The Candle Light Service at the yochien

December 16th was yet another "last' for Noah and I. Every year our Catholic yochien has a mother and child candle light service, this closes the school for the Winter holidays. And then the kids start their vacation. I sat on the front row. Chatting with my girlfriends/fellow yochien mama friends, while we waited for the kids to come upstairs to join us. The baby Jesus, surrounded with candles and a Christmas tree behind. All of the kids seats/chairs waiting.
All of mom's get candle and we light them from person to person. All of the lights are turned off and it';s purely lit by candle light. We have a prayer and sing Christmas songs and a few songs.
This is a bit blurry, but better then nothing. ; ) You can see Noah walking in, and the rest of his classmates.
Every child pays their respects to the Baby Jesus. Then they sit down. It was a gorgeous ceremony and service. I enjoyed it and enjoyed chatting and talking with my friends. Afterwards, we walked downstairs and waited outside their classroom. We talked about Christmas and New Years plans. I said we'd be going to Guam. Sera's family is heading, well headed since I'm so delayed, to post this. They went to Malaysia. And Yukina-chan's family is going to Hakone to ring in the New Year, I bet it'll be beautiful. Kouiki's family is heading to watch the Lion King that's currently making the rounds in Japan. A few other chats. Then the kids came out and we were officially on Winter break as far as Noah was concerned. I did have another week to go for Branden to start Christmas break as well.
Our yochien is always great with giving the kids presents. This is what Noah received for a job well done for the Christmas recital.
A very nice hard cover book. Noah has all his hard covered books he's received each year, Branden has his too.
And this was a gift for Christmas.
A nice mix/assortment of candy.