The start of Christmas time

I made it to El Paso safely after a long flight, lay over, and another flight. Its been good thus far. I have finished all the shopping because I don't want to be in any store the closer it gets to Christmas. I have spent time with mom, dad, and sister plus the little ones. Here's to the start of Christmas

Little Gabe & Ella with Santa


With me by the Christmas tree

Christmas Decor in Casa Miles

Contrary to popular belief, there is Christmas in Japan with lights, trees, and all kinds of decorations. It isn't an actual holiday here, but they still love to partake in the festivities, which I am ok with!

So I didn't bring any Christmas decorations with me, why, because I listened to Mike, which obviously was a mistake. It doesn't feel like Christmas until there is some decoration in the house. Well, I went out and found some decorations to make it more holidayish in our house.
Below is my Christmas nook...I bought new stockings and used an obi as the runner on the stairs. It's silver and with a great design that looks festive for the holidays and my little tree!


Next comes the table and this year, blue and silver are the colors. I used another silver obi as the table runner and a blue vase we had, which I filled with blue and silver ornaments.


Here's an up close of the obi. Its a flower design and has shiny parts, which makes it stand out. I must admit, these past few months, I have been in search of silver or gold obis for the holidays. All my flea market shopping paid off.


I'll be anxious to see if the table display is in the same spot or not once I get back from the states. Mike's not a big fan of decor, much less table decor, which could get in his way. Happy Christmas season.

Leaving the states

The time came to leave the states again and come back to Tokyo. Well, at least I came back to Tokyo and Mike left to Abu Dhabi, as you all know.

We had such a great time in Houston seeing all of our friends and getting to spend time with them. We wish we could see them more often, but things don't always work out that way. Which means, we cherish the times we do get to spend with them.

So Tuesday came and my bag was literally over the poundage limit for bags. I was at 72 lbs and took out a candle, which got my bag to 67 lbs. That was one heavy candle. Anywho, I made it back with my heavy bag and Mike's golf clubs. I looked funny walking through the airport as my bag is basically as tall as I am and the rolly golf bag was definitely taller than me.

Until we meet again Houston, we will miss you.

the 2nd weekend

We made it to the 2nd weekend in Houston and what fun we had. We stayed with our friends Kirsten and Jeff and had a grand time.

On Friday night, we walked over to a new bar right by their place, called _____. Kirsten and Jeff are friends with the owner, so we got the goods on what to definitely try. We had a few bottles of wine and some huka! Shiner was even able to join us and had a good time as well!





Saturday rolled around and it was Halloween. We had a few invites to go to parties, but opted to stay in and away from the extra crazy that would be out that night. No worries b/c we had our own party at the Shipp house complete with AMAZING BBQ courtsey of Jeff. It was an all day process and well worth it. Here is our feast.
Jeff and Mike in front of that intoxicating steam of wonderfulness


The spread: 2 racks of baby backs, 2 chickens, 1 pork shoulder....MMMMMM


No worries, we didn't just eat meat. We also had some baked beans, bread, corn bread, and mashed potatoes with bacon & cheddar. Like I said, a feast.

On Sunday, Mike and Jeff left to the bar to watch football, while Kirsten and I enjoyed a quiet Sunday afternoon. We thought they were going to be home earlier, but no, they stayed for both sets of games. At that point I decided we needed something and what better thing to ask for than SPRINKLES.
They needed help, but I'm ok with that, as they came home with the correct thing!


We didn't wait. We grabbed one immediately and enjoyed the wonderfulness that is a Sprinkles cupcake. MMMM


I will now admit that I had 2 or 3 more of those yummy cupcakes before we left on Tuesday.

back in Houston

I got back to Houston on Wednesday evening. Mike picked me up and we headed over to the Toals new house to visit with them. This was going to be the only time to see both of them since they were leaving for the weekend. Jimmy had just returned from NY, so he was a bit out of it as the night went on. We had dinner and played some rock band, which Mike loved.




On Thursday I decided to do some shopping especially since we were staying right across from the galleria. How could I not shop. I picked up some things I needed and some other things, well, I wanted, plus I even picked some stuff up for Mike!

Friday was a good day. My friend Lorena picked me up for lunch and we finally were able to enjoy "GOOD" margaritas together, unlike the ones we find in Tokyo. Here we are at Cyclone Anaya's. Oh what fun we had.


Now if only we could find great margs in Tokyo that make us smile that much.

El Paso bound

I made it safely to El Paso on Sunday and decided I was going to take the little guy, Gabe, to the pumpkin patch with my mom. It was lots of fun, but very dusty. Here are some great pictures of the little man at the pumpkin patch where he and I jumped on the big jumping balloon.

Here he's pumping the water to get the rubber ducks to the other side.


Feeding the goats with mom


Starting the mini corn maze


About to exit at the end of the corn maze


So part of the reason for visiting was to meet Ella, the newest addition to the family. Here she and I am...I like her, she's quiet and doesn't do much!


On this day, I spent it with my dad, so here he is with Ella.


Afterwards, we headed to the stores and took the little man with us. He loves to carry things, so naturally, I let me carry my box of shoes that dad bought!


While in El Paso, I visited with both of my parents, had some yummy homemade food from mom, visited grandma, who told me all kinds of good gossip, and had drinks with my friend George. I even went to Toy r Us. The little man thought it would be wise to show me all the toys he wanted for his birthday and christmas. Good thing, since I bought the birthday present that day.

My time in El Paso was good especially eating the food. My mom is looking forward to my next visit over Christmas, which will be quite long.

States Trip

As promised, I will tell you about our trip to the states back in late October. Mike had to go back to Houston for training and I tagged along. We were able to spend 2 weekends plus the week in Houston and were able to see most of our friends.

Our trip started out rocky, as I got sick on the plane and was throwing up, alot. I even had to use the bag since the bathrooms were occupied. Not good. Here is where I thank Mike for upgrading me so I can sit with him, and where the flight attendants were amazing. On to better parts of the trip.

The first weekend, we stayed with our friends David and Sarah. We got to watch football, hang out, and hang out at the bar. Friday night we went to the Ice House and saw lots of friends, but sorry, I didn't take a picture. Saturday, Mike golfed and I had lunch with my good friends, John and Ty and Michael. Then we watched football and headed out to the bars. Here are some great pictures.
Mike and Sarah playing shuffle board

Mike with Kevin playing bags.

Us with Brian and Jessica


We left early that night since we were still adjusting, but had a great time. On Sunday, I headed to El Paso to visit with my family and meet my new niece, while Mike stayed in Houston to work.

Thanksgiving in Japan

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. Mike and I celebrated Thanksgiving here on Saturday since everyone works on Thanksgiving. Either way, it was still Thanksgiving and it was lots of fun. Our friends Jenn and John invited us over to their house for lunch. It was so nice to spend the holiday with friends and make it feel as if we were back home.

So our Thanksgiving was potluck style. I decided to make mashed potatoes since I love them and they are a stable for this day. Well, Jenn mentioned we were going to have any stuffing and I couldn't let that happen since that is another stable. I under took the task of making stuffing, which I've never done before. Here is finished product before it went into the oven. I used a recipe from Epicurious which was a "sausage, cranberry, pecan dressing." I made the whole recipe and didn't realize how much it was going to make, which ended up being 2 of these. It was good though and I'm proud of doing it.


Here is the turkey and our friend John, the turkey chef! I tried to capture this picture before he starting cutting, but you get the idea. We had a bird!


And of course no Thanksgiving isn't complete without the dessert. We had pumpkin pie, a cheese tart thing, a pear tart, and cookies.


It was such a fun day and I'm so thankful for all our new friends we've made here, whom we celebrated with. I'm also thankful for my family, all our old friends, and of course, my wonderful husband Mike, who still puts up with my shenanigans and quirks.

3 weeks later

and a larger credit card bill than normal (on my part) Mike is finally coming home. I have managed to survive, which there wasn't a doubt about, and have kept busy during this last few weeks. Good thing was I had lots of things to do during the week, so it was only the weekends that got lonely. And that is where shopping came in handy. I tried to do Christmas shopping, but the more I shopped, the more I found things for myself. Not so good, apparently. Anywho, I think I have managed to come out even on gifts for others and things for me.

Normally, I would have put up pictures of things I did, but I gave the camera to Mike thinking he would use it while in Abu Dhabi. What was I thinking or more accurately, I wasn't thinking. I believe Mike took a total of maybe 5 pictures, where I would have taken more. Hhere are some of the things I did, which may have warranted pictures
- concert at someone's house with a great cembalo (very cultural)
- organ rally and free concert
- lunch with a friend who was visiting from Hong Kong
- flea market at a temple where the fall leaves are amazing
- mexican feast here at our house and the mess of the kitchen

Anywho, be creative with your imagination and think of what these would have looked like. I am excited for Mike to come home, but that also means I will have to do laundry every week again, ugh. But I'll do it since its better when he's around.
And now that he is coming back, I can post some of things that we did while in the states and then start fresh with the new things coming up.

Sun day

After brunch, Mike and I headed over to the Singapore zoo. We got there around 4pm and had about 2 hours to see the entire place, which was enough time. We saw all kinds of cool animals and even saw them feeding the monkeys. This one was my favorite because the little monkey is doing its own thing.


We also got to see the white tigers, which were great. One of them kept pacing back and forth with a scowl on this face.


On our way back to the entrance, we heard these loud crys from somewhere. We managed to get to the right area and the baboons were going crazy, literally. They were screeching and running around like they were mad. In some instances, one baboon would be attack or covered by the other baboons. It looked like they were fighting, but then looked they were trying to mate. I don't know, but it was interesting to watch.

After the zoo, it was time for the night safari, which conveniently was next door.


Before the gates opened, we sat down and had a drink. Little did we know that we were in the right place for the opening show. It was cool and they were doing all kinds of tricks with fire. Before it ended, we headed over early to the theatre to catch another show, which was ok, but not great.


Finally it was time to see the actual night safari, which is getting in a tram that drives around, allowing you to see the animals. You could also walk it, but that is up to you. We did get off and walk one area where we got to go into this bat area.
I know the picture isn't great, but that is a fruit bat eating the hanging fruit. The bats would zip past you and it was weird, but really cool to see actual bats.


We saw a bunch of animals, but it was hard to take pictures b/c we couldn't use flash and the tram was moving. We have mental images and if I could show you, I would. I also realize this trip was full of animal excursions, but whatever. We were quite pleased Singapore and glad we only did it for a weekend, because we pretty much saw everything there was to see. It was a good trip and great to see Angie Lee.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday, the day I was looking forward to the food part our trip. I had booked us a reservation at the St. Regis (loved their display outside) restaurant for their famous dim sum brunch with free flowing champagne.


Angie and us enjoyed a loving brunch complete with dim sum and some other interesting dishes. First, we started out with the shark fin soup. It was actually really good and fin part was bad at all. Of course, Mike didn't savor it as he was done before I was half way done.


Next we tried various dim sum options, like the traditional one, the bun with bbq meat inside, one with pork and spinach and shrimp. One of the more interesting dishes was the pork belly. The bread next to it was really good and tasting with the sauce. The pork belly was different texture wise, but tasted good. Another interesting dish was the pork knuckle, which I couldn't do, but Mike tried it.


Here's a picture of us before we stared eating and drinking. Such a good time.


Brunch was amazing. We didn't even have to ask them to refill our glasses with champagne because they would always come around and do it. Mike and agreed that we aren't dim sum people for brunch or lunch. We can see the appeal, but for us we felt like it was more of a dinner food. Either way it was all delicious. 4 hours, at least 6 glasses of champagne, and 10 dishes later, we were ready for our Sunday activities.

Saturday night

On Saturday night, we had dinner at this great dim sum restaurant that Angie and Christopher (he's another friend from Houston working in Singapore) recommended. Here it is.

The kitchen is open and you can see them making the dim sum, especially the stem once they open the lids. We had an excellent dinner and I must say, I like dim sum.

Next we headed back to the Marina Bay Sands to finally do some gambling. Mike and Christoper went to the black jack tables. There were only S$25 or S$50 tables to play on, which is ridiculous. Angie and I opted for the slot machines.
The overall casino experience was ok. Its a nice place and everyone is there, but you don't get free alcoholic drinks. You only get free water, coffee or tea. Not exactly what we were looking for.

After our stint here, we headed over to Fullerton to check it out and see the Merlion. Here it is and its spouting water. hehe


And here it's drenching me with water!


We were pretty tired from the evening and decided to make it an early evening. Early as in we got back to Angie's around 12:30.

Saturday Fun Day

After our long evening out, we slept in some before heading out for the day. We started with lunch at Nando's. Apparently Mike use to eat here all the time while in Doha, so we just had to go. As you can see, he was very excited to have the skewered chicken with the famous Peri Peri sauce.

I just had regular chicken with a milder sauce and it was good, but nothing to get all excited about.

After lunch we hopped on the "Hop on Hop off" bus and made it around town. Our first stop was Little India. Here is the big entrance, so you know you are in the right place.

We walked around and checked things out. I was trying to find a shop to buy spices, but alas, could not find one. Oh well.
Not to far from Little India is Arab Street, so we made our way over there. Again, just walked around to see what there was. I managed to find a great pashima store and bought one! It was pretty hot out and we needed a rest, so we headed back to the bus.

Our resting stop was the famous "Long Bar" for the famous "Singapore Sling." Both Mike and I each had one and it was very refreshing drink. The tables have free peanuts on them and you can throw the shells on the floor. The decor was also very old looking, so a fun place to be.

As oppposed to telling the story of the bar, you can read it here!


After our rest, we headed to our last stop, China town. Again here was the landmark telling you, you came to the right place. We walked around and found shopping streets as well as food streets.


We came upon this temple, which looked really cool and we would have gone inside to check it out, but you had to take off your shoes. I didn't want to do that, so we took a nice long look and kept going.


After this, we headed back to Angie's to shower again and wait to figure our dinner plans.

Friday Night Festivities

To start the evening, Mike and I had drinks while we waited to meet up with Angie Lee. Our friend from home, Susan, had called Angie and told her one of her friends from college, Bobby, was in Singapore. We went to meet him at his hotel, and it just happened to be the new Marina Bay Sands Hotel. His room was amazing and the view from the top was gorgeous. If you google it, their cascading pool is on the 57th floor and it looks like you are going to fall off the building. Here is a picture complete with the pool and Singapore backdrop.


After roaming around we went down to look at the bay and took some pictures. It was such a great evening and the lights of the Singapore buildings were so pretty. Here it is.




It was finally time for dinner and what better way to start tasting the Singapore cuisine than with their famous "chili crab." When we asked people who had been or lived in Singapore, they all mentioned Jumbo seafood, so that is where we headed. Here is the famous chili crab, which wasn't spicy at all and in a thick tomato broth. It was delicious and the bread that you use to soak it up, was fantab!

We also got pepper crab, which Mike loved and I didn't. Way to peppery for my taste.


After dinner, Angie and Bobby wanted a funny picture and I happened to catch one of th good ones on our camera. They were such great company and its a great picture.


Finally, to end the night, we headed over to

This area is suppose to be the "go to" area for bars and clubs. It was quite interesting and we stumbled upon the hosital or maybe ER bar, which the waitresses were dresses as nurses and the chairs were wheelchairs, blood drawings chairs, etc. It was quite funny. We checked out a few places and really liked the last bar we were at, though I can't remember the name. When we finally looked at the time, it was almost 2:30am. We were out late and decided it was time to go home.