Just This Good: Mele Kalikimaka - Hawaiian Christmas Party

Our recent trip to Hawaii gave us some great inspiration for our annual Christmas party. Last year we did the Ugly Sweater thing. This year we went with a Hawaii Luau theme. This was such a fun party to put together. I was surprised there weren't more Hawaiian Holiday themed party ideas on Pinterest. Some, but not as many as I would have thought. Guess I'll just do my own thing then. It ended up being a bit more intimate of a gathering than we had planned for - far fewer guests than last year, but everyone who came seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly. It's just as well since our house is small and it's too cold to open up the patio or garage so everyone has to cram into the kitchen/family room/living room area.

Adam put together a wonderful playlist of Hawaiian music, both holiday and not. There was definitely some Elvis in there, and Hilo Hattie, and since Adam can not get this song out of his head when he hears it, he added a nice version of Hukilau, which Sofia loves dancing along to. I put together some Christmas ribbon leis to hand out to guests and had extra ribbon in case anyone wanted to try their hand at making their own. Only Christine was brave enough to try and then she gave up a forth of the way in. I had some amazing ideas for decorations, but I ran out of time so the only real decoration I had was a tissue paper fan I got from the dollar section at Target that I slapped a hula girl in front of. I had wanted to make a big sign that said Mele Kalikimaka and get some palm or Ti leaves as decoration for the table - oh well. Maybe next time.

Our food assortment was right on. Adam had wanted to roast a pig but when he went to buy what he thought was going to be a 30 pound pig, he was told it was more like 80 pounds. Uh, that's a big pig!! So he got half a pig and we made pulled pork sandwiches with the help of our friend Bobby, who is the hands down a king at the grill and smoker. I haven't had a piece of meat that Bobby was prepared that wasn't perfect. It would have been pretty nifty to have the presentation of a whole roasted pig, apple in the mouth and everything, but having prepared pulled pork for sandwiches worked out really well too. Other items on the menu included macaroni salad, rice, hawaiian sweet rolls and pineapple.

I bought some Spam not really knowing what exactly to do with it but knowing Hawaiians loves Spam so it made sense to have it. When I googled "Spam recipes" the first dozen items that came back were for Spam Musubi. Duh! Why didn't I think of that!! Spam Musubi is pretty much rice with a slice of Spam on top wrapped in seaweed. I was going into this hoping it wouldn't become a Pinterest fail. I borrowed a rice steamer from my neighbor. I figured if I was going to make something similar to sushi, I had better cook the rice the right way. Man was that thing handy! I know what my Christmas gift to me is going to be. Once the rice was ready I sliced up the Spam and fried it for a few minutes on each side just as is. Then I dredged the fried Spam in soy sauce with a bit of brown sugar. In order to put the whole thing together, you would usually use a Musubi press to shape and press the rice into the correct form, but I didn't have that and although I probably could have bought one online with no problem, I didn't think about all this until the day of the party. So instead I had Adam chop off the bottom of the Spam container and I used that as a press. Handy! Press the rice into the form, slap the Spam on top and roll a strip of seaweed around it. Ta-Da! I think these turned out awesome. Best part? My bonafide Hawaiian coworker said they were great. Win!!

The other awesome food item was the aloha inspired gingerbread cookies. I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread so I was actually just going to do sugar cookies but then it felt a bit wrong to use a gingerbread cookie cutter without making actual gingerbread cookies. So I made both. I decorated the gingerbread ladies in grass skirts, flower leis and a candy flower in their hair. The gingerbread men were rocking some sweet aloha shirts. I have never really made cookies to decorate before so I was a bit surprised at how long it took, but it was so much fun and totally worth it. I see now why decorating cookies is an activity loved by many. I saved a batch to enjoy at home after the party and brought another to work the next day. Work cookies were gone by lunchtime. Came home and found that stash was gone too. Another win!!

Although we try to keep our party ideas fresh and not do the same thing all the time, we might have to revisit this one down the road. Too much fun not to.

Enjoy a few (awful) photos of the party. I don't think I should ever get a job as a food photographer. Just saying.

Our welcome sign on the chalkboard. Perhaps I should have erased the board a bit better before writing on it...
Ohana Kea = White Family (in Hawaiian) in case you were wondering.