My family has lived in Hawaii for the last 4 years. In that time, we have been able to go to the beach and play in the water in January, camping in February, and cook outs anytime of the year. In fact, our grill has been used more in the last 4 years then most people will probably use their grill their whole life. When you live in the land of eternal summer, you do miss the season changes. However, when my in laws are talking about having to take the 4-wheeler up and down the hill because of snow and ice, I realize that going to the beach sounds like a lot more fun than bitter cold and sliding sideways down hills.
Travis was deployed during the major holidays for 2009, but I was determined to make everything extra special for Connor since Daddy was gone. For Halloween, we went down to the pumpkin farm and picked out our pumpkins. I carved mine, and we stuck Mr. Potato Head things in Connor's. I took pictures and we took our beautiful pumpkins outside to be displayed. By the next morning, mine had a big roach in it. Luckily, we live in a new house here, so no roaches inside. Outside though, they are huge. They never die, so they are big enough to eat a small child. LOL! Anyway, I ignored the roach and moved on. By the next day, my pumpkin was moldy and sunken in. It looked so rotten, like maybe I had it out on the porch for 2 months instead of 2 days. Oh well, that it a draw back with pumpkins and 90 degrees.
Next comes Thanksgiving. Normally, back in WV, it is getting cold. Most of the guys are gearing up to go Deer Hunting and we try to decorate the porch with scare crows and hay bales. In Hawaii though, you are sweating like a pig just trying to hang up some fake Turkeys on your living room windows. LOL!
By Christmas, it gets really funny. You pass houses that are putting out their blow up snowmen, and you can't help but think that snowman sitting next to the palm tree just looks wrong in so many ways. It is right about this time that you wish it was no longer 84 degrees and you are dreaming about a White Christmas. For Christmas 2009, I put tons of decorations up outside since Connor was starting to really notice the lights and got so excited to see them. I had some friends help me put the lights up, and then I did the rest of the yard decorations. We had presents, a Santa this way sign, candy canes along the walk, and a huge blow up Santa on a John Deer Tractor. It looked perfect - well for about a week or so. Then I realized that I needed to mow the grass. Santa and his big John Deer are actually quite heavy to move on your own. Not too mention again that it is 84 degrees and you are sweating when you are trying to lug the jolly old man around. I was in the middle of moving old St. Nick when my phone rang. Of course, when your husband is deployed, your phone stays attached to you at all times, so it was not hard to answer. It was my father-in-law calling to check in on us and see how we were doing. He said, "Amy..you ok? You sound out of breath." I told him that I was trying to move all the Christmas decorations around so I could mow the grass. He immediately started laughing at me. I was thinking to myself that I really didn't see what was so funny until he said, "Well that's a first for me. I can honestly say that I have never had to move our Christmas decorations in order to mow the grass." Then I started laughing too. He was right, most of the time WV has a blanket of snow and there is no need to mow grass for several more months.
In the end, I managed to mow every week and Connor loved the decorations. Me, maybe not as much, but it was great to see my little man so excited.
Fast forward to now - January 2011. We have finally put up all the Christmas decorations, so we no longer have to mow around them. I also went to work this morning with the heat on in my car and a sweater to stay warm. See it was only 68 degrees this morning, which for someone who has lived in Hawaii for 4 years was FREEZING!!!!
Our time in the land of eternal summer is almost up, and Hawaii, we will miss you. In just a few short weeks, we will be making our way to our next duty station in Virginia. I have a feeling that it will not be 68 degrees and that we will be in for a rude awakening. We will miss going to the beach anytime we want and wearing shorts all year long. However, next Halloween it will be nice to have a pumpkin minus the roaches and the mold and Christmas decorations that you do not need to mow around.
No comments:
Post a Comment