Good bye 2025, make way for 2026!

Oo Syak had a blast sending off 2025 at our annual Christmas party. Hawaii Seafood and Dim Sum's excellent venue and menu played host to the laughter and cheer of our society as we sang Christmas songs, played ukulele, and won numerous gifts to celebrate the season. Everyone dressed festively and came with great spirit! I don't remember having so much fun at a "meeting" in a long, long time.

Chelsea, Alison, and Kiara getting ready to get the party started!

The Banquet Committee came together to plan the activities, prizes, and games to bring the Christmas cheer to the hall as we invited almost 150 people to celebrate the season together! This is one of the biggest events of the year, and we definitely tried hard to put together the menu. And for once, the food wasn't the focus! Sorry, HSDS, your food was amazing and so, so tasty, but we have holiday things to focus on!

We kicked things off by presenting Eddie Flores with OSGL's donation of $5000 to the Better Chinatown Association. Hawaii has the oldest Chinatown in the nation and... well... it shows. Our buildings could use a facelift, the shop facades need an update, the sidewalks need a major sweep and power wash, and overall, the BCA wants to make this a Chinatown a safe place that we can all be proud of!

President Debbie Chun, 1st Vice President Kendrick Chang, and BCA's President, Eddie Flores with the giant check

It's wild that Chinatowns in general have such a bad rap across the USA. We should be proud of a place that celebrates our culture and heritage and OSGL is beyond happy to make this contribution to the new arch that's being proposed as the signifying thoroughfare that tells you that you've left Kalihi and now you're in Chinatown where the oldest bars, shops, and markets thrive amongst new establishments where we can still get in touch with what it means to be Chinese in Hawaii.

2026 and beyond will bring some major changes to our Chinatown. The rail will have a stop there one day soon, making Chinatown a quick and convenient stop for anyone commuting via Skyline. Stressing about parking in Chinatown will be a thing of the past. And as you exit the station, you'll find yourself greeted by a beautiful archway. Amongst the many plaques mounted to it, you can find one dedicated to OSGL and you can feel proud knowing your village made such a meaningful contribution to the streets that allowed the generations before us to establish themselves and prosper. Their memory, through today's members, will be commemorated in Honolulu Chinatown's history as long as the archway stands.

Look at all the festive members! I was taking notes while you were all preoccupied with singing Christmas carols...

After Mr. Flores' thank you speech, President Debbie Chun kicked thing off with a welcome speech and brought out her ukulele to jam with a few other musical members to play songs like Mele Kalikimaka, Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and Deck the Halls.

Sing loudly! I can't hear you!

We sounded so good! Especially since we never rehearse together... Maybe we should and we could form an ukulele troupe! We could sing and play for the seniors at the Palolo Chinese home as a service project of for our own members before meetings! Okay. I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll have to see if there are any willing participants first before I bring the idea to the PR committee...

Jocelyn Chang-Chuck led us with her beautiful voice while I used my feeble technology skills to project the music and lyrics onto the wall so everyone could sing along.

Following a few songs to set the tone, we gave away a ton of prizes to set the mood! It was about this time that my phone died and I was running prizes to the winners so I don't have any interesting pictures of the raffle or the food. Major fail. But I did try to make up for it by pulling members who were super festive for the Festive Fashion Show!

I was so happy to see so many dressed to the nines in their most festive attire!

We got up on stage, bribed with a chance to win a gift card, to be judged by our peers via decibel-o-meter and the winner was Leonard Chang by a landslide! Amongst the trees, reindeer, Santas, elves, and... whatever I was supposed to be... his applause reached over 105 decibels! Congrats on being named Mr. Oo Syak Christmas, Leonard!

Chris, Debbie, Chelsea, Alison, and Kiara in the background making it work!

And after yet more carols, prizes, and food, it was time to wrap up the year 2025 with a secret gift exchange. Generous people brought gifts so that they may get gifts on their way out. It was like a White Elephant meets Secret Santa. We took the stress out of Secret Santa by making it truly secret like during a White Elephant but with better gifts (hopefully). I'm calling it the Secret Elephant Gift Exchange from now on. Again, an optional activity that so many people opted into!

All in all, it was a fun lunch with a lot of merry-making and family bonding. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and if you have suggestions for games, activities, gift giving, menu ideas, or anything else you think would add to next year's festivities, we'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below and ask your family to think of things too! Thank you for celebrating with us one last time before we bade good-bye to 2025 together. Blessings, good fortune, and good health for everyone in 2026!