We had a wonderful Christmas here in Tokyo. One highlight was having Dereck's sister spend 4 days with us, which is amazing since I had come to terms with not having Christmas with family until we move to the United States one day. But thanks to Melissa moving to Gunma to teach English, we had her join in on our mini family Christmas! She even brought along a friend who had nowhere to go for the holidays, and it was a grand American time. The girls are so easy to please- a couch?! English on TV?! not sleeping on the floor?! HEAT?! I think they would have been happy without any presents at all.
My parents celebrated Christmas on the 23rd to accommodate my brother and his wife's schedule. We got to Skype with them on Christmas eve day, which was so much fun. We all opened our presents together and it really felt like we were all there together. We got a great haul (woohoo Table Top Catapult!) and are blessed with such thoughtful family members who know what we like, and stick to the Xmas list for the most part haha!
Thanks to the girls visiting, I had plenty of help to prepare for our Christmas eve party. We had over 30 people plus about 8 or 10 children all crammed into our tiny house to enjoy Uff-da Tacos (Dereck's grandmother's tradition). Seeing the skepticism of eating taco fixings on fry bread turn to surprise and delight after taking a bite will never get old. Dereck did a great job in the kitchen and everybody was well stuffed (and well hydrated... we still have so many leftover drinks we'll have to throw a 2nd party!).
Christmas day brought even more food and presents and by 3pm we were stuffed and the wrapping paper had all been thrown out. Our friends invited us over for Christmas day dinner and we had to go enjoy even more food and good company. The girls had to catch a train that evening to head back north so we rounded out our Christmas with some hugs and see ya laters.
It was one of the best Holidays I can remember. We are so blessed to have so many amazing friends here in Japan that really feel like family. I never imagined being able to feel so much love over the holidays while being an ocean away from most of our family, but life has a way of surprising you. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are able to ring in the new year joyfully!
Now, for some silly Holiday photos and dogs in costumes...
