CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE Manuia le Kirisimasi! It's hard to believe that yet another Holiday Season is upon us. For Mika, Sieni and Afa, this makes our fourth in Paradise. Our little adventure in Paradise continues to grow and we now have a staff of 37 employees to make sure that you will have a wonderful time when you come and visit us. We are all well and happy and hope that you, our very dear friends, are also healthy and happy and we wish you a wonderful and prosperous New Year. For this year's Polynesian Xmas, we'll have our annual Volley Ball Tournament on the beach plus Mika's Christmas Lunch, with Lobster, Crab and Shrimp Appetizers followed by the traditional Turkey, Ham and all the trimmings. AND ..... entertainment by the Coconuts Beach Club Band. Boxing Day (day after Xmas) we are having a traditional Samoan LU'AU (our first annual) in our big fale on the beach. There will be food from the Umu and BBQ, served on woven plates (mailo) and seating at low tables on woven mats (fala) while our Fiafia (Island Festival) group from the local villages, performs traditional songs and dances. It should be a great time. We will be thinking of you and hoping that you are also having a very memorable Holiday Season.

COCO NUTS IN THE NEWS We waived a sad good-by to DAPHNE, of our front office staff, as she left Samoa to move to Alaska. Strange place for a Samoan to live - don't you think? But RONA is still here to greet you with her smiling face and we now have ANNA to join her. LESOA, our talented gardener and resident artist has created some very special signs for directing guests to our various buildings and to welcome you to our front desk. Visitors are regularly seen having their photo taken under his unique sign for Sieni's 3-Stool-Bar. LESOA'S MANY SONS (sound like a TV series?) are now performing the "fire knife" dance at our Fiafa, every Saturday night. Last week four of his sons (from age 6 to 16) performed - with a finale featuring TUNE, his 6 year old, twirling his fire knife while standing on the shoulders of his two brothers - brought the house down! By the way, TUNE won an award for his fire knife dancing at the National Tourism Festival in September. Speaking of dancing, NATIE (age 85) has just gotten married in Honolulu to MINNIE and I am pleased to report that they are a very happy pair of newly-weds, living in Kaneohe, Hawaii and looking forward to visiting Coconuts early next year so they can participate in our local fertility dance.

LENDING LIBRARY Our small circulating library got a great boost with the very generous contribution made by Coco Nut, JOEL DENNSTEDT of Alaska who very kindly AIR MAILED us a huge box of books upon his return to Alaska. Thanks for the books Joel, and the great T shirts. Our guests love your choice of reading material!

WATERFRONT NEWS We created a minor miracle and made the lagoon in front of the beach bar a bit deeper than it was before. So we now have a large, deep water area for great swimming, even at the lowest of tides and a bigger beach in the process. We even added a floating raft out in the lagoon. Despite numerous requests for a little bar on the raft, Mika says not 'till we find a Mermaid for him to train to tend bar! This morning, before breakfast, Sieni and I snorkeled around the raft, feeding bread to about 50 little fish - right from our hand. What a great experience!

NEW GIFT SHOP In a very beautiful, Samoan fale right near the Palm Terrace dining area, we have created a very special place to showcase traditional Samoan handicrafts. A favorite with the visitors are the hand carved Kava Bowls and outrigger canoes. Sieni, with the help of SUE STAGNER (our Hawaiian artist - sometimes in residence) created our very own fabric featuring the Coconuts Logo in a traditional tapa cloth design, which Sieni fashions into a very popular "tube dress" for ladies. Yes, we will take mail orders, just let us know if you want small, medium or large and the cost is US$29 each plus US$5 for postage.

HOTEL NEWS Our main hotel, Fale Masina, continues to be a great hit. We have received many wonderful comments from our guests, prompting me to create the enclosure to this newsletter, to share some of them with you. Special thanks to Coco Nuts, BEVERLY and NORM ANDERSON, for their "Ode to Coconuts" -a very creative entry in our guest book. We are finally getting around to completing ROBERT ROSS' (our LA architect) design and soon all of the beds will be "4-Poumuli's" (a Samoan 4-poster), complete with hand-tied afa (woven sennet) to connect the posts together. And our local carver, UTAI, is just about finished making hand-carved bedside tables from of our beautiful, local timber. We have now opened 3 rooms in the "Coco Cottage" annex to our main hotel to take care of the overflow from Fale Masina. These inexpensive rooms (US$50/night) have proved to be very popular with the ex-pats living in Apia and with overseas visitors who spend a couple of weeks with us at Coconuts. We are proud to say that having hosted PAUL KING (Managing Director) and his bride MEGAN, we are now the sole, Samoan hotel for The Surf Travel Co. of Australia.