Christmas 2017...

How was everyone's Christmas? I sincerely hope it was merry and bright for all of you. : ) Ours was quiet, as usual... very low key and WONDERFUL. I did take a few days off from the computer because I wanted to focus on my family 100%. So I'm sorry for the delay and all. But like I said, I know you all understand. And even now. While my kids are on Christmas break, I won't be blogging as much and as often. And many of my posts will be delayed. But that's just because... I am enjoying our time. I know once January 8th rolls around, I will be running around and busy and the kids will be too. So for now...I am just enjoying the relax time that we are having together. : ) I am sure you all understand. So anyway...the Christmas post 2017. I baked 2 pumpkin pies. Handmade butter crust. And they came out fantastic. That was dessert for Christmas dinner... done the day beforehand.

I appreciate that Christmas dinner is a little simpler than Thanksgiving. It's still amazing. But it's still way easier. I made a delicious honey ham. Basted it 3 times during the time it baked in the oven. The flavor is *so* good. Branden and Noah peeled all the potatoes for the homemade gratin potatoes. I taught both Bran and Noah how to make my gratin roux. Noah grated the cheese, he's *such* a good kid. Bran made the roux, granted I stood by, but they both learned. Noah baked the cornbread. We 3 plated the salad together. I made the broccoli. We listened to Gwen Stefani Christmas songs. Pentatonix. Some Christmas songs by Sia and some Christmas songs by Sam Smith too. While we baked and got our Christmas dinner made. Noboru unfortunately had to work. He's taking off *many* days in April, so that's why. 

My plate. Honey baked ham, gratin potatoes from scratch, some hot buttery cornbread, some broccoli and for dessert a slice of pumpkin pie with some whipped cream. 

Some of the many packages that got shipped to our house starting from the first week of December. Which I hid and then wrapped while the boys were at school. The boys had a fantastic Christmas and got everything they were hoping for. : )

A watch....

All Fall... Branden had been asking for a watch. I knew he would get one. I told both my kids now that they're older. If there is something you would like on Amazon, email me the link. You may or may not get it for Christmas. And this was the watch Branden had been wishing for. Dreaming about. Obviously he would get it. : ) But, I kept a poker face all December about it. : ) 

Bliss. When you get that special something-something. Ykwim? When you're a teen. It's like...so magical. : ) 

He took these 2 pics himself and Line-ed me them and said...how much he loves his watch. The boys got a good 6 or 7 presents each. Not hundreds but enough for them to each feel special. But this was clearly his most favorite gift. 

This will be released to movie theaters in Japan, January 2018. This one was a joint gift.. for both the boys. So 6 or 7 gifts each.. plus this one was an extra for the both of them. : ) 

Sephora...

This travel bag on the left was only like $5 or $6 bucks. But it has really high reviews. When ladies leave reviews on Sephora they're usually super honest... if they hate it... they say, they hate it. But almost everyone who has bought this Sephora clear travel bag loves it. They say their stuff zips right through the TSA so easily. Plus none of their toiletries leak. They said the lipstick pic has glitter. And that is true, so cute. I also loved the sunglasses and passport pic. It made me think..perfect for travel. Also, I have and use makeup brushes at home. Normal size ones. However, I do travel quite a bit. And when I do fly to Guam or to Hawaii or take small trips to Hakone etc. lugging long/normal size cosmetic brushes is a pain. I have been wanting a nice simple set of travel brushes. I have been checking in Target when I'm near one...but haven't seen a set I liked...looks-wise. And I have looked in Japan too. Again didn't find a set that I liked looks-wise. This set comes in basic black and in this neutral color. I usually prefer black colored stuff if given the choice. But for whatever reason...I did not like the look of the brushes in black at all. Like at all, at all. However...I loved this set in neutral. And I usually hate pink colored *anything*. So...even though these are neutral and more tan than pink...I surprised myself that I liked this set. Also I noticed in the reviews online...most ladies, girls and women were reviewing the neutral sets. So maybe...this sets is more attractive for American women...or I don't know. But this color got me too. And like I said...I do travel quite a bit and I needed a nice simple set. A set that didn't cost a fortune. And a set I like and will actually use. 

And that lipstick has shimmery glitter to it. It's such a cute but basic useful travel bag. 

Love these. When I travel I can just throw these in my cosmetic bag and go on vacation for a week or two. Perfect size for when I travel.

Eye shadow palette from Tarte.

I love makeup, that doesn't look like you're wearing makeup. I have been wanting this neutral palette for ages. I can use every color in this because they're all neutrals and I gravitate towards neutrals. So all in all...we all had a nice quiet Christmas here. We all 4 got what we wanted. It was a nice dinner. And the best thing about cooking a big meal at Christmas is that you pretty much don't have to make dinner or lunch the next day at all. And we ate ham until Wednesday afternoon the last was ham sandwiches that day...for Wednesday night's dinner last night... is when I made something different. But pretty much...lunches and dinner for a day or two...are taken care of because we made such a big dinner on Christmas. : ) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. And ate plenty of good food. 

Christmas 2016...

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. : ) We sure did! It was just a quiet little Christmas in our neck of the woods in rural Japan. Look at all those ornaments on our Christmas tree! It was truly so dazzling to enjoy looking at this, all December in our living room! Especially for the kiddos! : )

My favorite ornament of the entire tree is always "Glitter Pig" lol...he always cracks me up!

A purple snowflake with glitter "snow" on it. A pine cone ornament. Nutcracker ornament...just so many special ones for our family! December in our living room was truly dazzling. Definitely gets you in the holiday spirit! : ) And the genkan tree dazzled everyone who visited our home this month...even if it was just a postman dropping off a thoughtful care package from America or an Amazon order arriving from the USA. Yep, we truly love Christmas around our house. Especially when you have kiddos in the house...definitely have to make it special. : ) 

Once a week from December 1st, I found myself wrapping something or other... in the kitchen. And even adding a Google Play card to their stockings. And other various stocking stuffers too.: ) This one says to Branden from Santa. They know there is no Santa but..it's still fun to write it this way. : )

To Noah from Santa. : )

And baking. I baked something every single day the last 5 days before Christmas. I had a yellow cake in the oven one day. And I just finished making my Nutella frosting from scratch. Super easy, just butter, powdered sugar and Nutella. Simple and delicious. 

A freshly baked yellow cake with Nutella frosting. The kids loved this frosting so much that they kept eating this cake. And Noboru...who dislikes things too sweet. He straight up loved this cake and frosting so much, he had 2 slices in a row, this wasn't too sweet at all, it's perfect. Saying how much he loved this frosting and cake. I thought....holy cow...this frosting recipe is a real keeper! : )

I was so close to forgetting to take a pic of the Rice Krispie treats that I made. Hence the slicing of one row. : ) I made an apple crumble. 1 batch of Christmas cookies. 1 batch of chocolate chip walnut cookies again. The final 5 days leading up to Christmas...I was a baking machine. Hahaha. : ) 

On Black Friday, I placed a fairly big DVD order on Amazon.com. These 3 were for the kids. And yes they got wrapped and placed under the tree. Artificial Intelligence doesn't come on TV very often, but when it does, my kids stop whatever it is they're doing and watch it. They love it. And Totoro, a classic. But they didn't have it. And Mocking Jay 2, they didn't have..but they have the rest. So, they did love receiving these as one of their gifts.

I also purchased other movies too. Me Before You. Loved watching this...this year/summer so much. Definitely something to have in my collection. The Lover (this will more than likely not be available on DVD in the future, so I figured better to get a new copy while I still could.) And same for The Professional. I do have a DVD coming in January. The Girl on the Train. So, I am looking forward to that. : ) 

Bridget Jones's Diary, the original one is such a favorite of mine, but I never owned it. And just a few other movies that I am very happy to have. Because The Twilight Zone movie and the Tales From the Darkside movie is getting harder and harder to find too, same for Fear. Which is weird because I thought Fear would be easily available but...not so. So...anyway...just a handful of movies to add to the collection and those 3 that the boys received. So...was very glad to get everything on such a great discount on Black Friday. Branden asked for some new car parts for this RC car. And he received those. He also received money and a bunch of other things too. He did quite well for Christmas. And Noah asked for a new pair of Sony Bass Boost earphones and so he received those and a new phone case. And he too received money and a bunch of other things too. They really enjoyed Christmas this year. : )

I received something from Shu Uemura this year from Noboru. 

Noboru and I drove to Chiba City a few weeks ago while the kids were at school. We left right away... as soon as the kids were at school in the morning... considering it is a lengthy drive. I received a Custom palette! 

Shu Uemura quality. Wow! : )

The amazing part about a custom palette is, I can pick any color of shadow and blush that I want. I could have added 2 blushes in here, if I wanted. I could have added all eye shadows too. And if you have ever seen the color range. Holy cow! They have tons and tons of colors to choose from. However, I wanted a natural palette. Nice neutral eye shadow shades. I brought my own Mac eye shadows with me and my beloved Urban Decay palette and showed the lady...the shades I use the most. The shades where... I hit pan on already. I showed her my #1 color Mac cork. It's a soft brown color and she was able to find an exact match from a Shu shadow and so I picked that shade twice. It's in my palette top upper left and the bottom far right, they are the same exact color as another and the dead on match of Mac Cork. She was able to match all my beloved shades for me and when I felt like my shadows were best for me. I confirmed. I also brought out my 2 favorite blushes...a neutral by Too Faced and a Mac one in Warm Soul. And she said this one matched best to the Too Faced one, I had. And I too looked at every shade. I asked Noboru to chime in and we 3 all agreed this was the best match...to my favorites. That I know I use often and colors I love. Except now...they are in 1 custom palette. So, if I travel...I can just take this palette, 1 brow mascara and some foundation and be pretty much set. Super easy having my eye shadows and blush combined. And in this pic...it best captures their truest colors. Plus in this pic...you can see how the inside of the custom palette it says Shu Uemura on the left hand side. And the brush...is super high quality and it too says Shu Uemura on it. The mirror inside is huge. And it's just something...I really love a lot. I will be getting tons of usage from this. But yes...this pic shows the truest picture of what their colors look like in real life. 

This has the flash on and this isn't really what the colors look like.. in real life. But you can see...the 2 on top right are more shimmery. Again though...it's just going to be a super useful and helpful palette. If I go on vacation, I don't have to lug a blush and an eye shadow palette, both are inside here already. So...but the truest what these look like in real life...is in the pic up above. 

The ladies gave me this huge Shu Uemura mirror. For free as a gift. And I really like this. : )

Love how the name is stitched on there. 

They also gave me gobs of free samples of stuff to try on. : )  All in all, the kids enjoyed Christmas, We all enjoyed Christmas. Noboru enjoyed what he got. We just really enjoyed the heck out of our Christmas morning. : )

After our unwrapping of presents in the living room. Everyone was spending time with the things that they received. And I went into the kitchen. Had a Christmas radio station playing tunes and I made some bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs and some rice or toast. And some mikan. The kids had hot cocoas with whipped cream and we had hot coffees with ours. A wonderful simple Christmas breakfast. Noah and I always eat our eggs with hot sauce. Noboru always eats his eggs with ketchup and Branden never uses anything on his eggs. hahaha. : ) After breakfast we watched Christmas movies. They played for like 2-3 solid days straight. 2-3 channels played A Christmas Story again and again. And another channel played a Christmas Carol again and again, we watched a Christmas Carol 3 times off and on (the story of Scrooge). And A Christmas Story twice. Last night we watched Scrooged with Bill Murray. And we also watched Elf about 5 times this December. We also watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie twice too. We also have all these on DVD too, but sometimes it's nice to watch on TV too. : )  

Christmas 2016! Everyone happy and genuinely smiling and in good cheer. We had a delicious dinner. Granted it's a lot simpler than Thanksgiving. But the food was most excellent! Very traditional. And as you know.... we don't dress up all fancy shmancy at our house. Nope, we don't put on airs at our house. For us, Christmas dinner is about good food and being together as a family. We dress for comfort, all of us were in sweatpants and we were so happy and comfortable. Concentrating on the happy mood we all were in and just enjoying the evening. And the amazing food we were about to nosh on! : )

We had salad, black olives, hot fresh buttered cornbread, 2 pans of cheesy gratin potatoes from scratch. a honey pineapple ham, this ham is so good. We had some Ginger Ale in glasses we use just once a year. Hahaha. : ) But it makes it even more special. And we honestly just relaxed and ate and talked all through dinner. And see Bran holding his phone? He took pics of our Christmas meal too and he updated his timeline on LINE because he was pretty happy about to tuck into this meal. : ) He said on his timeline to his friends..."Merry Christmas everyone, here is our traditional American Christmas meal we are about to eat right now." And he got so many likes and comments from his classmates. They really liked the pics he showed them, just of the food. : )

Bran put his phone away, he was so happy he was about to dig right in. So was Noah. Meanwhile, Noboru went to get something from the kitchen for a sec. 

I snapped this pic and then put my camera away for about a solid hour. We really enjoyed our dinner together. 

Handmade Icecream cake all the way from Nagano Japan! Nobody does icecream cakes the way she does! She's the best!

If you're going to have a Christmas cake in Japan, you might as well have the best and get a Christmas cake from her. Her cakes are out of this world. : )

And the cake on the bottom is so soft and good. We love her cakes...her birthday ice cream cakes and also her Christmas ice-cream cakes. : ) Anyway...that was our Christmas 2016 in a nuthsell. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas too. : )

Christmas 2015...

Merry Christmas everyone! I certainly hope you all had a very lovely holiday with family and good food! As for us here, we had ourselves a very lovely Christmas here at home with our family. Christmas morning, I woke up first. I turned the hot water pot on downstairs, so we could have some coffee for Noboru and I or some Swiss Miss hot cocoa for the kids. I went upstairs, brushed my teeth and washed my face and came downstairs waiting for the family to wake up. Being that it was Christmas everyone woke up quicker then usual. : ) We all sat near the Christmas tree and Branden opened one and then Noah opened one and then Branden opened one and so on, Noboru and I opened ours last. I took many pictures from that morning. Some very funny ones, I might add. : ) While everyone was enjoying their gifts in the living room, I went into the kitchen and got started in on breakfast. I made up a whole pack of crispy American bacon. Eggs any way you want, over easy, omelet or scrambled. And we had toast. Christmas day was spent relaxing and enjoying our quiet family time here at home. And of course they were enjoying their presents. 

After lunch, Noboru peeled a huge amount of potatoes and while he peeled, I sliced every potato he peeled. We talked and joked while doing the potatoes. Then I made the homemade roux from scratch. And put the potatoes in the oven around 2pm. They take an hour and a half to bake. So early preparation is key. After 30 minutes of the potatoes baking alone, I put the ham, I had just glazed in the oven, while the potatoes were baking already. 

25 minutes before the ham and potatoes were ready, I also whacked the cornbread into the oven with the potatoes and ham. Thank goodness for a big/normal sized American oven.

Nothing smells better than hot buttered freshly baked cornbread. : )

In our comfy clothes, we were ready to enjoy our Christmas dinner! Noboru chit chatting with Bran.

Noboru chit chatting with Noah.: )

We had, hot fresh buttered cornbread, black olives, gratin potatoes, a honey baked ham, green beans hiding behind the potatoes in this picture. And a big fresh mixed salad.

Cheese and garlic croutons and salad dressing. And another plate of hot buttered cornbread at the back. 

Ready to eat ya'll? I know, I sure am! : )

My Christmas dinner plate from 2015!

And my Christmas dinner plate 2015 with the food setting on, on my camera. lol. : )

Christmas cake, our first, I usually bake pies. : ) 

From our favorite shop in Nagano. 

This was so good!

And just one of our many leftover ham sandwiches. Honey ham and swiss cheese, lettuce and Miracle Whip. We ate the last of our ham Sunday night. : ) Anyway, just wanted to say, I sure hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, from our family to yours! Happy holidays! : )