Happy New Year - Casino Night

This New Year's Eve was Casino Night at the Officer's Club on base. Chad and I hosted a pre-party to the evening at our house with fun holiday inspired drinks and appetizers. We had a huge crowd here and the party was a lot of fun. So much fun that we nearly missed the dinner at the club. People were slow leaving our house.

The club had a nice spread for dinner and tables set up with Blackjack, Roulette, and Poker. They also had a band. The night was really fun. We rang in the New Year with all of our friends here in Atsugi.

Nikko Japan - A trip to a cabin

The day after Christmas we headed off in a huge rental conversion van with our good friends The Allisons to a cabin in Nikko Japan for two nights. Nikko is located about 90 miles north of Tokyo. In good Japanese fashion it took us about 5 hours to drive 130 miles. Boy was it worth the wait. The guys managed to get us there with only 1 turn around. If you were to see the directions we had you too would be very impressed. We stayed at a place called Woodsman Village. It has about 6 cabins of varying sizes. The snow was lightly falling as we pulled in...it was very picturesque. After the guys checked us in we headed to the cabin to get unloaded.


Here are the girls in front of the office. There was a cute little snowman that they had their sights set on building for themselves.

One of the first things we did was get a fire lite so the girls could roast marshmallows. Jennie and I split cooking the meals and we grilled out over that fire each night. That was the best tasting food and probably something we will never be able to recreate.

The fridge was very small so we ended up chilling all of our wine outside in the snow.

While Jennie and I got dinner ready Chad helped the girls build their minature snowman.

After a great night of eating, drinking and talking we got up the next morning and drove up Mount Nantai. It was snowing pretty hard and we had to stop half way up the mountain to put the snow chains on. Somehow these tiny Japanese cars were barreling up the mountain, but we were slipping and sliding. The guys did a great job getting them on while it was freezing and snowing and we were at a serious incline. Once at the top of the mountain we stopped at Kegan Falls and took the elevator down to the base of the fall. The fall was partially frozen and at some point in winter it freezes all the way.

Lauren had a great time having a snowball fight with Daddy and John.


Another magnificent sight to see is Lake Chuzenji. It was huge and very windy and cold there.

This is the Tori gate on the way into town.

The Toshogu Shrine is a very famous shrine in Japan. It has the wooden see no evel, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys there.

Here we are waking up our last morning there. These are the futons that all Japanese people sleep on. They were not as uncomfortable as they look.



We had a fantastic weekend. It was wonderful to get away to see such a beautiful part of Japan.

Santa Claus Came to Town

What a very Merry Christmas we had considering how far away from family we are this year. Lauren was the first up...but was such a doll and didn't even wake us up. She stayed in bed and colored until Chad woke up at 6:30 per the strict instructions we gave her last night. Allie the sleepy head had to be woken up out of a comatose sleep.

The girls had such a great time opening up presents. Thanks Uncle Joey for those awesome walkie talkies. The neighborhood kids were checking them out today.

Here is Chad opening up the gift Lauren made in school at the ceramic shop. She was so proud of it. A clay ornament with her picture in it. Allie was looking on with curiosity.

Nana...they loved the books. Lauren can't wait to start reading her chapter books. She gets to stay up later in bed than Allie and read two chapters a night.

Aunt Kim and Uncle Tim and girls...they both loved all of their goodies from you all. Allie had to stop right away and put on her new dress.

Lauren and Allie both got computer gaming systems from Santa. I spent most of my day playing Tinker Bell with Lauren. I am addicted.

Another huge hit were the Ipod shuffles from Grandma and Papa. Thanks so much!!! You should see them dancing with their headphones on.


We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Merii Kurisumasu

That is how the Japanese spell Merry Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas Eve. Our friends the Allisons and the Billotis came over for dinner. I made a standing rib roast, mac and cheese, a pot of southern green beans and potatoes (read pork fat), and yeast rolls. Andrea brought a delicious green salad and Jennie made croissant bread pudding and egg nog cheesecake. Everything was so good. After dinner we walked to the chapel for the Candlelight service.

Our tradition is to open one gift which is always a new pair of jammies. This time they came from Nana. Lauren wondered how Nana knew that she had always wanted kimono pjs. Lauren wrote Santa a note and Chad showed the girls on the internet where Santa was. They hurried upstairs to get to bed. Merii Kurisumasu everyone! We sure do feel far away and miss our family and friends stateside during these holidays.

Reindeer Ballet

On Sunday, Allie had her ballet recital. They did a number to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. It was cuter than you can even imagine. Jillian her ballet teacher made all the costumes for al her classes. They were precious. Allie is the second one in from the right. Check back for more pictures...my camera ran out of battery and a friend needs to e-mail me more of the pictures she took.

Winter Wonderland

Allie came home from school the other day and realized that she was the only one in her class that had not seen Santa yet. So when I heard that there was a Winter Wonderland on base complete with Santa and games we knew we had to go. I had no idea what all this day would entail. Lauren took one look at the Philippine Claus family and said...and I quote "I AM not sitting on his lap...he is NOT Santa.". Chad proceeded to explain how busy Santa is and how he can't make it to all the parties. Allie on the other hand was perfectly happy sitting on his lap and getting the stocking full of treats he was handing out.

After Santa and playing all the games inside. We headed outside to the pony rides and petting zoo. Of course...a petting zoo at the Winter Wonderland.




Here they are petting the friendly mice. I was more than happy to let Chad help them with that activity. I began having flashbacks to Norfolk.




The last thing we did was a magic show with the Japanese clowns. They didn't speak any English to the kids, but they understood none the less. Lauren was picked to toss rings onto the other guy's head. She missed but got a balloon animal just for trying.

Are we Merry?

I can't remember why Lauren was so disenchanted during her Food Court Caroling program. Maybe it was b/c her Santa hat got wet in the rain. All the first graders walked over to the Navy Exchange Food Court to sing to people there eating lunch. That entailed all the parents of the 1st graders. Most people saw the huge gaggle of kids and turned around for other eating options.

Det Wives Lunch

Here we are in all our glory. These woman are the wives of the guys in our det. We have a small Det to begin with and then 1/2 of the pilots are not married. Mylene in the back right is leaving Friday so then we will be down to three of us. We had a wonderful lunch at a place called Saint Marc. We ordered the "set" menu which was a 5 course meal. It was delicious. There was the "bread lady" that kept bring us crossiants, rolls, baguettes, etc. I think she brought us 12 different kinds of breads. We had such a fun time!

Christmas Lunch with Japanese students

One of the wives in the det, Amy, invited me to join her class of Japanese students for lunch on base. This is a real treat for them to get to come on base. The local Japanese people are very curious about the base that is located in their city. We had a wonderful lunch and then did a gift exchange. They showered me with gifts just for joining them. I was very honored by their generosity.

Christmas Concert

Laure was in a Musical Theater Christmas performance this weekend. She had speaking lines and everything. She did an amazing job. For as shy as she is one on one she never has a problem speaking up on stage in front of an audience.


Here they are getting last minute instructions from their teach Ms. Linda.



Chad was pulled on stage to join the Irish step dancers by our neighbor Macayla. He did the Irish proud!

Mochi Tsuki

>On Friday night we were invited by our Japanese counterparts on base to their annual Mochi Tsuki or Mochi pounding party. Mochi is glutinous rice that is pounded into a paste and then formed into a shape. Mochi is typically eaten around the New Year, but also enjoyed all times of the year. Lauren and I have become huge fans of Mochi Cream which is a sweet form of mochi that is filled with different cream flavorings. They are amazingly delicious.

The picture above are the girls getting ready to head on the bus to the party





This lady wrote each of our names in Kangi. The girls were in a kids party area which had lots of traditional Japanese games along with oragami folding lessons and a sweet sugar machine that spun something similar to cotton candy. They came home with a bag full of souviners.

They had traditionaly Japanese dancers. The girls and I went to the front to join them. That was so much fun.

On stage they had Mochi pounding demonstrations. The chant some word each time they hit the mochi. In modern days there is now a machine that pounds the mochi.



Here is Chad taking a stab at pounding. He worked up quite a sweat.