New Year’s Eve is the best day of the year in Hawaii. Dinner, dessert, fireworks and as a topper, saimin and soba. It’s pure heaven……
New Year’s Eve is a huge day of celebrating the end of the current year while welcoming in the new year. This year was no exception. We ate a wonderful dinner, consisting of black beans (“kudo mame”) for a healthy life, burdock root (“gobo”), kanten and grapes, crab salad, edamame rice, stuffed konbu with chicken and pork, and teriyaki chicken and beef. And the layered jello — yes, that was the biggest hit of all — no restaurant or bakery can top it!! mmm mmm good. Our cousins, the chefs, did a wonderful job. Everything was awesome!!!
Later in the evening, the celebration began with a flood of police cars gathering in the front of our cousin’s house. Everyone was looking at a camaro that was abandoned in our driveway. Apparently, a drunk woman was side-swiping all of the cars in her path….even though her right front tire was flat, she used the momentum from her rear-wheel drive to keep going. The police caught her just in the nick of time…our car was next in her line of fire……Happy New Year to us!!!! She was later arrested, and her car towed. Good for her…..drunk drivers have no place in society. So many people could have been injured as a result of her negligence.
In any event, they got her car towed in time for our fireworks showdown. We had almost every ‘legal’ kind of fireworks available — spinners, whirly wheels, strings, twirlers, shooters, butterflies, stars….you name it. We had it!!! We managed to play for two+ hours straight, up until the finale at midnight, where we lit up a long string of fireworks, coupled with seven firework ‘bombs’. Most of the neighbors also set of their fireworks at that time, so it was loud. Really loud. This also produced a vast array of smoke, which clouded the valley for a few minutes. It’s too bad that it’s not easy to post videos through this site….we got some great ones of the fireworks going off. It was an awesome way to bring in the new year. At the stroke of midnight, everyone hugged one another and wished each other a ‘Happy New Year’. The light rains then came through and washed the smoke away.
Our neighbors were sending up aerials throughout the evening, which were amazing. However, we’re not sure how they managed to get them since they’re not legal in Hawaii. Every year, there’s always a fear that the aerials will burn down a few homes, as you never quite know where they’ll land. These are serious. When they go off, it’s like a bomb, shaking the grounds around you.
After our fireworks showdown, we ate our dessert (Macadamia Nut Cream Pie and Dream Cake) and a bowl of soba and saimin. It was delicious…..with authentic Japanese broth……We laughed at and with each other. At a point in time, Aunty almost choked because of a funny comment that was made……
It was so much fun…..we definitely look forward to sharing this time with family next year…..
Leaanneng's Blog 
thelocalguide Said:
on January 10, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Happy 2010
Great photos of the fireworks š thx for sharing.