MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well it's official, WINTER HAS ARRIVED...........

Of course, you wouldn't know it here in Guam

(the snow picture was for you Heather -- mom told me you weren't interested in any more blogs if they didn't include snow, hee hee. Thanks Yogi for sending me this picture from Alaska)

It's almost impossible to explain how strange it is to "prepare" for a Christmas holiday when your weather shows no signs that the season has changed. However, we have struggled through it to prepare for an old tradition here on Andersen that was very new to us...........

The Annual Rota Walk..............

"Rota Walk is a free festive holiday event that takes place annually here with many lights and luminaries. This year's walk is scheduled for Dec. 20 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Everyone with access to the base is welcome to come out and enjoy a spectacular event with their family and friends. Rota Walk is a time-honored tradition and is quite an amazing event for all to see. Houses will be decorated by the residents of Rota Drive as well as private organizations such as the Air Force Sergeants Association, Army Air Force Exchange Service and the Company Grade Officer and Top 3 councils. There will be performances by the Pacific Air Forces' Alaska Brass, Guam High School Jazz Band, Andersen Middle School students, Andersen's chapel and others. There will also be a live nativity scene (Las Pasada Walk) sponsored by the chapel. In addition to the decorated homes, many residents will offer drinks and snacks to the walkers."

So the house was decorated accordingly. After all, we are residents of Rota Drive.....

Well let me tell you, we were in for quite a shock. The question that kept popping into my head was "where do these people store all of this stuff the rest of the year?"

It was really great!! I couldn't believe the number of people that were there. It was a beautiful evening and you just couldn't help but get into the Christmas spirit and I can prove it.

If you can take a "christmas scrooge" and turn him into this...........

you truly believe, "yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause"

and evidently, he's a Veteran.............................who knew????

It looks like we may be starting a Guam Holiday Tradition of our own here. We're planning a Christmas cookout on the 26th at another new beach we've found. Ypao Beach is a public beach we came across last weekend. It's in Tumon Bay where all the hotels are located. It's the first beach we've been at that you don't have to wear your water shoes because of all the coral. Once again........beautiful water and fish aplenty...........

Seriously, I'm talking ALOT OF FISH.

This guy seemed to enjoy the camera quite alot..........

So we've invited some friends to join us for our "after Christmas" cookout. Hopefully, we'll have nice weather (sorry that was cruel wasn't it?).

We've had to do a bit of exploring as far as the beaches go. They've had to close Tarague (the beach on base) a few times because of the rough water.

Marty thought it would be great to swim in this and terribly unfair that the lifeguards closed the beach. The lifeguards said the sharks probably felt the same way, but that was just too bad.

Speaking of rough.........not long after we put up our outside Christmas stuff, I had to take some of it down. We had a "tropical depression" come through and had 50mph winds...............now that's breezy!

Luckily, that was pretty uneventful and I was able to put everything back the next day.

We also had Marty's Christmas Party. There was a Christmas Movie Theme to the evening and you could do formal dress or you could go dressed as a character from a Christmas movie. Can you guess who is under this mask?

I'm sure you figured it out. Marty was the "MC" for the evening and a good time was had by all.

Earlier, I mentioned the water shoes you need to wear at the beach because of the coral. Here is a great example...........

Another beach we've started frequenting is Ritidian Beach at Ritidian Point (the northern most tip of the island). The water is pretty shallow, I have the scars from scraping the coral to prove it. There goes my career as a leg model..................STOP LAUGHING!

The beach looks like a postcard and once again, there's plenty to see in the water.......

Ladies, you'd better be looking at the water...........hubba, hubba.

Hey look, a hermit crab family..............

ok, back to the water................

Hey, did you know that even though clams don't have teeth, they have a REALLY strong jaw?

Anyone want to guess how I know the answer to that one? Let me tell you, it's not from watching Animal Planet.

At the same time, I also learned that when you buy a generic snorkel mask it certainly is possible to drown when laughing your ass off under water.

I think I'll end on that note for now. We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year.

With love from paradise,

The Paprocks