Christmas 2010

Our last Christmas in Misawa. Here are A FEW pics of Elijah's gifts....he had a great Christmas!

Karate Kid collection (yep the originals) 1, 2 and 3!

Lego World Racer set....he loves putting these together

WWE wrestling ring

WWE wrestler action figures (not dolls -- he corrected me earlier)

Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3

Computer to hook up to his keyboard....please notice me on the right hand said of the pic. By this time, Elijah had been opening gifts for at least an hour (I am not exaggerating). He hasn't caught onto the 'RIP OPEN YOUR GIFTS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE" thing yet.

Happy EARLY Birthday to Elijah!!!!

No, no , no you didn't miss his 9th birthday :) We celebrated early (Dec 28) because friends that he has celebrated his birthday with for 3 years are PCSing next week, so Elijah wanted to celebrate with them before they left. After gathering the gang, this is what we did:

Took or met all the kiddos at the Weasel's Den

I 'think' I got everyone in this shot????

Each child had a specific request about where they wanted pictures taken....hmmm those were the ones that made the final cut :)

Pizza making at home --the kids LOVED this part! I did too....SUPER cute!

Enjoyed their creations:)

He was a bit apprehensive about the sparkly, relighting candles. Yummy, Yummy Baskin Robins ice cream cake!

So my plan for his actual birthday is to make a football shaped cupcake cake for him to bring to his classroom.....cross your fingers that it works out well :) It's going to be hard to top last year's classroom birthday cake.

Christmas Cookie Factory

As noted before, Elijah enjoys cooking with me. Since we are officially on Christmas Break (woohooo) we rolled up our sleeves and started baking for our family and the neighbors.

This year we made cashew brittle and sugar cookies with sugar sprinkles, hazelnut and cinnamon sprinkles and decorations. We put each of the desserts in Christmas ziplock bags and placed them in Christmas canisters for our neighbors. My little elf, Elijah, always delivers them to everyone.

rolling out the sugar cookies.........also known as making a great, big, gigantic mess :)
taste testing the first batch.....he gave it one thumb up!
Sidenote: I think parchment paper was one of the BEST inventions ever! Sprinkles up front and hazelnut-cinnamon in the back.
Elijah took all the leftover sugar cookie dough, rolled it out, formed himself the largest cookie he could make and threw a ton of sugar AND sprinkles on top. He waited an extra long time (in kid time) for it to be done (8 whole minutes). He gave this one 2 thumbs up!

Hmmm what shall we bake next??? Any suggestions?

Elijah in school

Can you spot Elijah? He has on a Pokemon shirt and red pants (disclaimer: he picks out his clothes himself).

Click here!

We really like Sollars Elementary School!!!

TOO much of a good thing

Elijah L.O.V.E.S. boiled eggs! So tonight as I was cooking dinner he let me know that he was REALLY hungry and asked if he could have some boiled eggs to hold him over (sure....no problem I said)

He got the boiled eggs out of the fridge (I have to keep them on hand), peeled them and then proceeded to season them according to his 'liking'!

I was facing the stove and all I heard was, "Ooops". The poor kid grabbed the GARLIC SALT instead of the regular salt and POURED it on top. I told him that he used way too much and that he needed to rinse the eggs off under the faucet and start again........fearing that his beloved boiled eggs would go to waste his response was, "No Mom, it is okay..I like my eggs that way." After one bite this was his expression.........
Lesson Learned Today By Elijah: read the packaging very carefully and SPRINKLE not pour.

Making a Snoopy Gingerbread Doghouse

Elijah had a friend spend the night last night and they made a gingerbread doghouse. They ate more candy than they put on the doghouse......isn't that what it's all about anyway? :)

white icing came with the kit, but Elijah asked if we could use chocolatenbecause it kinda looks like dog poop.......oh boy!
I am pretty sure the gummy worms were holding the roof together....

Our trip to the Big Buddha

What an amazing site to see! We decided to go on a day road trip to Aomori, Japan to see the Big Buddha! NO --- we are NOT converting to Buddhism - we just wanted to see it for Pete's Sake! We still believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior!

Elijah decided to skip the raod trip to go to his friend's birthday party/sleepover. Oh, such tough decisions to make as an 8 year old!

That's a lot of arms!
Before you go into the Buddha, you are supposed to get those ladles, dip it in water and wash your hands. After you washed you hands, you are supposed to pour a bit of water into your hands, sip it and clean out your mouth.

I ♥ that this one was bundled up for the cold weather

The main attraction......(drum roll please)......The Big Buddha! Notice how high it is above the tree line. We went inside of it too.

Japanese Pagoda House

When the cat's away......

The Friday after Thanksgiving gave the ladies a chance to have a surprise birthday party/crab boil together and the guys could get together to play PS3. Eddie volunteered our house for the guys.

Before leaving the house I took a few walk throughs and made sure there was nothing (ummm how should I say it) EXPLOSIVE, FLAMMABLE or SHARP hanging around. With 5 years as a safety monitor under my belt, I felt like I had done a pretty, darn good job clearing things. We grabbed our purses and the ladies were on our way to adult solitude!

There were a total of 4 different families at our house. ALL the kids were B.O.Y.S. -- every single one of them! All of them are 100% boys too! 8 years old, 7 years old, 5 years old, 4 years old, 17 months and 15 months.

A few hours later I walked into (I'll try to help you make a mental picture of this):

-- PS3 Black Ops was still on (no surprise there)

-- the boys cleaned up Elijah's room - there was a mixed pile of toys and clothes pushed to the corner of his room? huh?

-- the bottom 24 inches of the Christmas tree was ornamentless........I guess the lights and shiny ornaments were too much for the younger two. On a good note - all the ornaments were sitting on top of the kitchen table -- unbroken ☺

-- a bowl of glass balls (usually sits in the bookcase) high on some furniture

-- laughter from the older boys in the backroom (my FAV part)

-- aaaaaand this 36 inch vase.... the absolute best part! Sitting on kitchen table also. Eddie said that it was all like the "quickest, slow motion he had ever seen". Take a second....please reread that description -- that is directly from Eddie! He saw it about to happen, but he just couldn't get to the kids on time.

These families are TRULY like family to us! We do MOST things together - I am 100% positive that Elijah has broken things at their house too! NO HARM, NO FOUL! Just great memories of our extended family here in Misawa!

Salmon Catching 2010

So we went to this festival 2 years ago. It was so much fun that we had to go again. Last year we planned to go, but the salmon catching was cancelled because there was a jelly fish invasion and the jelly fish were killing off too many salmon.

Eddie was successful in catching a large female fish.....I wasn't so lucky :) I was too busy socializing with the Japanese locals to really pay attention to what was going on around me. It didn't help that someone (that shall remain nameless) lost her balance and fell into the salmon pool. There is a 3 minute time limit on catching a salmon, so when you spend 1 1/2 min laughing at someone......one's time gets a bit limited. (excuses, excuses)

Elijah couldn't catch one either. Though in his defense, those suckers (female salmon) are STRONG! Elijah swears that his dad stole his fish from him....that wasn't the case at all....but we allowed him to believe his fabrication as long as it made him feel better about being unsuccessful in his attempt.

Salmon Roe - this is what the sac of eggs look like inside the salmon

Waiting to get into the pool of salmon

English/Japanese rules of salmon catching signs

Halloween 2010

Rainy and cold.......Elijah only wanted to trick or treat for about 40 min. (he got cold, wet and uncomfortable) When he got back he took over the front door duty at our house....until we ran out of all 80 giant Pixie Stixs. There is a window of time to trick or treat on base (5pm-8pm) We ran out at 630! There were a TON of kids out this year!

He got more candy in 40 min then he could possibly eat in a year! Thanks to Andre for the regulation helmet! Elijah said he was going to carry it all night because it was too big for his head (he looked like a bobblehead when he wore it) as soon as he realized that it was still raining outside he decided to put that helmet on to protect his head from the rain.

The Entertainer

Our little pianist! This is the first song he learned.

Only in Japan...

....do you see a Japanese Robot Pop Star. Go ahead and watch....it's pretty cool actually!

Check it out!

http://video.yahoo.com/network/101149635?v=8416665&l=5144210

Bike Ride Through the Oirase Gorge

Last weekend, Eddie and I joined a group of avid cyclers (both American and Japanese), rode about 45 minutes up the rode, passed Towada City to the entrance of the Oirase Gorge. In order to appreciate the love I have for my husband, please understand that cycling is HIS thing .... not so much mine! I would MUCH rather put on a pair of Adidas running shoes (I prefer those b/c they have high arch supports) and go jogging.

So like I was saying, he LOVES cycling, has a world-class bike (not Lance Armstrong, but pretty close - we don't have Lance Armstrong money!!) and mine.....uh.....well...mine is probably 2 steps up from a 1980's ten speed. Whatever! So basically the ride is easier and smoother for better bikes......hmmm.... I have better running shoes than him! HA take that, Eddie!

So we found out about this annual bike ride through the gorge and afterwards some Japanese people were going to cook us lunch! The lunch won me over! I was GAME! I am one gal that truly appreciates F-O-O-D.

For the record, we were biking for 2 1/2 hours up and down hills with cars within 24 inches of us...that is the reason Elijah did not come.

It really was a beautiful ride with a ferry, waterfalls, lakes and rivers. Here are some pics from the ride:

This was 1/4 of the people that went on the ride

Doesn't it look difficult to write those characters?

YES! We made it and all I had to do now is sit back and wait for lunch to be cooked for me :) He is making vegetable yakisoba! Yummers! I had 2 helpings....which pretty much equates to 1/2 an American-sized helping! After almost 3 years here - it is clear to me, in general, why the ladies here are smaller than American ladies.

She is grilling up some teriyaki chicken skewers.

So here I have some vegetable soup. All freshly cut veggies (mushrooms, carrots, cabbage and the other 3 veggies were some Japanese veggies -- couldn't tell you what they were but they were tasty) Oh yeah....it also included some cooked eggs too. Notice the chopsticks....would have been totally out of luck if you didn't know how to use them - there was not a fork or spoon in site! Even the cooks were using chopsticks when they were cooking the food :)