Christmas Eve Texinawa Style

We had SUCH a nice invitation for Christmas Eve! The LaBancs are some of our favorite people, so the thought of spending Christmas Eve with them was exciting. Even the kids were thrilled. Usually when we go to other peoples' homes, the kids get kind of put out because all the kids are younger. Without fail, our kids are the oldest ones. But Sarah is right in their age group...and she's tons of fun to hang with.


















The food was dee-LISH!




Remember my landscaping specialist, Andrew? He's their oldest son and he did the most fabulous job with the decorating. LOVE these pumpkin snowmen.

(Trivia: At the party, Patrick informed me that Andrew had come by in November wanting to know if we were going to use our pumpkins since we hadn't carved them. Unbeknownst to me, Patrick told him that we were going to use them...we were going to throw them off the roof. Obviously, had I known that Andrew had a legitimate use for them, I would have handed them over. He must have thought we were stingy dorks for holding onto our pumpkins solely for destructive purposes. Oh well, lucky for us his mom was in charge of the guest list. )







I LOVE these, too.



Had to get a shot sans flash so you could get the ambient effect.



He spray painted these buoys gold to look like jingle bells. Aren't they cute?



I love watching these kids together. Everything is more fun with Sarah around. As Patrick puts it, she has "purple gears". She can make anything seem more funny.



I thought no one was aware of my stealth photog...but Patrick surprised me at the last second. Funny boy.



Soon, they were asking me to take pics so they could try out new poses.



"in pain"



"strenuous clapping"



On the left is Col. Wright...he was Cliff's boss in Kuwait this summer (great to see him home again). On the right is Father Devine...a wonderful Chaplain friend, who had to eat and rush out to 2 different Christmas Eve services.



I know Karen is thrilled to have him home again, too. His deployment was a year!



And the sweet LaBanc family...minus Austin who is currently serving a mission.

Thanks, LaBancs! We had a wonderful time!

Merry Christmas!

Jusco Holiday Shopping

Patrick has been working a gift wrapping fundraiser for the high school in front of the Base Exchange the past couple of days in order to get in enough volunteer hours for JROTC. This sounded like a great idea to us...so yesterday we took ALL of our kids' presents in to be wrapped (when Patrick was off duty, of course). We separated them into 4 garbage bags and had them do a bag at a time, which kept things nice and organized. It was SO worth the $40 donation to get presents for 4 kids wrapped in one swoop.

After sorting everything by child, we discovered a bit of a disparity that needed to be corrected...so today we had to go out into town to Jusco in search of a special item (the BX shelves are just too picked over at this point).


Also part of the fundraiser...pics with Santa. I had to do a double take because I recognized this "Santa's helper" as a friend of ours. He let me snap my own photo for free...but I just didn't feel right about sitting on his lap (even though Cliff encouraged it).

We found what we were looking for in no time, and realized we need to do more of our Christmas shopping out in town.


This is Cliff turning in our purchased item to the FREE gift wrapping station. It's tagged, we're given a claim ticket and told to come back in 15 minutes. SWEET! So, we decide to take a little stroll around the floor to see what we can see. We just thought we'd share here:



Recognize this? Some things are universal.



Any guesses what this is?



It's baby food. Apparently, babies eat MRE's in Japan. Pretty cool! Justin and Brittani...want me to send some when the baby arrives, so (s)he doesn't miss out?



We looked over the Japanese washing machines. I told Cliff to pretend he was doing the laundry. Does he look realistically put out?



Next aisle...the toilet seats. And not just any toilet seats, either...



These people are serious about toilets! This one has a retractable bidet with pulsating action.



This one even has a remote.



This one might save a lot of marriages. Who thinks of these things? I'm thinking I want to come back to the USA with a $500 toilet seat. Maybe THAT'S what all the fuss was about with the government "fraud, waste and abuse" over those $1000 toilet seats. Did anyone bother to investigate what kind of features they came with? I'm just sayin'.



OK...this clip isn't about what you see...it's about what you hear. They kept playing this little jingle and I finally got it on tape. The only words I can understand are "Christmas shopping"...but they make it sound SO fun!

Well, our time was up so we headed back to pick up our wrapped purchase. We found a few other goodies on our way out of the store, though:


I made Cliff pose for this one under duress, actually...and this was the most modestly dressed of the...umm..."elves".



I feel like a "Japanese school girl" stalker with all the shots I get of them from a distance or from behind. I just LOVE these uniforms. One of these days I'll get the courage to ask some of them to pose for a photo.



Remember how I love children's Christmas books? I wish I knew what ones these are. I'm going to leave this island with a Japanese version of one, just for the novelty.



This is the same store where I found that Kanji "Obama" poster awhile back. They are all decked out for the holidays.



Umm...err...not really sure WHAT holidays...but, uh...

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Baking 09

Maybe it's all the illness we've had this month, or maybe it's all the boards and organizations I've busied myself with. Maybe it's the frustration of our "one butt" kitchen here...or maybe the season just got away from me. For whatever reason, I didn't do as much holiday baking this year.



The minimum requirement is shortbread...so I at least did that. It wouldn't be Christmas without shortbread, right Cliffie?



It always seems to be a big hit with friends and neighbors.



And then I decided to do my own dipped pretzels:


First, I dipped them in caramel, and then dark chocolate. They were OK...but nothing to write home about. Don't know that I'll be repeating these...LOTS of work for not much wow factor.

I also experimented with a bar recipe which included white chocolate, peppermint candy and pretzels. It turned out all crumbly and separated easily. I don't like white chocolate anyway, so I tossed the whole pan.

Then, Molly taught me how to make Baklava. That was fun...but we overdid it on the butter and syrup...so it turned out a big wet mess. Still yummy to eat...not really suitable for giving. Next time it will be a smashing success, I'm sure.

So then I just made our standard Stuart brownies (the Baker's one-bowl brownie recipe with 2 cups of Reese's peanut butter chips instead of the 1 cup of nuts). Yummy, as always (OK...except for that one time when I put in 2 HALF cups of sugar instead of 2 cups of sugar. Those weren't so good...but other than that, ALWAYS yummy).

Anybody else have anything they always bake for the holidays?

Mandatory Fun...Christmas Edition

Cliff's command had a great idea for a Christmas Party this year. It WAY beat some potluck at the community center trying to keep the kids entertained. We went to Round1...a sports complex/family fun center with something for everyone. Whoever came up with this idea needs a promotion.



We gathered briefly for some door prizes and gifts from "Santa"...



Santa?


Santa's looking like he may be keeping some late nights, I'm just sayin'.



Coree's been a good girl this year.



Evidently, so has Molly.




Then, it was off to have some fun.



The thing I thought was most ingenious about this operation...they have massage chairs located strategically throughout all the activities geared toward young children. That way the parents can relax while the kids play.



The bull riding was a hit! Here's Jake...



(Sorry, the camera would only do 2 seconds of video. We brought Cliff's camera and the batteries weren't charged. Luckily we were able to squeeze a few more photos out, though.)


and Coree...



and ME!

I was fine with the bucking (and by fine I mean hysterical laughter with intermittent screaming)...but once that thing started spinning around...


I was history.



Patrick enjoyed the roller blading...

And we also enjoyed many other activities...tennis, ping-pong, target shooting, video games. Unfortunately, Cliff took off to play volleyball upstairs with the camera in his pocket...so this is all I've got.

Merry Christmas!