Thanksgiving Recap - Part 1

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We just returned from a great week with the Wes and Tami family.   (You know the guy who has a job much cooler than your job?  That's Wes.  See the above link.)

You may recall that they are the friends who stayed with us after the earthquake.  They used some Timeshare points to get condos in Lake Tahoe and asked us --while we were still in Japan-- if we wanted to join them for Thanksgiving.

We considered the fall-out if we chose to spend our first major holiday in the states with friends instead of family...

Then we realized that they ARE our family:  Uber Family.  Earthquake Family.  Japan Family.  Just family.  And hey, they asked us first.  So we said YES!

(Plus, we're also FUTURE family since we're planning for our kids to inter-marry--just to make things more official.)

We are SO glad we went.  We had a blast.  Here's a quick(longish) re-cap:

Thanksgiving Tahoe Vacation

Day 1/Tuesday:  Leave at 6:30 a.m.  Drive a new way up the 395.  Drive drive, drive drive drive, 

Breakfast at Denny’s, drive on windy road, stop for Sam to puke, drive drive drive.

Really pretty scenery, stop for ice ball fight,

drive drive drive, 12 different pee breaks, drive, drive, drive, stop at an antique store, drive drive drive.

Arrive in Tahoe.  Papa Murphy’s for dinner.  Meet up with Tami and Wes, check in to our BEAUTIFUL condo.  {This is the second time Doug and I have stayed in a time share condo in Tahoe and, again, it was awesome.} We had a two room suite, Tami and Wes had a two room suite, and Wes’ brother Sam, wife Adrienne, and their eight kids had a three room suite.  If we ever buy a time share, it will be in Tahoe.  It was awesome.

(We met Sam and Adrienne when we went to Monterey for Camille’s baptism a few months ago and our kids were excited to see each other again.)

Day 2/Wednesday:  We visited the lake (right across the street from our condo)

It was a little chilly, but super-duper beautiful!

And only one kid (Sammy) fell in the frozen lake.

 relaxed, hung out, made pies, watched HGTV and YouTube videos,

Doug and Wes are such a cute couple!

went in the hot tub,

and went shopping for groceries and supplies.  (I made two America’s Test Kitchen Chocolate Cream Pies.  No Peanut Butter pie this year…I thought it would be too hard in a condo kitchen.  I’ll make it for Christmas!)

Day 3/Thursday:  Tami made stuffing and we got it in the Turkey and in the oven early.  (I was in charge of the turkey, which is the easiest thing ever) and Adrienne did potatoes.  Tami made apple pies the day before and the rolls were from Costco this year.  Oh, and Doug made Raspberry Jello which is always a crowd pleaser...

Wes, Doug and Sam (Sam is Wes' older brother)

Lunch/dinner was at 2 and a huge success.  Everything tasted fabulous and there were plenty of left-overs.

Lots of kids having lots of fun!

Tami, Me, Adrienne

Mini Wes and Mini Doug (Sam Jr. and Max)

To top off a perfect day, Guillotine and Rummikub were both played multiple times.

With one major exception, it was a fabulous day!

And that exception is...a story for tomorrow!

To Be Continued... 

Christmas Re-cap

Christmas Eve:

Our first Christmas away from extended family, (while living in San Francisco) we went out for Mexican food on Christmas Eve. We liked it so much, we've been doing it ever since. (We don't go out here, though. We make it at home. But who's to say whose version is more authentic...the American or Japanese...??)

We had two awesome (very healthy vegetarian) families, as well as a set of missionaries, over for dinner. (See Doug's blog for the cultural lesson we got from the Australian missionary.)

Our Mexican feast included: Vegetarian Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Bolillos, (Spindle Rolls), Salad with Hicama, Fruit Salad, Mexican Hot Chocolate to drink, plus Tres Leches, Flan, and Sweet Rice for dessert. YUM!!!

After dinner, we had a spiritual thought from the missionaries, Christmas carols, the Nativity enacted by the kids,

and the traditional Opening of the Jammies:

It was a great night with great friends!

Christmas Day:

Christmas Morning was the best one I've had since becoming a mom eight years ago. Here's why: (It's not even because I got a new piano, Snoopy Sno-cone Machine, Samurai Sword back scratcher, Sushi Play-doh set, sea glass jewelry and lots of books. Those were just bonuses!!!)

My oldest man-child, Maxwell, takes after his father, who takes after HIS father in the area of "present opening reaction".

All three have the same response when opening gifts, and the reaction is...NO reaction.

Or maybe a smile and one-word response.

An exclamation of surprise or happiness is extremely rare, and a joyful jump is entirely out of the question.

So for Maxwell's whole life, I've watched, the following scene unfold:

--Christmas Morning--

Door opens...

Boy (or boys) run(s) in.

Max see's his BIG, MAIN Santa gift, unwrapped, in front of him.

Max looks at BIG, MAIN gift. MIGHT let out weak "cool!", then, IMMEDIATELY moves on to see what else he has. (Once he even uttered the horrible phrase "Is that all?")

This happens EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR!!!

THIS YEAR, however...HE DIDN'T MOVE ON! He didn't look for more!!!

He saw his HUGE pile of loose Lego's (purchased by a thrifty Santa on e-Bay) and with big eyes, moved in and started building!!! And KEPT building happily not even ASKING to open his wrapped presents under the tree!!! Not even bothering to raid his stocking for candy!!!

It seriously warmed this jaded mother's heart!

Sammy, thankfully, is a lot easier to please. He saw his "Ho town of Gee-o Twax*" (Purchased by a thrifty Santa on Misawa's Virtual Yard Sale) and yelled and jumped for joy.** And ALSO played happily without asking to open his wrapped presents under the tree!

And THAT is how I judge a successful gift-giving year! Great job, Santa!!!! You really earned your cookies this time!

(For the record, Gabe got a Little People airplane, and some rhythm instruments, which he liked, but he was mostly interested in playing GeoTrax with Sammy.) (Here he is showcasing some Anpanman finger puppets.)

Later in the day, another of our favorite families (not vegetarian) came over for another delicious meal. (Made mostly by Erin of said favorite family.) Turkey, Potatoes, and Gravy, Stuffing, Rolls, Salad, Martinelli's to drink and Chocolate Mousse Cake for dessert. After which the kids watched a movie and the adults played "Sequence". (Thanks Shad and Kellie, for introducing us to Sequence so many years ago!)

Anyway, it was a busy, exhausting, friend, food, and fun filled two days and I wouldn't trade a minute of it. (Except those minutes when I had to tell Erin we had no other side dishes because Doug had taken a nap and I lost track of time reading my novel...ehem.)

I feel very very blessed that in the absence of extended family, we have such great friends here. We really seem to luck out every where we live when it comes to meeting really cool people. (Who accept us for the sarcastic, irreverent, half carnivore/half vegetarian weirdos that we are.)

That's enough of THAT!

Hope YOU had a Merry Christmas too! Your card is FINALLY in the mail!

Happy New Year!!!!

*Note to all parents with boys: We've been through a lot of different trains and train sets. We like Fisher Price GeoTrax the best! Buy 'em on Craigslist!

**The BEST and my favorite reaction of the day: Sam opens a gift. It's two "Pigeon" books. He YELLS gleefully and then says "These awe by Mo Willems! My favowit awe-tho!!!"

Halloween Recap

We celebrated another fun Halloween here in Misawa. Pumpkins were carved for Family Night the Monday before the big day. The boys picked their design, Mom and Dad did the dirty work.

(One of the pumpkins has morning sickness. Which inevitably leads to stringy hair.)

For costumes, Max was Darth Vadar and Sam was Obi Wan Kanobi. (Thanks Target.com!) Unfortunately, I have only one picture!!!

Sam at the Halloween party at church.

No pictures of the other two. (Gabey was an Orange Monster, btw. Hand-me-down. Poor third child!!!)

Once again we had friends over for Soup and Homemade Donuts. (Alton Brown's donut recipe. Made by Chef Extrodinaire, Erin. They are Donut perfection. They are the best EVER! Erin is the best ever for making a million of them over the course of two hours!)

Once again we had about a million Trick or Treaters. But this time, we were prepared. I bought about 10 big bags of candy and the friends who came brought just as much. I'm not so good with the numbers but I'd say we gave away over 1,000 pieces.

Once again, a good time was had by all.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!