Sorry you guys, I know I am a bit behind blogging, but with my dad here last week all the way until Saturday night (now he is gone though : ( and the Thanksgiving holidays and all, I've not been on the computer all too much this past week. So, trying to catch up again real quick. I have about 4 posts to get up. Also tomorrow/Wednesday December 1st... I have a movie date with my 2 very close friends Noriko-san and Jogo-san to go and first have breakfast together (after sending all our kids to school) and then going to see the new Harry Potter movie at 11am. So, I may or may not get a chance to get all 4 posts up. But I'm sure going to give it a shot and do my best to get as many as I can up. : ) So where did I leave off? Hmm, okay well.... I think I mentioned the boys had to go and get their 2nd and final flu shot for this season. Well we did that. This year seems to be a 3 in 1 type combo (guarding against 3 viruses) according to our Dr. anyway....protecting of 2 different flu viruses plus the swine flu (wasn't last years just a 2 in 1 combo?... ours here was, I think). I liked that this was a combo flu shot (well at least it is in our area) also a coworkers of Noboru's said at the beginning of October (a week before we took ours, they did theirs) the flu shot didn't burn this year like last year and they were right....I noticed that myself when we got our first round of flu shots in October. And when we went and got the boys their 2nd and final dosage in November....both Branden and Noah said the same thing. So, anyways, I'm starting to babble aimlessly about flu shots now, whoops sorry. Also, I'm sure it won't protect from every strain in the whole entire world or universe...but still, for me personally it still gives me peace of mind that at least I tried to get them flu shots and hope they work. : ) But if they don't...I've got a ton of kids cold meds here in case. ; ) So flu shots, both first and second dosage done and done! Phew! ; )
They've been showing Stella on satellite here in Japan lately. This is one of my very *favorite* movies of all time. This was one of my mom's favorite movies and we always watched this together. And always cried together at the end watching this. And now that I am grown up....I still enjoy watching this. Notice a very young Ben Stiller playing....Jenny's "bad boy" boyfriend.
This mother gave everything to her daughter. And I'm not talking material stuff. She loved and adored her daughter and her daughter her. They were so close. And in the end....the mom let her go. It's a very excellent movie. I hate to say it....but even now, it gets me every time. I seriously cry at the ending every single time. Branden always looks at me like @_@ lol. Meanwhile I am sitting on the couch sniffling away. I love this movie...in fact one of these days I will have to buy the darn dvd. : )
The turkey came last Monday morning hard as a rock. He sat and thawed in the fridge until Thanksgiving morning.
You can see...we ordered the 18-20 pound one. And they sent us a 19.10 pounder. Very good size.
My dad brought us so many fresh bakery breads. From American bakery and Guam bakery. I stuck them all into the freezer until the night before Thanksgiving to sort of make sure they stayed fresher longer.
A disposable turkey pan. These are very common in the US, they make clean up a snap!
He also brought a few extra boxes of popcorn. He knows we're a dvd renting family and so we appreciated it.
Swiss and mozzarella cheeses for the leftover turkey sandwiches and a block of colby for grating for some chili concarne/Texas style chili and maybe some cornbread that I'll be baking soon.
And last but not least, brought the black olives, an extra can of pumpkin pie filling, whole cranberries, some frosting and a big Costco size of lemonade and some Miracle whip for the turkey sandwiches and some strawberry cake mix (for the bazaar bake sale for Noah's yochien later last week). My dad knows and understands how hard it is getting the little odd and ends that really help make Thanksgiving extra special....especially with living in Japan (and not really wanting to pay an arm and a leg at the international shops...so he completely rocked by bringing them along in his suitcase!!!! Thanks dad. : )
Bean and cheese burritos. Sitting in the freezer as I speak...errr type. ; )
So, last Monday October 22nd, my dad arrived. At 1:20pm. He was just going to take the train but Noboru was free so he picked up my dad, I meanwhile was at the yochien picking up Noah since he gets off school at 1:40pm. I met up with my dad, we both got home around the same time. My dad unpacked the perishables into the fridge and freezer right away, put his suitcase in our spare bedroom and we left to go and pick up Branden. My dad stood along the pathway where the kids let out..... there waiting for Branden. And Branden ran right up to grandpa. We headed home...and had dinner. Tuesday was a holiday here in Japan last week. So, the boys and my dad and I went to the mall. I clicked this pic as my dad was leaving the Daiso. We spent a good hour in Daiso. My dad loves that store. And I had to go there because I needed plates and ribbon for the upcoming bake sale. After the Daiso, we went to the men's department at the mall and my dad bought himself, a few tops. A comfy house shirt, a fleece and a sweater. He was quite pleased about the stuff he got. Oh yes he also got a nice light cream plaid flannel type top that I have a pic of somewhere. It'll be on the post where my dad leaves and is at the airport. : ( So, a few posts to come still. But anyway he got stuff he really liked. After that we went to Mc Donald's. The kids had happy sets/happy meals. My dad had a quarter pounder combo and I had a 100 yen shake. I've been really avoiding deep fried. Trying to have it once a month to twice a month tops. So.....yeah a shake. And I wasn't really all that hungry anyways.
Wednesday my dad went with me everywhere and I loved that. It's so nice to have someone riding along shot gun like that with me. Dropping off B. Then running home...making obento, dropping off Noah. My dad loves to walk Noah into his class and the kids always go crazy and "hello and good morning" my dad to death. Which he never minds. And I find it cute. The kids are used to me by now and speak to me in Japanese. But my dad's the new one. Ha ha ha. : ) Wednesday after dinner....I made beef curry that night. And after supper, I threw the dishes into the dishwasher. We preheated the oven and whipped up 2 pies. Oh yes, I made the crusts in the day time though. Nice butter crusts.
And fresh out of the big oven and cooling.
I rented Repo Men, with Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker. And The Book of Eli. We enjoyed watching those movies while my dad was here. My dad and Noboru both REALLY liked Repo Men. The next post is the Thanksgiving post. Hopefully I can get that one up this evening, (Noboru gets off work tonight at 8:30pm though so I might not have time and I still have to get the kids to bed, so maybe.. maybe not) if not maybe tomorrow evening. Because I will be out of the house all day tomorrow with that Harry Potter movie. Anyway...at least I got one up. Three more to go. ; ) Have a good night everyone. : )
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Exactly a week late, but hey...better late then never as they say! : ) The pies on stand-by on the green counter. And the food making it's way onto the table. By the way in America, kids have a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving holiday. We are off school Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, and for Saturday and Sunday of course, so Thanksgiving is always a nice relaxing holiday. However in Japan, it's business as usual for Japan except for us in our home. Noboru gave me the option of pulling the kids from school. But I send them anway because they will be missing a few days in December when we go away. So they went to school Thanksgiving Thursday but we did pull them from Kumon and swimming that day. So as soon as they each got out of school, we all were home, all 5 of us. We ate at 4pm.
Thanksgiving table runner. And food a plenty.
Let me see if I can say what is seen here. A big salad, croutons, salad dressings, mikans. Green beans. Turkey. And 1 pie, the other stood on the green counter.
Now on the opposite side of the table we had another plate of green beans, different types of dinner rolls. Hawaiian type rolls, regular yeasty dinner rolls and a few other types. Black olives, gravy, mashed potatoes and stuffing. whole cranberries and drinks.
My serving! And I skipped breakfast and lunch that day and believe me, I was STARVING by the time we ate. : )
Thanksgivings at our house are always very casual. No need to dress up and wear constricting clothes on a day when you should be wearing the comfiest. : ) In this pic, my dad wearing his comfy Converse long sleeve tee and navy blue sweatpants. Noah wearing his comfy house shirt and gray sweatpants.
Noboru wearing his light blue tee and gray sweatpants and B wearing his red Uniqlo shirt and gray sweatpants. I was wearing gray yoga pants and a black top that said...Old Navy on it. Not a stitch of makeup. A pony tail. And we were as happy as clams here, last Thursday! We were here for the food and for giving thanks and being together as a family...not a fashion show. : ) We started with a prayer, my dad did that. And then as is tradition for our house, we all went from person to person and said what we were each thankful for. And then we dug right in. We talked and ate and ate and ate and talked. By the time our meal was over we were all thankful to be wearing clothes that had elastic waist bands in them. LOL. We all jumped in for clean up. So Thanksgiving clean up was a snap.
And then we all enjoyed the pie, in the living room. We watched The Thanksgiving Peanuts cartoon we have on dvd. And then we watched a dvd we rented. It was a very comfortable Thanksgiving. No stress. Just relaxed and enjoyed it. Thankful to be healthy, thankful to be with family. And just being thankful in general. : )
I'm not sure if it's just me. But I start thinking about all the leftovers before the poor birds out of the oven! Ha ha ha. Needless to say, we ate so many turkey sandwiches, with swiss cheese and also mozzarella. We even had enough leftovers to have turkey noodle casserole Saturday night. From a recipe I got off Martha Stewart's website last year and printed it out, but didn't get around to trying it until this year go figure! : ) Anyway that was how we spent our very low key, but very wonderful Thanksgiving here at home in Chiba Japan this year. : )
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