Christmas in the Tropics

It's been a little disconcerting to experience my first Southern Hemisphere Christmas. The weather's been hot and humid, with regular rainstorms giving way to the searing near-equatorial sun. Most weekends leading up to the holidays have either been too stormy to get out and do much or too hot to be out in the sun. So we've run to cover for the last few weeks.

Further social gatherings were fast and furious in the weeks leading up to the holidays. The Bar Association party was memorable as was the Legal Affairs office party (a special tip of the hat goes to Blake and his dancing...). However as the 25th approached more and more of our small palagi community began to catch the flights back to the mainland and home for the holidays.

About the time that Christmas Eve rolled around, our group of friends was severally reduced and we invited the crew we still had around over to spend the holiday at our house. Sara and I were happy to share one Sayles household family tradition with all of our friends, cioppino. For those of you who haven't experienced it, it's a traditional Italian fisherman's stew that has a long history in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the days leading up to Christmas Eve I was stunned to see good, cheap dungeness crab in a few of the markets here on island. While it was frozen, I wasn't going to let an opportunity like that pass us by. The rest of the shellfish was easy to find and swordfish stood as our whitefish. Then I was stewing the broth from the shells and trimmings in my brew pot on the stove. It was a full days worth of work to gather, prep and cook the ingredients, but once that tomato-y was ready, it all was worth it. Despite the fact that 90 degrees and rainy is not the normal temperature for hot soup, it helped make the holiday feel a little more like home in Northern California.