christmas lights

I was told to post a blog and some pics :)

Street lights from the 15th floor of the Marriott

Nagoya Station, notice the trees at the bottom
These are the trees under the castle in the pic above

Date Night :)

First of all, I must thank my darling husband for fixing my blog so that comments can be left again, and for a wonderful day - just the two of us :)

Sam and I had "date day/night!" Our friends, Tom, Hami, and their daughters, Emily and Sara entertained the girls for us today. They baked cookies with them, played games, ate popcorn and watched movies, and read stories at bedtime. The girls had a wonderful time!

Sam and I rode the subway to Sakae. We shopped at some of our favorite stores and then went to eat at The Outback. We had a beer (remember we rode the subway) and sat and talked and enjoyed some wonderful food! We went to a few more stores and then headed for Nagoya Station. Sakae had beautiful Christmas lights, but Nagoya Station was amazing. I will try and get pictures posted tomorrow. Imagine that - we actually had a chance to stop and smell the roses AND take a few pictures :) We then went back to Sakae and went to the Hardrock Cafe and split a pitcher of Kirin Ichiban- yum! We made it home about 8:30, and Sophie had already crashed :) It didn't take long for Gracie and Izzy to nod off either. We talked to Tom, Hami, Emily, and Sara until 11:00! We had a wonderful day thanks to some wonderful friends!

Happy New Year!
~Michelle

P.S. I have our Christmas picture cards, but need to get them mailed. As Sam said, they may be Merry Christmas/Happy Easter cards :)

Christmas Eve

I don't know what I've done to the "comments" button. I've tried to go in and "fix" it, but now I seem to have made it even worse. I'll work on it over the Christmas break because I love reading your comments.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the girls are excited! Our friends, Kim and Wayne, came over today. Kim helped me cook and bake. We made pecan pie, pumpkin pie, fudge, candy strawberries, date-nut bread, spinach dip, 7-layer dip, cranberry relish, and broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole. She is going to heat the ham and bring some desserts, deviled eggs, and more things for dinner. Kim was a huge help - things went twice as fast, AND she kept the dirty dishes done for me - so sweet! I made the cookie doughs several days ago, so I just need to bake them and wah-lah! I'm going to cook a turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and macaroni and cheese tomorrow. We will have 14-20 people joining us for Christmas Eve dinner - we're so excited! I appreciate Kim's help and enjoyed "big girl" time.

Wayne went with Sam and the girls to play. They came home with some really cool things! I will post a picture of the plaques the girls made today.

I'll be thinking of you all! We miss and love our American families and friends and adore and appreciate our friends in Japan!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus!
~Michelle

Christmas in Japan

I'm so looking forward to Christmas! We will be having neighbors and friends join us on Christmas Eve. My friend, Kim, will be coming over tomorrow to help me cook and bake. It's nice to have "girly" time.

Sam and Kim's husband, Wayne, are going to take the girls to play, while we cook and bake.

The girls are excited (ok, totally out of control) about Santa coming. They DO know that Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I know some of our family and friends have been worried about us. I can honestly tell you that Sam and I are loving this opportunity! We are so blessed to be given this opportunity. We are going to miss the people here so much! I can honestly tell you that I feel "at home" now. However, it is very difficult being away from family and friends as they are enduring extreme hardships. Please know we pray for you daily.

My new love- I love onigiri, which is a triangular-shaped rice cake. It is covered in dry seaweed and has a filling - I love the salmon!

We love you and will be sending Christmas cards - late as usual. I'm totally playing the triplet "card" at this point.

Merry Christmas!
~Michelle

Playgroup

We had playgroup today. There weren't a lot of moms/kids there, but we had fun. I was "in charge" of something since joining the group - woo hoo! I brought reindeer cookies (I had so much fun making them) and animal crackers, apples, and mikan. Mikan is a Japanese tangerine. They are in season right now, and I haven't seen a kid, or HUSBAND, that didn't like them. Sam actually bought Izzy and me a Mikan tree!

We had a new potential member come today. She is Japanese married to a Nigerian. How cool is that! I love being able to experience such diversity!!! Her baby is absolutely beautiful :)

After playgroup, we went to the park. It's nice because our children play, and we get to visit with other moms. There were only three moms today, but our kids played so nicely together, and I had a great time visiting! Adult conversation....who would've thought?!

Missing friends and family in America, and rejoicing at new friendships God has sent!
~Michelle

Our Christmas Party

We had our Chayagasaka Playgroup Christmas Party today. Wow! What a wonderful time we had. Our friend, Mike, helped us out a "ho! ho! ho!" lot (wink, wink)! He helped to make the kids' day so wonderful and magical. I just couldn't explain to him, but wanted him to know what a wonderful thing he did for a group of very sweet children. We truly got to witness the Christmas Spirit through the expressions on our children's and Santa's face. The girls have been talking about it all day. Not only did Santa take time to spend with OUR children, but he stopped for every other child and teenager he met coming and going to our party (there was no where to park the sleigh, so he had to park it a few blocks away and walk). If the children were Japanese, he spoke Japanese to them! Their little faces were priceless - there weren't as many smiles as there were, "I can't believe Santa is talking to me" looks. What a gift God sent when he sent our Santa! So, again, I have to say a very heartfelt thank you to Mike (and Lana for helping with the wardrobe) for getting Santa to visit today and helping to bring the Spirit of Christmas to our children and ourselves. You have given the most precious gift of all!

Sam got to meet all of the cutie-patooties I talk about every week. He sees now why I love the playgroup so much. The girls and I get to know and learn about people from all over the world. The moms and their children are all so incredibly sweet! We got to meet a lot of the dads today, too, which was so nice. Not a day goes by that we don't talk about what an amazing experience and opportunity that God has provided for our family.

Tonight, we are feeling and appreciating all the blessings God has given our family. We have health, a loving family, and wonderful friends! We are truly blessed!!!

Love and Hugs!
~Michelle

So proud of our girls!

Sophie came running into the kitchen while ago and said, "Mommy, you know what 4+4 is?!" I said, "What Sophie?" She tells me 8! I asked her how she learned that, and she said, "I studied and then I counted it." We haven't sat down and formally worked on addition. I've just introduced it in play or situations where it came up. I "tested" her a few more times, and I was amazed that she does not count on her fingers - she looks up with her eyes and visualizes it. She even did 6+7! She got 12 the first time, but when I told her to recount, she came up with 13. She is one of those blessed people, who can look at or hear something and commit it to memory. If you knew, or remember, how sick our Sophie Bear was when she was born, you would understand how wonderful these moments are for me. We were so thankful to God to simply have her, but to have this wonderful brain, too.....we are so incredibly blessed.

Gracie's talent.....well....she can cross her eyes (makes my chest swell with pride). She loves right now to cross her eyes to make you laugh. I have tried to break her of it with the old "motherism," your eyes will stick that way, but tonight she did it for her daddy, who burst out laughing. So, we are back to square one. Sam was also teaching her how to stand on her head last night. She can make it to balancing her knees on her elbows - pretty impressive! HOWEVER, Sophie was also attempting it. The girl may be smart, but coordination is not at the top of her repertoire. I suspect that in the near future you will be reading about our first trip to the Japanese emergency room.

Gracie and Sophie are very into Barbies and Princesses right now - very girly. The other day Gracie had a prince driving Barbie and her cat around the house. I, looking for trouble, asked Gracie why the prince was driving and not Barbie. She never looked up, but said, "Because Daddy always drives (with a tone of voice like, Duh, Mom)."

And Izzy....Izzy, Izzy, Izzy. As we're discussing Gracie's eye-crossing talent, Izzy pushes her nose up with her finger, and says, "I can see my nose!" Again, a very proud moment. Seriously, she was depressed for about a week, but is doing great now. She is such a funny girl. She loves anything related to nature or science, and the Shinkansen train. For Christmas, she asked Santa for a Shinkansen train, a dinosaur playset, a stuffed dinosaur, and a toaster and coffee pot - that's my well-rounded girl! I laugh that she plays Barbies too - she uses the Barbie car to drive her plastic beetles and dinosaurs around in.

Our dear friend, Ms. Sue, kept the girls for me so I could get some shopping done (and have lunch with my hubby). While sitting and snuggling Izzy on the couch, I told her, "We need to put up our stockings." She says, "I told Miss Sue that you sellded them." "Izzy, you told Miss Sue I SOLD them!" "No, I telled her you sellded them." Big Sigh!!! So, Miss Sue if you're reading, I did not sell my girls' stockings in Garage Sell-Palooza 2007! Again, big sigh :)

I have discovered the origins of stone-washed jeans and the source or all those "embarrassing" kid stories floating around the internet - 4 YEAR-OLDS!

We had Japanese lessons last night. I just love what we're learning, but I told Sam today that I know just enough Japanese to get myself into a heap of trouble. The phrases that you use to let them know you DON'T understand Japanese, apparently have the opposite effect. I need to ask our sensei, Keiko-san, how to say, "I'm an idiot, and you should not try to communicate with me." Sam and I are just loving this whole experience. We're looking forward to Christmas!!!

Love and Hugs!
~Michelle

Our trip to Asuke

This weekend we went to Asuke. I googled some information about it:

Asuke is a town of just over 10,000 residents in northeastern Aichi. In the Edo period (1603-1867) in particular, it thrived as a post town on the chumakaido highway, which was the route to transport the salt produced along the shores of Mikawa Bay in the 19th century. The town still has many old houses. In fact, most of the historic wooden buildings still standing are kept in good repair by the townspeople themselves, and almost all remain in use as homes, shops, or showplaces.

The Korankei Gorge, home to about 4,000 maple trees, is one of Aichi's best-known spots for viewing the brilliant colors of autumn. The gorge is illuminated at night during the foliage-viewing season when over 4000 trees beautifully change color.

We also visited Sanshu Asuke Yashiki. This is an old farmhouse from the early Meiji Era, reconstructed in 1980. Inside, aspects of farmhouse life and manual work are reenacted, including straw crafts, weaving and paper making, which were common features in every Japanese mountain village until the mid-'50s. We actually got to watch some weavers, paper umbrella makers, woodworkers, basketmakers, a lady making/using indigo dye, and a couple of ladies going through the processes of paper making. The highlight for the girls was a man with a trained monkey that wore a purple kimono. I'm pretty sure he was a snow monkey.

We will post pictures on our image event site (link above, to the left), but as Sam said, they just don't do it justice. The river is pristine with huge boulders, as well as rocks that fit the hands of 4 year-old rock-throwers. There were huge redwood-looking trees. The food, as typical for Japan, was very interesting. I had some rice stuck to a stick, which is then slathered with a BBQ sauce. I also had buckwheat soba noodles. The girls had pineapple on a stick and sausage on a stick. Sam tried a large glutenous ball covered in sesame seeds. I'll have to find out what they're called. We saw a lot of foods that looked really good, as well as some octopus and fish on a stick (head, tail, and all). It was a wonderful day!