[Note: The link to the 1942 Christmas letter has been corrected.]

Here’s a little something to mark this Christmas.

First, a couple of links.

Back in 2002, I adapted the poem, The Night Before Christmas, for our Kaaawa cats. Several years later, I revised it after Romeo adopted us.

At that time, we had nine cats, and all make an appearance. Now only four of the nine are still with us.

So click here to enjoy my reading of The Night Before Christmas, Kaaawa style.

And then this–a Christmas letter written in December 1942 and sent to friends on the mainland by University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller, who was my mother’s mentor and close friend. It offers a month-by-month series of observations on what life was like in Hawaii beginning with the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and continuing through the following year. Quite an insight into what life was like during that terrible time. The letter was among Professor Miller’s papers that my mother cleared from Miller’s Manoa home following her death. The original has been given to the UH Hamilton Library.

And, finally, a Christmas Eve selfie. Getting rid of my cataracts and my glasses was a great year-end gift.

A Christmas Eve selfie