Hawaiian New Year

Oh my goodness!  I don’t even have words.  But I will try.  New Year’s Eve we went to the ER for a cut on Shawn’s knee (obtained while trying to move a new fridge into the house).  It took forever, but they did a good job.  When we got home it was about 11:30.  After getting some tired kids in bed (the two middle ones) I realized it was a little loud outside due to fireworks and that there was no way Xander was going to sleep.  I figured we’d better just stay up till the fireworks were done and then put him to sleep so I wouldn’t be mad when they woke him up :).  We went over to the Bishop’s house, about 50 yards from ours, and let Demetri pop those little “poppers” (not sure what they are called).

At midnight…the sky exploded, along with my eardrums.  Fireworks lit up the sky in every direction, car horns, car alarms, people cheering.  It was mayhem.  I was glad I wasn’t trying to sleep.  “I thought fireworks were illegal here,” I said to my neighbor.  “Oh they are,” she replied. “This is nothing compared to what it was like before they were made illegal 2 years ago.”  She proceeded to tell me about how usually, people were literally dancing in the streets, and celebrations started early in the day and went for a couple more.  She said illegal fireworks were a huge black market business.  The smoke from the fireworks has been so thick for several days that you couldn’t see where you were driving, and it was so loud all night there wasn’t really any sleeping.  Amazing.  I see why they banned fireworks here.  It didn’t make a dent.  Police helicopters flew over our heads like they were really going to catch one of the thousands of people lighting off fireworks; that was pretty laughable actually.  Definitely an unforgettable experience. Next year, I will just plan to stay up in the first place!