Christmas Day, 2014, Waikiki

Our little tree with nativity and gifts

It was nice to sleep in and wake in a leisurely way. After we got dressed we went out for a brunch timed meal at Zippys to try a local dish called Loco Moco. We got the mini size, not the full size, which was a good thing, because the Mini was really filling! It consists of a base of rice, (We elected to have brown rice) topped with a hamburger patty, topped with beef gravy, topped with a fried egg, with a scoop of macaroni salad on the side.


Mini Loco Moco at Zippy's Brown rice, hamburger, fried egg, gravy, macaroni salad

After this load of belly ballast, we headed to Ward Center, another shopping mall just on the other side of the Ala Moana Center to go to a movie. We saw 'Into the Woods' a Grimms brothers style synergistic story combining several fairy tales into one and featuring Meryl Streep as the witch. We really enjoyed it. We went to the 11 am showing, which was smart, because the line was into the lobby, four deep, when we came out.

Leaving the mall I wished I'd taken a moment to take a photo of the Photo with Santa set up nearby. It was a beach shack, surrounded by 'palm' trees and other props like surfboards. Seemed like the most fun way to get a photo with Santa here in Hawaii.

Back at our room I was thinking of going snorkeling, but it ended up that I spent all afternoon on the phone with family, which was a much better and more Christmas appropriate thing to be doing. It was so nice to get to talk to everyone.

I went to the beach for sunset again. It takes me all of five minutes to get there, so it is easy to do on the spur of the moment.

Harry fixed dinner, which was mostly microwaving or heating things in the oven, but he also cut up a small prime rib and grilled it on the electric grill with his Hawaiian seasoning, which is called Ono Hawaiian Seasoning. It contains salt, local salt, pepper, ginger and garlic. It turned out fantastic. Our dinner also included half a ham, spiral cut, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Hawaiian rolls, gravy, sparkling cranberry cider, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and cookies. I was still not too hungry from the loco moco, but managed some of everything. It was all good.

I had suggested the day before that Harry let Chardonay know we would bring her a share of our dinner. She had to work all day, and there were 8 rooms worth of folks checking in, so she was busy. She seemed really thrilled to get the food. I felt bad for her and all the others who have to work because of the flood of tourists in town.

All in all, it was a very different, but a very nice Christmas.