guam in a nutshell
Seven days on Guam is the shortest I've ever been home and it's also been awhile since (1998) I've spent Christmas at home. Christmas shopping is stressful enough but trying to get last minute christmas stuff checked off your list is virtually impossible when you've got to scramble to several different places just to get even the simplest of things. A simple trip to Target woulda sealed the deal for my holiday scrambles but it sure was a lot more complicated than that.
An apparent trend on island was "carolling"...when various groups gather and arrange to sing at someone's house or a public place and sing a lineup of tunes to get paid. This is not quite the storybook carolling I had in mind but it was popular since I saw it at our hotel lobby, the mall, and at 2 houses. There were literally a dozen obligations on Christmas day. You can't just expect to stay in one place....you have a full 24-hours of celebrating (like what we did) to fulfill. There was Christmas Eve Dinner(s) Morning Mass, Dropping-off-of-Presents, Luncheon(s), Dinner(s), and even a Cocktail After-Party until 2am after the 25th. It was exhausting! Maybe it was the lack of cold weather or the haphazardly-decorated scenery...but I sure did miss the sight of our fresh christmas tree back home and the picturesque christmas morning. Here we usually go to one gathering for family and one gathering for friends...both of which entail a feast and a santa-like distribution of presents to everyone while Christmas music is ablast. Maybe I did too much on my Guam Christmas Day because I was pining for California.