At the end of last/beginning of this year my brother came out to visit for a few weeks for the holidays. It was just after I had the baby, so things were a bit slower than they normally would have been, but he was still able to get dive certified and see quite a bit. Oh, he also got to help me move into my new house and replace the alternator in the car when it randomly died (thanks again!). He joked one night after the move that he felt like Billy Crystal in "City Slickers" getting dragged by the cow yelling "I'm on VACATION!". I do think he had fun though, because he keeps saying how much he loved it here.
What's interesting is before he visited he was really anti-Guam from his time in the Navy pulling in and out of here. I think the issue is that when boats pull in here the guys are limited in where they go, and the liberty buses typically run up to Tumon's downtown hotel district and skip the rest. Makes it hard to go hike or see any of the isolated, off the path, areas that make this island so great. The south island tour really changed his tone.....by the end he was pointing out places he wanted to live :)
As an inserted note....In the last year, at the encouragement of a Chaplain, we started attending the Lutheran Church of Guam and are no longer attending Catholic Mass on base. The Chaplain is LCMS and currently preaches at LCG on an every-other-week basis. That will probably end once the new pastor they called (who is not LCMS) arrives......not sure what we will do then.
Christmas here was fun and as tends to happen, marked by things that are distinctly Guam. Adam took the kids to a lights display at the Government House in Agana (I stayed home and rested with baby). The villages each had their own Nativity displays they designed, and at the end you got to vote for your favorite village display! (have I mentioned how much I love that religion and life is so intertwined here?) The kids did the standard Sunday School Christmas play with the church. The church did run something pretty cool they called "Christmas in a Cave" which was marked by hymns and readings outside the cave, and a live nativity inside. We did a feast of the 7 fish, Pacific island style on Christmas Eve (I think my brother may take that one on himself in the future with as much as he enjoyed it).New Years was a quiet night spent home as a family. Keeping it low key was a good thing, as the above mentioned move took place the weekend following New Years.
Love you all! more updates soon! :)
