Christmas in American Samoa

Being in American Samoa means we are one of the last Countries to celebrate Christmas. I feel sorry for some of the people fighting the cold weather. Today was bright and sunny and lots of people enjoyed swimming at the beach. For us, it was open the presents then go for our traditional breakfast at McDonalds. Then the kids played and I made a turkey. We just got finished eating so I have a few minutes. All my Christmas photos were made by bouncing my flash off of the white ceiling in the house. It makes for much better photos than just hitting the kids with direct flash. You lose a lot of the harsh shadows this way. And, when the kids are ripping through the presents, not much time to goof around so just shot on ETTL and let the camera work its magic.

Merry Christmas

Well, it's Christmas eve here and the kids are just going to sleep. I made spaghetti tonight which they love, including our dog tramp who does not think she is a dog. This is her on the sofa after eating a big bowl of spaghetti and settling down to have sweet dreams of Santa. Now, I have a ton of presents to wrap and put under the tree for Christmas. To everyone that checks out this blog, Merry Christmas.

Kiribati

This is a beautiful young woman from Kiribati. Kiribati is an independent nation, about 2,500 miles Southwest of Hawaii. All the Islands are Atolls, except for one. There are slightly less than 100,000 people in the whole country. A lot of people will recognize Tarawa, which is the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of WWII. As a kid, I used to watch Lets Go Fishing go to Christmas Island and catch huge Ulua. The fishing is incredible.