December 27, 2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL ! Hope you all had lots of Family time and got to spend time doing the traditions you love! 

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I had lots of fun with my ship family! Above is Christmas morning PJ Breakfast party! Here's some other favorites! We had a whole Month of Fun with Elfie! Love how creative people were with their turns. We keep him contained to 5th floor public areas.

Who doesn't love a good Holiday Craft ?!?  This year I made some shell art, courteous of great clam shells in Las Pas, Mexico and an excellent partner in crime, who helped me smuggle them off an excursion ( THANKS Doc!). I also collected toilet paper rolls for weeks and made these cool snow flakes to make my room a winter wonderland! Was going to paint them, but liked better au natural!

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Christmas Eve at 11 pm we did an open Liturgy, complete with hymns and blessed host to share with 52 Residents in the Observatory - it's really nice to be part of such a supportive,  generous community. I did a reading

Another night, 30 of us surprised a good friend with a night of recognition for all his time, efforts and talent in organizing excursions for us! Ben, a retired Harvard lawyer whose career was notable as an AIDS activist and then later as an outspoken drag queen, is one of my favorites on board. Of course, he grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia! We each printed a photo of ourself with Ben, on an outing and wrote him a note about why we appreciate him so much. His 99 year old mom was there and it was so touching and deserved!

My memory with Ben - he is always cracking me up with his zingers and quick whit!

THE ART OF COCONUT CREAM - AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 18, 2025
Making coconut cream is such a big part of the Samoan culture I feel compelled to share the 4 step process we were so nicely shown. Every Samoan young and old takes part in this tradition, it is an intrigue part of their everyday lives.

PAGO PAGO, TUTUILA ISLAND, AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
The tour today was focused on the National Park but we also got a lot of insight into American Samoa's history and current day life. Our guide was Nini and she is a college student studying accounting and finance and works as a part-time guide.

NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICA SAMOA, TUTUILA ISLAND

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
Today we took the National Park of American Samoa Tour. It's a unique park - the only one south of the equator and where the U.S. Government doesn't own the land. Efforts to establish the Park go back to mid 1980 over concern about the decline of fruit bats and wanting to protect the tropical rainforests. On October 31, 1988 Congress established the NP of American Samoa. In 1993, a complex arrangement for a 50 year land lease years with seven villages and the Samoa government was signed. We got lucky with our tour - we were expecting an open air bus, but because we were a small group, we got a plush air conditioned van!