Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! That is, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hmm, let’s see, “Happy Hanukkah” in Hawaiian probably wouldn’t change too much: Hau’oli Hanuk?? Sure, let’s go with that.
Growing up in Los Angeles and then Honolulu, I delighted in the whole Santa-Claus-on-a-surfboard aesthetic of winter holidays in warm places, though I did regularly wish for snow. It was a red-letter day, every couple of years, when I could see my breath while waiting for my carpool ride to school. Snow was one huge attraction of attending college in Boston (trains and being able to drive across state lines were two others…). It was only when I bought a house with a big sloping driveway and lived in it (the house, not the driveway) for 12 years that I became extremely grumpy about the way snow can mess up your plans.
January 5, 2005: The day they came to pick up our cars for shipping cross-country
Luckily for me, in my new locale snow is rare. Not being the sort who makes recreational use of frozen precipitation in any form, I might not fully appreciate it again for years and years. A local mall has been throwing a little holiday “do” every evening with a snow machine tossing some symbolic flakes. People have been lining the streets. Amazing!
I wish all (three of :-) my readers wonderful holidays, a happy and prosperous new year — and {lots of/a dusting of/no} snow according to their preferences.
