Christmas is Coming the Goose is Getting Fat

It has been a very Christmasy week!  There was a cookie exchange, a book club discussing the book Christmas Jars, a Christmas movie night at the elementary school, and two Christmas programs at school!  I got really cute videos of Samuel and Celeste's Christmas programs, but now for the life of me I can not find the cable that connects the camcorder to the computer!  So you will just have to imagine it: First was Celeste's program.  She came out with her beautiful red dress and gold bolero on.  Her hair has a beautiful braid down each side.  She came out with her 12 other classmates and with all her energy and volume she has, she sang and danced Go Tell it on the Mountain, then We wish you a Merry Christmas smiling her big smile the whole time.  She ended with a sweet bow and her time in the lime light for this program was done.  She came to sit with us as another class performed, and the woman in front of us was wearing a tubetup style dress.  Because we were sitting in pews you couldn't see her dress, so Celeste exclaimed upon sitting down, "Mom, she's naked!"  :)

After that program ended we headed over to Samuel's school for his program.  He looked rather dashing with his new haircut and his black and red sweater vest on.  And luckily they put him in the very front row!  (This was a group of all the kindergartners in his school, so  it was quite a large group.)  I guess there are some advantages to being smaller than everyone else.  :)  His first song was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer complete with cute hand gestures.  Next was Up on the Rooftop followed by a weird reindeer song I had never heard before, but Samuel was still super cute singing it.  Then they sang an even weirder reindeer song.  "Here come the Reindeer" is the name (I am guessing).  Next was "Do You Know Blitzen."  Yeah, you get the reindeer theme yet?  And that completed our Christmas programs for this year.  One thing I was really excited about was the fact that Samuel did not suck his fingers once during the whole performance!  This is a huge improvement over last years Christmas concert.








I took this picture on a run this week.  I just love how beautiful it is here, and I love running next to the ocean!  I will have a very hard time if we move somewhere non-tropical next.

Celeste's birthday is over the Christmas break, so I brought cupcakes into her class this week.  It happened to be the day they were having pajama day, so it was a lot of fun.









I went to a little get together last night, and I can't remember the last time I had that much fun!  When you mix awesome people, yummy food, Just Dance 4 on the Xbox, and karaoke, it just can't get much better.  And watching the guys dancing to a One Direction song was fabulous.  The only way it could have been better would have been if Hyrum could have been there and he had really gotten into it too.  :)  I did put Just Dance on my wishlist on Amazon though, so maybe we will still have a chance to get Hyrum in on this action!    I wish I had a video or pictures to put up here, but I was lame and didn't get any.

In ending, here is a picture of how we do Christmas in Okinawa.  Yes, amazon.  Every time we go to the post office there are at least a couple packages waiting for us.  I will be sad when the season is over and there are no more packages to pick up.  I think the girls will be sad too.  They love carrying packages with me.






Okay, sorry, I know I said I was ending with that thought, but there is one more thing I want to say.  I haven't posted about this on facebook like a lot of other people have.  But I have really struggled with the new from yesterday.  To have a man go into an elementary school and kill over 20 people, most of them 6 or 7 years old is a real life nightmare.  I know I don't have adequate words, and I cannot even begin to comprehend what these families are going through.  But it scares me, and makes me wonder how I can protect my kids better, and reminds me to hold them a little closer.  Be patient with them and love their quirks instead of getting annoyed.  Because when they are pushing this keyboard around and swiveling my chair as I try to type this, it means they are here and safe.  I pray for those families affected, and pray more vigilantly about my own kids.  It is a scary world we live in, but I am grateful we have the gospel to give us direction, understanding  hope and peace.  

Too Many Sweets!

I have had fun having the opportunity to make several new cookies this week which have been on my pinterest "Nom Nom Nom to Try" board.  There was a branch Christmas party, an ornament exchange, and having missionaries over for dinner that all warranted a new recipe.

For the branch Christmas party, I made Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip Clouds.

Get the Recipe Here

These were nice and light, a little crunchy on the outside and very good.  Of course, I love mint, so I did appreciate them.  For a meringue type of dessert they were great, but I probably won't make them again.

For the ornament exchange I made Hot Cocoa Cookies.

Get the Recipe Here

These were ooey and gooey and very yummy.  Unfortunately, my sweet teenage neighbor Winter brought over a plate of my favorite cookies while these Hot Cocoa Cookies were cooking.  (Winter's cookies are chocolate chip, but for some reason they are always 1 million times better when Winter makes them then when I make them even though I have tried her exact recipe several times!)  So I had eaten a few too many of these right before trying my own cookies, so I was a little over sugarfied making it much less amazing then I had originally planned on.  They were however still very good, and my kids loved them too.  I will possibly make these again.

Here is the ornament I made for our ornament exchange.

For having the missionaries over for dinner I made Ferrerro Rocher Brownie Bites with Caramel Icing.

Get the Recipe Here

Oh man.  Seriously.  Yep, that's it.  I think the title and the picture give you a good enough idea how amazing these are.  They are pretty rich though, so something just for special occasions.

So as you may have guessed, I'm sure I have gained a few extra pounds this week, but isn't that what the holidays are for?

I have a couple of fun/sad quotes from Samuel this week:  "Mom, everyone at school says I'm a baby, but I can run faster than any of them!"  (He is one of the smallest kids in his class.)  And then the other that broke my heart.  Samuel: "Mom, why did you put a heart on my lunchbag?"  Me: "Because I love you so much!"  Samuel trying not to cry: "But mom, everyone laughed at me!"  Oh my baby boy.  I wish I could love on him as much as I want forever.  But I guess there will be no more hearts on the front of his lunchbag.  :(

In other news, Charity has lost both front teeth, and the two little ones on the bottom next to the middle ones.  It was perfect timing, right before Christmas so she can sing that song!

It has been another eventful week.  I love all the Christmas that surrounds me, from the Christmas devotional that the first presidency in the church gave, to the carols, to choir and all the fun activities.  In ending I would share with you a beautiful video that helps us keep this time of year in perspective.  I am grateful for my Savior's birth.  I am grateful that because of him I can get up and try again all the many times I seem to fall.  I am grateful that line upon line, precept upon precept I can gain a knowledge and a testimony of Him.  Every time I think I have things down, I see a little peek behind a curtain and see a much bigger picture, and a fuller understanding of His wonderful gospel.  And slowly, step by step I gain more understanding and can become more what He would have me be.  I am grateful for this season when so much more seems to be focused on Him and we can refocus ourselves and try to be more like Him.

Baptism and Snowflakes

One thing I love about living here in Japan is the exposure for me and my children to a different culture.  I will admit, I have never felt any draw towards any Asian cultures in the past.  I don't have anything against them, I have just never had any desire to visit them or be a part of them.  I think Heavenly Father must have known this and he thought, "Bethany, I am going to bless you and give you an opportunity to soften your heart and go see the beauty and come to love this culture."  It is easy to stay on base and not involve myself with the culture, but that defeats the purpose of being here!  Luckily I have many things that encourage me to go out and participate, and one of those is the gospel.  There is a Japanese girl who has been investigating the church for over a year that we have come to love.  Lena speaks English very well due to her father going to work in Australia for 3 years when she was young.  Otherwise she was born and raised in Okinawa.  She likes to attend our branch sometimes, and has come over with the missionaries to dinner on several occasions.  My kids absolutely adore her.  This last Saturday we had the privilege to see her baptized.  Baptisms are unique here because most of them are done in the ocean at Toguchi beach.  It is a beautiful area (actually it is the spot where my "modeling" pictures were done from my last post, so you can get an idea of how beautiful it is).  There were many Japanese members there, and a handful of us from the English branch.  Right when we got there, as I guided my children past the park, and down the trail to the beach a sweet Japanese woman there to support Lena started trying to talk to me.  One funny thing about a lot of Japanese people is how they will tell you in perfect, clear English, "I am sorry.  I do not speak English."  It's not, "No English"  or trying to communicate through hand motions that they don't know English.  So we tried to talk, and she would say a little English, and I even less Japanese.  (I can't even say "No Japanese" in Japanese.  I know, it's sad.  My vocabulary here consists of thank you, yes, cute, scary, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, excuse me, please and "it is good?")  Any time this sweet woman would see any of my kids struggling a little bit she was there in an instant offering anything she had to help them be happy and would repeat over and over, "No cry.  No cry." while patting their head.  It was so sweet.  After the baptism I let the kids play at the park for a little while.  There were several Japanese girls playing there, and they were equally as sweet.  I took Lucy over to go down a slide since she loves slides.  As I got her to the top, several girls ran over to me yelling "No!  No!  Water!"  I was confused until they reached me and pointed out that the rain that morning had left a little bit of water on the slide and they were concerned about Lucy getting wet, or going to fast.  A couple of the little girls ran and found a towel and started wiping all the slides off on that piece of equipment so Lucy could safely and dryly slide down.  They fussed over her, repeatedly telling her how cute she is.  It then started to rain again, and while I tried to run with each child back to the car, these girls ran and found an umbrella and ran to Celeste who was looking for her shoes.  They gently took her by the hand, and led her to where they had noticed she had left her shoes, helped her put them on and kept her dry with that umbrella.  And that is how these sweet people are here on this little island of Okinawa.  They help, they smile, they encourage and are so sweet and understanding.  

The baptism itself was beautiful and the spirit was strong.  Beautiful hymns were sung, testimonies were born, and we watched as Lena was immersed in the water and baptized into the true gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.  It was truly a beautiful day.

To finish the day off strong, we went home, turned on Elf, and made star wars snowflakes.  (And of course by we, I mean I made star wars snowflakes as my children barraged me with, "Is mine done yet?  Are you doing my next?  This sure takes a long time, huh?")  And here are the results.  Not too shabby for using a box cutter and kitchen shears.  :)

 Chewbacca Snowflake

 Princess Leia Snowflake

 R2D2 Snowflake

 Rebel Pilot Snowflake

Yoda Snowflake

Today Hyrum was released as the second counselor in the branch presidency.  Because he is deploying for 6 months, and our branch president is deploying around the same time, they released the presidency today.  Hyrum loved serving the branch, and while I will be more than glad to have him sit with me and the kids on Sunday when he is here, I actually felt a little weepy when they released him.  It was a funny thing, because it didn't feel like a weepy day to-day, but as soon as the district president got up and started releasing Hyrum, my eyes suddenly got a little moist.  So we not only had them released, but we had branch boundaries adjusted, one whole branch dissolved into the others, and a new branch presidency consisting of the branch president from the dissolved branch.  Lots of changes, but I suppose that is the nature of a military branch.  We still have an amazing branch and I am grateful to be a part of it.

That is it for us this week, and now I am off to bed.   Until next week...

Early New Years Resolution

Alright, here we go...again.  I make no guarantees, but I am going to try to keep this up to date again.  My new motivation is that Hyrum is in training, and then deploying so if I can keep this up a lot better, it will help keep him in on all of our family doings here.  I see that the last time I posted was in March, so approximately 8 months ago.  I have also not been amazing at taking pictures, which is usually how I look back and see what we have been doing.  So this may be a little bare bones, but here is our lives from the last 8 months in a nutshell.

April

 We had a branch Easter egg hint in our backyard which was a blast, 

and I got one of my favorite pictures of my sweet babies in their Easter outfits.

Hyrum says he isn't sure how much longer he will be able to throw all the kids up in the air.  :)  They are starting to get a little heavier.  

I turned 27 years old

And we had a fun Relief Society activity where the Japanese sisters helped us dress in kimonos.

May

Pizza at the beach

John Galecki

Zamami - We went with our friends the Fry's to a beautiful little island south of Okinawa where we scuba dove, had a barbecue, played at the beach, went hiking and just had a great time.

Pineapple Park - An electric car that looks like a golf cart with a giant pineapple on top without a driver driving you through a pineapple farm, pictures with a giant pineapple, and lots of free samples of a variety of pineapple products from pineapple bread to juice to cake, shortbread, vinegar and pie just to name a few.  The kids love it! 

 

 Our two soccer superstars

 June

Charity's early birthday party - She wanted to invite friends from school, so we had an early birthday party

Trip to Wisconsin - My little brother has been called on a mission to the SLC mission, and all of us siblings were able to go to Chicago and go through the temple with him.  It was so wonderful having us all together!

July

Independence Day

Face Painting

Swim Lessons

Charity's actual birthday

  August

Samuel's Birthday

Okinawa World - A fun village where you can see all things Okinawan.  The kids loved it! (Charity was in school, but she had gone with her class before.  We still missed her.)

Charity's First Day of School

September

Samuel's First Day of school

Beach Fun

Visit Home

Beautiful downtown Gig Harbor

Earthquake Burgers at the Puyallup Fair

Caricatures at the fair.

Doobie Brother's concert with my parents.

Visiting my Grandma Cummings.  A four generation picture.

Hyrum's surprise for me when I got home.  

A new acoustic/electric guitar and hanging all my guitars up for easier access!

October

Celeste started ballet

More Soccer

Fall festival at Kadena Elementary

Halloween

November

I did some modeling for fun and really liked the pictures!

So there you have it.  Now that I have caught up, I just need to stay on top of it so that it doesn't take me all day to do one post. :)