Merry Christmas in ELP

66 and extreme sunshine all day, which was great. We arrived and it was time to have another Christmas dinner and presents. Nothing like some Mexican food to start off the 2nd half of our vacation!
Here are some favorites of the kiddos:
Ella climbing on her name chair

Little man opening up his remote control car...

We had a great time in ELP mainly relaxing and watching alot of football. Needless to say Mike had a great time!!!

Merry Christmas in STL

Ah, the holidays are upon us and we are back in the states to see the family. Our first stop was to STL, to see Mike's family. Oh what fun we had, minus the last minute shopping we had to do.

Mike and I celebrated our Christmas on Christmas eve morning, since was the only time we would have. Mike said I was getting a joint Christmas/Birthday present, but only had 1 gift for me on the eve and said "once you get this you will know what your birthday present is" So I open up my gift to find an I-pad cover. Mike found quite enjoyment in this. I had to wait until my birthday to open the I-pad, can you believe it. I decided on a new rule, joint gifts come on Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas day with the family and here a few favorites of Owen as he opened his gifts...The jumping balloon, he wants to sit on

Checking out the trumpet

Now its his turn to play...

While in STL, Mike started enjoying his vacation by reading, resting, and getting scruffy!

Off to ELP for more Christmas time

Holiday Sewing project

In addition to the party, I needed some holiday decorations. This year I decided to make Mike and I stockings as last years, were, well, cheap, and rough looking. I think I bought them at the 100yen store just to have something.

My tutorial book had excellent instructions, so to the sewing machine I went. here are the finished products, along with the finished snowmen. I had to add scarves to the snowmen to make it more festive.



happy decorating to you!

Ladies Christmas Cheer

I love the holidays, just don't love the extra poundage that comes with it. Mike had to leave for a business trip, so I figured it would be a good time to throw a ladies holiday party.

Saturday afternoon was the perfect time, unfortunately, I was battling some sort of sickness, so I had to make sure I didn't cough on any of the goodies.

Here's a serious a pictures from the party:
The table of goodies


The wonderful ladies, whom are my friends here in Tokyo




It was a nice party and a great way to start off the holiday season. As an added treat, I sent home each lady with a ribboned pictured frame with hanging bells and acorns, for them to hang on their doors. yay for holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving

to everyone....This year Mike and I are thankful for lots of things, including life, as its been a rough year in Japan.

hopefully you remember, but if not, I'll tell you again. Thursday is not a holiday here, so celebrating Thanksgiving usually has to wait until Saturday.

Well, this year, I met Mike down by his work and we went to a place that was doing a traditional thanksgiving buffet. It was soooo good, even though the potatoes were a bit salty. And everyone knows, I love mashed potatoes.


We had another thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with good friends of ours, Jennifer and David Peacock, who invited us over. It was a lovely, intimate party with 8 people attending. Here's Jennifer's beautiful table, ready for the dinner.


The golden brown, delicious turkey, that Jennifer prepared for us.


We had a great time and it was so nice to spend the evening with friends. We are very thankful that we've made such good friends in Jennifer and David. Yay for holidays and friends.

Fishing

This past weekend, Mike and I, went fishing with some of his Japanese counterparts. They invited us and we thought it was fun, so Sunday morning, we got up early to catch the train. We finally arrived around 8am at the marina where we would leave from. We were able to see mt. Fuji as clear as can be.



Mike and I have been on several boats before, so we decided not to take the dramamine before getting on the boat and figured we would be fine. As we were waiting to board the boat, we noticed the water and waves were very strong, probably due to all the rain on Saturday.
Here's the smashed up fish we used to help us catch the fish


So we went out and it was very rough, making my stomach turn a little since we had to wait in the room down under. thankfully we went up and got air before we got sick.

We started fishing and I didn't feel great. Apparently neither did Mike as he had to stick his head over the side of the boat. Funny thing, about 15 minutes later,
Mike caught the first fish of the day....


By this point, I was just sitting and trying not to move as it was too much. Well, I went to put my sweater down below, which was a mistake. The movement and heat caught up with me and thankfully, I made it to the bathroom in time! So much for us thinking we had sea stomachs.

I spent the rest of the time sitting against the boat with my eyes closed, enjoying the sun that was shining bright. Any sudden movements were not good. Finally, Mike seemed to have had enough and came over next to me and laid down. He dozed off and while he was sleeping, I started to feel better.

For the last 20-30 minutes, I managed to fish again and caught the last fish of the day! Here's my fish, before he jumped around at me. It happened 2-3 times.


Fishing was over and it was time to get back to land, which we all appreciated. Mike and I weren't the only ones that got sick and the water was very rough, not normal at all. So here's everyone's catch of the day....mackerel and horse mackerel


The catch was taken to a local restaurant, where they fixed us the most amazing and fresh lunch ever. They cut the mackeral into sashimi and it was super good. like wow.
Next they brought out fresh octopus in a sauce type sauce, which was also really good. The next dish...sardines with tomato sauce and my first time eating them

AND NO, they didn't smell or did we, but they tasted good.

We had another dish followed the by main dish of fish with rice and miso. The meal was spectacular and we probably would not have ever had something like this if we didnt' go fishing.

We had some ups and downs during the day, but had a great time and great meal. So good. Next time, our hope is that the water isn't as rough and we can catch other fish. OH fun times in Japan.

Ceramic Pottery Class

We needed a date night and something fun to do. Mike wasn't exactly excited about my idea, but I told him we could have burritos for dinner, so he agreed.

I found this class one day and had my japanese teacher make the reservations. It was an hour class with the clay prepared for us already. We made snowmen and it was it fun. We got to decorate the snowman any way we wanted with all the tools they provided.
Here's Mike hard at work


Our completed snowmen, prior to going in the fire. And yes, Mike's snowman is evil.


It was actually a fun Sunday afternoon and we get to keep them as a momento forever. They should be ready in about 4 weeks, so in just in time for Christmas!