Saturday, November 29th in pictures...my dad catching his flight back and the Christmas party, I went to that evening...

Saturday morning, November 29th, we dropped my dad off at the airport. It was such a wonderful visit and time spent with my dad! The whole family dropped him off and gave grandpa many big hugs and waved and we watched him walk into the building, before we drove off. : )

We always go to Mc Donald's after dropping off my dad and the reason is 2 fold. Reason one is because we're hungry. : ) And reason 2 is we always stay close to the airport, especially since my dad is flying stand by. That way if the plane broke down or if he'd get bumped (which has never happened to my dad, yet but that's because we carefully pick his travel dates) But it's still smart to stay close by Narita airport. Just until we can see online that yes, he was given a boarding pass and his seat is # such and such. Then we're happy and can go...phew! : ) I had a pancake/hotcake combo with a hashbrown and a hot coffee. Noah had a combo and so did the rest of the family. : )

Both of the boys have very nice clean cut haircuts! Very preppy and nice! : ) And Noah eating his breakfast that morning. : )

Bran eating and Noboru eating and in between he was checking the status of my dad. I love that Noboru worries about my dad just as much as I do! He's such a fantastic husband! A real keeper! : )

This is a picture of the gift that I gave at the 3rd grade mother's Christmas party Saturday evening. The party started at 6pm and it lasted until closing at 10pm. The Christmas party was truly wonderful and so much fun! Guess how we decided how to mix up the gifts? You know musical chairs right? Well this was sorta like musical presents. One mama played the theme song of Yokai Watch on her keitai (cell phone) and while the song played we sat on the tatami mats around the short mini table and we passed all the gifts around one by one...all the gifts were moving around the table being passed around. And when the song stopped/finished that was the gift we got!!! Hahaha. We each took turns unwrapping the gifts one at a time. We all ohhhed and awed and clapped. It was super fun! While I don't drink. I really appreciated that nobody made me feel weird for not drinking. We all had salads, okonomiyaki all sorts of stuff. I had a Hi C lemon soda and 1 cola/Coke. We had icecream and the owners of this super tiny restaurant in our town, an old man and woman  (the man cooked and his wife was our server) My fellow mom friends all drank, a few smoked. One fell but it wasn't because of drunkenness, it was because she stepped on a slippery plastic file folder. A lot of information is shared during these parties. A lot of bonds are formed. And ties tightened even tighter than before! 2 of the mamas are moms of baseball kids. The talk was that they need more kids... not enough kids on that team. And 3 of the moms are soccer moms and their husbands are the actual coaches for our town and they told me personally at the restaurant. One lady said my husband (head coach) really wants Noah on the team...the other coaches wife too chimed in and said yes...our husbands want your son on the soccer team *so* bad!!! They elaborated a bit and said the papas see Noah's speed on the marathon day and they know he has the *it* factor for soccer. He has the stamina...coming in 3rd place! Winner First and second place are already in soccer, even the kid in 4th place is in soccer. I guess it's true...Noah is hella fast! And they all know Noah is interested in soccer. I admitted yes Noah is interested in soccer but I am unsure about weekend mornings. How that would go...because it's my only time to sleep in. So...I agreed to let Noah go once... to see if time-wise it meshes well with our family. But yep...they made it crystally clear our town soccer team and the coaches want Noah. So we will see. Also not all moms were invited (though I don't get into or am not interested in mom politics, meaning who likes who that type a thing...if I even hear anything like that I start to tune myself out of the conversation really quick, that's just not interesting to me at all and no for the record nobody talked negatively about anyone else at this party at all, which I really liked that about these ladies.) There was just 14-15 of us total. The like...core moms. The moms in the know. Father's club husbands wives. Coaches wives. Rep for our class, that mom. One mom and myself are in the kids club for our housing community, and my husband is in the father's club.  All of the moms were the hoikuen moms before 1st grade. So, I am accepted. Totally. They made me feel so welcome...so yeah I am so glad I went. These ladies are hella funny! OMG they are! The papas of the soccer team have approached Noboru about Noah already. But you know as well as I do...it's really up to us mamas. : ) So it was much better to talk to me about it. So far..no promises but I did say we can go for a 1 day try out. One of the moms is a nurse at the bigger of the 2 clinics in our town. Again if my kids ever get sick or something having that good relationship, friend connection is gonna be fantastic for us. The restaurant closes at 10pm but we were still there at 10:05pm. The woman owner who served us..liked our group you could tell. Slightly rowdy super funny inaka mamas! 15 members strong, lol. It was a funny night. I would love it if the whole class of mamas could get together next time. The more the merrier in my opinion! But yeah super nice ladies. : ) 

I loved the gift I received very much! It was perfect for me! And the one who gave this to me is the nurse...she has a 6th grade daughter, a 3rd son and a 1st grade son. Her daughter is such a fantastic swimmer and she and Branden are such good friends... her kids and my kids catch the swim bus together and swim together. She personally told me...our town just started a night market 2 weeks ago, they have delicious tofu donuts and stuff. It starts at 4 or 5pm. Again this word of mouth information share is so important. Two of Branden's 7th grade class mom's who also have 3rd grade siblings were there. We just had the best time.  I also found out when out town grocery store will open....end of December, the date was postponed from November to then. Again good to know. : )

Wonderful card...

It says basically...Everybody...fun time...wonderful! With a heart! When I was first invited to this party, I asked Noboru..."what do you think...should I go?" He said...."oh you have to...relationships like this with fellow parents of our kids classmates and stuff...this is so super important" The ties that bind, you know! And I agree. The closer us parents are....the closer the kids are too. : )

I love these and if you know me at all, even a tiny bit from my blog, you'll know I dig the ease of paper plates and I like cute holiday plates! So to get Christmas cups, napkins and paper plates! Right up my alley! The best gift, I could get! Perfect match! : ) 

I also ended up with 2 cup bags. Noah can use the Mickey one and I love the Minnie one and if I ever go somewhere and need a cup bag, I'm covered now! : )  Just a very thoughtful gift. And a wonderful night. : ) Anyway, that was Saturday November 29th in a nutshell. : )