Christmas in Hawaii was extra non-traditional, but extra exciting. It started with a hearty “Good morning, Merry Christmas” from President Obama at the gym on base. In the ultimate silver lining scenario, my friend Chere and I were both alone on Christmas morning because our husbands were working so we decided to try and catch the Obamas working out on an uncrowded day. Not only did we catch them, we were two of three total people there at first (not including the multiple Secret Service agents). As we jogged one treadmill away from Michelle, I was practicing in my head what I’d say about nutrition and seafood if she started talking to me. But she had her iPod on and a conversation did not ensue, so I’m back to the old-fashioned way of nutrition advocacy.

After my morning workout with the first family, I picked up Lloyd and we opened gifts then headed to the North Shore to see the giant winter waves. It’s hard to capture their enormity on camera, but try and put the tiny surfers (black specs)in perspective to the wall of water.

For dinner I made a “Feast of the Seven Fishes”-inspired seafood paella, which we shared with friends while Chere and I told our Obama story a dozen times. The only other well-known people I’ve seen in real life are Mr. Bean and Macauley Culkin, so I was pretty thrilled.

Tomorrow night we’re flying to Las Vegas for New Years, so no more meal plans until 2010.