The Christmas Aftermath 8:11AM 26 Dec. 2005
I got to talk to Ryen last night. That was nice but we went to dinner (more below) and got back a little late so I wasn’t sure whether to call. When I ended up calling at almost 10 he was still awake so I at least got to say “Merry Christmas” and find out what he got. Apparently he did three different gift opening sessions. The first at Rick’s on Christmas Eve, the second at Renell’s parents’ and the third at the grandparents’, so he was pretty well energetic and happy. He got to talk to everyone here for a minute or two and at least say hi which was nice. I’ll hopefully see him on Tues. when I get back. If not, his interview with Punahou is Wed. morning so I’ll see him then. We’ll figure something out I guess.
Before that though, we (Myself, my dad, my brother Russell and Marla) went to Ike Tanaka’s for dinner. It was actually pretty nice, about 30 people, give or take a few. There was good food and I got to catch up with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in years. Some of them in quite a number of years, like half a decade or longer. There was a neat gift exchange kind of game. Everyone that showed up brought something from home (wrapped like a normal gift) that they didn’t want too much anymore. So, for example we brought an antique glass ball (old fishing float, very neat), a CD case, that kind of thing. So everyone gets a number, and starting with number 1 we pick a gift in order. Now the catch is that every person after the first can opt to “steal” the gift from anyone else. If they do, the person they stole from can steal the gift of anyone else or opt to draw a new gift. So you get the two or three really popular gifts that everyone tries to steal. Last night it was a (very) nice bottle of wine with some accessories, a towel and sunglasses and some lotion stuff that had a strand of pearls in it. So the stealing goes on and on and on and on and on. The game actually lasted quite some time but it was pretty funny so nobody really noticed. Well, maybe Russell, he was getting a bit impatient there at the end. I ended the game after someone stole my Almond Roca and I snagged the last unopened one, which ended up being curry and rice (which I’m pretty happy with). Other than that, Russell ended up with the bottle of wine (which turns out to be a pretty damn expensive bottle of French wine that I WILL enjoy tonight), dad ended up with some snack stuff and Marla ended up with some mixed Christmas CD’s. All in all, a very nice evening; I even got to see some very well taken photographs of a surfing trip to Fiji. There were a ton of pictures taken by a professional photographer and there were more than a few really good action shots and some amazing waves.
Before that (I’m going in reverse chronological here to try and remember it all) we spent part of the afternoon cleaning a bunch of the fish caught on Saturday. We filled a decent sized stainless steel pan with papio fillets which are getting smoked today (should be pretty good, not smoked marlin good but pretty damn good nonetheless), we also cleaned the weke ula that I caught. The record weke ula in the state was about 7 ½ lbs. or thereabouts. Using Russell’s scale, which turns out to be pretty accurate, we weighed the one I caught at slightly over 7 lbs. so it was a near record fish. Oh well, I’m happy enough just to eat the damn thing. Finally Russell cleaned the opelu and dad ended up making poke with it which will probably get eaten today. There are still a bunch of papio left in the cooler along with a bunch of nabeta (we took a few to the Tanaka’s yesterday but there’s still quite a bit left).
And Before that was of course the normal gift opening morning. All in all yesterday was a pretty good day. I had a couple of glasses of wine before we left so I ended up sleeping in until about a quarter to eight this morning but today looks to be a decent day as well. At the moment I’m sitting here drinking coffee at the dining table, just kicking back. The keawe wood in the smoker downstairs is burning down to make charcoal and breakfast of pancakes and smoked meat is almost done. It’s nice to be home I suppose. Change of pace from the normal routine of junk.
Before that though, we (Myself, my dad, my brother Russell and Marla) went to Ike Tanaka’s for dinner. It was actually pretty nice, about 30 people, give or take a few. There was good food and I got to catch up with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in years. Some of them in quite a number of years, like half a decade or longer. There was a neat gift exchange kind of game. Everyone that showed up brought something from home (wrapped like a normal gift) that they didn’t want too much anymore. So, for example we brought an antique glass ball (old fishing float, very neat), a CD case, that kind of thing. So everyone gets a number, and starting with number 1 we pick a gift in order. Now the catch is that every person after the first can opt to “steal” the gift from anyone else. If they do, the person they stole from can steal the gift of anyone else or opt to draw a new gift. So you get the two or three really popular gifts that everyone tries to steal. Last night it was a (very) nice bottle of wine with some accessories, a towel and sunglasses and some lotion stuff that had a strand of pearls in it. So the stealing goes on and on and on and on and on. The game actually lasted quite some time but it was pretty funny so nobody really noticed. Well, maybe Russell, he was getting a bit impatient there at the end. I ended the game after someone stole my Almond Roca and I snagged the last unopened one, which ended up being curry and rice (which I’m pretty happy with). Other than that, Russell ended up with the bottle of wine (which turns out to be a pretty damn expensive bottle of French wine that I WILL enjoy tonight), dad ended up with some snack stuff and Marla ended up with some mixed Christmas CD’s. All in all, a very nice evening; I even got to see some very well taken photographs of a surfing trip to Fiji. There were a ton of pictures taken by a professional photographer and there were more than a few really good action shots and some amazing waves.
Before that (I’m going in reverse chronological here to try and remember it all) we spent part of the afternoon cleaning a bunch of the fish caught on Saturday. We filled a decent sized stainless steel pan with papio fillets which are getting smoked today (should be pretty good, not smoked marlin good but pretty damn good nonetheless), we also cleaned the weke ula that I caught. The record weke ula in the state was about 7 ½ lbs. or thereabouts. Using Russell’s scale, which turns out to be pretty accurate, we weighed the one I caught at slightly over 7 lbs. so it was a near record fish. Oh well, I’m happy enough just to eat the damn thing. Finally Russell cleaned the opelu and dad ended up making poke with it which will probably get eaten today. There are still a bunch of papio left in the cooler along with a bunch of nabeta (we took a few to the Tanaka’s yesterday but there’s still quite a bit left).
And Before that was of course the normal gift opening morning. All in all yesterday was a pretty good day. I had a couple of glasses of wine before we left so I ended up sleeping in until about a quarter to eight this morning but today looks to be a decent day as well. At the moment I’m sitting here drinking coffee at the dining table, just kicking back. The keawe wood in the smoker downstairs is burning down to make charcoal and breakfast of pancakes and smoked meat is almost done. It’s nice to be home I suppose. Change of pace from the normal routine of junk.
posted by rpalmeira | 10:40 AM
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