I never said I was a good role model.  Don't follow my lead, kids.  Bad things may happen.

The girls and I left the game early because it was a school night (see, still got my priorities in order!) so we didn't get to see the end of the game.  Thankfully, they ended up winning - their first win so far - and the whole team was stoked so they ended up celebrating in the parking lot last night.  So while the kids were sleeping, I celebrated with more margaritas!

I'm not fully hungover today (thank goodness) but I'm still really tired and lazy so I'm ending this post right now.

♥ Duckie.

It's the Climb.

This past weekend was crazy fun.

We spent Saturday at Tarza Waterpark with the kids and had such a blast - but that's pretty much common knowledge  (kids + water + slides = fun).

Unfortunately, we had no camera on hand to take pictures that day because I forgot to charge it (blogger fail) but I promise to take pictures next time!

Sundays are usually our cleaning/laundry days but I had been begging Joey to go hiking for some time now so of course I jumped at the chance to skip on cleaning when he offered to take us.

The girls had spent Saturday night at Joey's parent's house so Joey had the awesome idea to hike up the mountain behind their house - and, being the responsible adult that I am, I brought our laundry down with us to wash at their house while we hiked.  Hahaha.

Joey's nieces were also spending the day with his parents so we invited them to come along for the adventure.  Joey's mom suggested that we borrow his dad's old work pants so we wouldn't get scrapes and cuts all over our legs and we all scrambled around looking for pants, belts, socks and shoes.

By the time we were done, we looked like prisoners - all wearing the same navy blue pants with old t-shirts and tank tops, no makeup, and hair pulled back or in baseball caps.

Is it just me or does this look like a scene from Prison Break?

First, we had to trek through the jungle behind Joey's parents' house in order to get to the base of the hill.  Once we got to the base, we had to climb up the steep hillside so it was pretty hard.  At one point, we were on our hands and knees grasping onto vines to pull ourselves up.

The view from the top.  Joey's parents' house is behind those set of trees near the white gravel mound in the upper right corner.  This was just the first hill of the mountain and we were pretty exhausted already.

So of course, we stopped for a photo break.

We pump iron in the prison yard.

Thug life.

Trust me, it's impossible to look cute on a mountain with wind whipping dirt in your face.

After our brief photo session, we continued onward and upward to the next hill.  Thankfully, this one was much easier but we literally had to hold on to our hats because the wind kept blowing them off.

Merizo, Guam.

Once we got to the top of that hill, there was another steep drop down and then another hill after that.  We waited for Joey to scout out the next few hills first to see if it was worth climbing - and yes it was.  It SO was.

This is what was waiting for us on the other side of that hill.  You may be thinking, "Okay, a big dirt hill.  So what?"  And to that I say, "Pish posh!"  Let me show you what a big dirt hill translates to in my mind:

It's hard to tell in the video, but there are huge bumps on this hill which is the reason why we're almost in tears.  But, bruised bottoms aside, it was soooo fun and soooo worth it.

I would say that going down the mountain was easier, but it wasn't.  We slid down on the grass at the steepest part of the mountain (the base) and ended up almost tumbling into a ditch full of thorns.

All in all it was a pretty fun hike.  We got dirty, had fun, and spent quality time with the family.

Peace out homies.

♥ Duckie.