Thanks + Giving

Ask a non-package traveler about her favorite life experiences, and she'll doubtlessly include a tale about being welcomed into a home, into a community. Some of us are lucky enough to have stumbled upon new and true friends in the most unfamiliar of places - if you've heard my old rural Vietnam story about the offers of a chicken neck and a daughter's hand in marriage, you know that I count myself in that number.

It needn't be exotic in the traditional sense, though.

Spoiled by close proximity to loving families, it stings a bit to spend a holiday apart from the folks and brothers. When we were in Hawaii for Thanksgiving, the relevant hydrocortisone came in the form of an embrace by a warm and wonderful family, complete with sparkling cider and the first sing-along Christmas carols of the season.

Speaking of community and island songs, if you're lucky enough to be in Lanikai when the home-grown Mortgage Players stage one of their melodrama + musical evenings, do attend.

Mela kalikimaka is Hawaii's way, indeed.