I hope everyone had a lovely and wonderful Christmas! We really did too! I put these pics on my blog after we got back, but have yet to actually type any words to these pictures. My Desperate Housewives box set season 5 is to blame on that one. ; ) I started watching that after I got back from Guam and well 6 DVD's with 4 hours each DVD, yup the DVD's had me quite occupied) plus, I also feel always really unbloggy after I get back from a trip, if you notice. : ) Basically I have put off blogging because of Desperate Housewives and also being a lazy bum. : ) I will give myself an hour to try and type in as much as I can right now. And hopefully these 2 posts can get up today. This is a pic of our room. Yup, same amazing hotel and all the rooms always look the same. And that is exactly why we love this place, no surprises. ; ) Three cheers for the Hilton Hotel in Guam. We always enjoy our stay there.
This pic was taken while we were at KB Toy store at the Micronesia mall. Most little boys in the US like the Terminator movies, same as the Star Wars trilogy. And the toys for those 2 are always popular for kids. I considered getting some Terminator toys for the boys but didn't. Maybe next time though.
We always had late night snacks and took them back to our hotel room. Sometimes the big bag of the freshly popped popcorn from the Kmart. Carrot cake from the convenience store. A few tacos from Taco Bell. And on this night we stopped off and went through the Wendy's drive thru. We enjoyed snacks, some drinks. Noboru filled up the ice bucket and we watched some excellent cable on TV and had a little picnic on the bed, same as always. It was great. Very low key as always.
After the night time snacks and picnic and showers were given. Branden zonked out and Noah stayed up a bit and watched TV. Noboru was in the shower when I snapped this picture.
Branden had been wanting a keyboard for Christmas. In Japan, kids in Japanese elementary schools all learn to swim and also play some form of instrument. Instrument depends on your school. Branden's school learns the pianica. Which is sort of like a piano with keys etc. Anyway he has gotten quite good. And has been asking for a keyboard. Noboru researched them quite a bit. And plus Noboru took piano lessons for like 10 years himself or some odd number of years I forget the actual number of years but he wants to teach B a few things. This was a gift from grandma Mitsuko. Branden got a really nice one, he was pretty happy about this.
The boys eating at one of the food courts. Micronesia mall food court.
They had a big Christmas tree, a train that gave the kids rides and Santa Claus was also there.
Here is a different day, well technically night. And we went to Tony Roma's with my dad. There's grandpa carrying Noah on his shoulders there. : )
The boys using crayons creating pictures/masterpieces. :P The kids and I had lemonade. Noboru had the coke in the picture.
My cup of baked potato soup. Oh lordy, I don't even have to tell you how incredibly good this was. I'm licking my chops just thinking about this soup again. ; )
I ordered the half slab of original baby backs, my 2 sides were the baked potato and corn on the cob. My dad gave me some shrimp from his meal. My dad had the half slab and shrimp. And Noboru had a half slab. The kids had their own meals.
We always choose to eat outside because there is usually no other people outside but us. Usually everyone else eats inside, where we prefer the quiet/to have more privacy. The weather was hot/warm definite shorts weather.
Here's one of the Christmas trees at the Hilton. I tell ya, we saw so many Christmas trees this trip, you wouldn't believe it. :P And the way they decorate the hotel especially is fantastic. Really great for the kids, still felt completely Christmasy even while on vacation.
The garland illuminated near the elevator. Just really really special and fun for all of us.
One of the many days we spent at the pool.
A teeny tiny hermit crab in Noboru's hand. : )
Perfect weather for swimming. Very tropical.
Noah swimming! : ) Face down in the water.
Branden on the slide.
Silly kid! Laughing as he slid down! : )
Noboru being silly as well! We enjoyed ourselves so much you guys! Life's good. Life's definitely good. And for that we do feel blessed.
Tossing the inflatable ball around. Same free KFC ball, one of the boys got as a free kids toy in Japan year ago. This ball has been everywhere. : )
Wrist tags since we were indeed guests of the hotel. And just being happy together as a family at Christmas time. To never lose sight what the holidays really should be about, very important.
At the GPO, walking to the food court for some lunch. Also the Kmart is the largest in the whole world, you can check that online. ; )
Famous Footwear, Ninewest shoe store.
Finally we reached the GPO food court. I went to Sbarro pizza. : )
My slice. : )
The movies that were playing. There are 3 different movie theaters total that I know of, the GPO, the Micronesia and the Agana theater at the mall there, there might even be another as well. So there is quite a bit to offer on Guam. 2 TGIFriday's, not just 1. Denny's at quite a few locations. Definitely comfortable. Oh yeah and also a Ruby Tuesday. : ) 2 Capricciosa. Pietro is also there. 2 Tony Roma's, Outback Steakhouse. Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock cafe. Little Cesar's pizza at Kmart. Pizza Hut. And Blockbusters too. : ) We went to the movies twice during our stay. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks the day it came out. And we also saw Avatar. I read online that Avatar was the most anticipated movie of the decade (?), and that I did not know until I read that online. It was an *amazing* movie. James Cameron directed it, (Titanic and Terminator).
We hit the DFS this time. We went because we wanted to shop at the Ralph Lauren for some shirts for the boys. And I also got to choose my gift from DFS from the hubby. I wanted a new bag. I was interested in either Gucci, Coach or Prada. I knew I wanted a crossbody bag. Meaning one that hangs diagonally across your body. That way I can be hands free since I am a busy mom on the go, my bag does have to be functional. I own Prada and a Louis Vuitton already. Have yet to own a Coach one and considered it. But in the end, went back to Prada. The Coach one that I was sorta interested (crossbody) was $328 so the price was fair. The Prada one was $600 flat/total. But ended up going with the Prada. So, yup, that was my gift from the hubster. I love my bag a lot. Before kids, I used to get about 1-2 good bags a year. But after having Noah, I sorta became disinterested in name brand bags completely. Noboru bought me a large Prada messenger and that was what I used as my diaper bag when Noah was born all the way until he was nearly 3 years old. After that, I just bought, Target bags or Old Navy, Gap bags. Cheap affordable bags. I liked that I could change them often for sures. All my other bags, like my Prada baguette type etc. I use, but not daily so they remain in their cloth bags. I needed a crossbody. And then I started to think, should I get another brand name one? And then I said no way! And then I thought some more and some more and some more. And I figured if I get a new crossbody. And it's basic enough that it can be worn daily and nylon so it's an easy to wipe down or take care of. Why not. I mean I seldom allow my husband to ever buy anything nice for me anymore. So, again I thought why not. It's nice to get a treat or to feel special every once in a while.
After leaving the DFS, we headed to the Micronesia and we had some Cold Stone icecream. A perfect way to wind down the night. Before heading back to the hotel. Look at this pic and all the topping for the icecream.
I had the cherry cake double take. it has yellow cake in it and the icecream was cake flavored. OMG! So heavenly and the black cherries and nuts.
The kids had their own kids sized cups. We all had the kids sized cups actually. They were large enough for a small dessert. Plus the prices for the adult size is ridiculous. The kids cups were good enough for us all. So 4 kids cups sized treats for us.
Late night snack after leaving the DFS and the Cold Stone creamery, we had Mc D's. Menu's totally different. I went for the grilled club sandwich. It has cheese and crispy bacon and some fries. Then we headed back to the hotel and watched Christmas Vacation, omg we laughed so hard. We have that DVD but it is hilarious.
Branden entering out hotel, same night as DFS and Cold Stone and Mc D's. We had a bunch of juice and lemonades and drinks in our room that we bought cheaply at Kmart a few days earlier. Noboru just filled up the ice bucket and we watched Christmas Vacation. See the decorations in this pic? So pretty.
A life size nutcracker. Ha ha ha.
Another big beautiful Christmas tree and behind the glass was, Santa's from around the world. We got to see what the dress and costumes each Santa wore. That was very educational, don't laugh, it honestly was.
One morning we grabbed some donuts. I had a jelly filled. Some coffee, then headed back to the hotel to swim. Our hotel sells donuts in the lobby but, not nearly as good as Winchell's.
See the movie posters. That Tooth Fairy one that is coming out January 22nd looks so funny. The previews to that made me laugh. Meanwhile the poster on the left we saw that one. Avatar it was 3-D.
At the movies.
Grandpa carrying Noah after the movies.
We saw two movies while on Guam this time, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Avatar.
We were on the 12th floor and on the 12 floor, is a private lounge area and another Christmas tree. Which is behind Branden in this picture. At night our floor was really pretty.
The day grandpa/my dad came to swim with us. We swam all day long on this particular day. From 9:30am to 2pm. Then it was showers and supper afterwards. Resting and then going to look for something to munch for our night time picnic. :P
Hugging his only 2 grandkids.
Grandpa watching Noah swim! Noboru playing with Branden. And me, taking a few picture before jumping into the water to join them.
Family time just watching the waves crash into the shore.
Noboru playing with Branden.
Beep beep! Noboru beeping Branden's nose! :P And you can see B smiling.
Noboru smiling and flipping his son gently into the water. The family time we had was amazing. Not to sound like a dork but you all know how important family time is to our family.
Grandpa tossing the ball around with B.
Grandpa/my dad sliding down the slide. Branden had my dad slide down about 10 times with him. Boy did my dad get his exercise keeping up with the boys. Ha ha ha. He was kept on his toes. : )
After showers and everyone getting cleaned up. This was us, Christmas eve about to go feast! Do you notice Noah carrying some homemade Christmas cookies in a tin? : ) : )
All the palm trees were decorated and the pine trees were also decorated the way they decorated the main street or "hotel row" was awesome. So festive.
We went to Vitale's. Now I went there this past Summer or was it last year? I forget. Anyway I ordered the ravioli and didn't care for it too much. It was okay but not great. I blogged about it but said the guy, the owner. A fabulous Italian American older guy was amazing, when he saw me, he chatted to me for ages in there that time. Anyway my dad has since tried quite a few different Italian restaraunts in Guam and he says this place is good and I should should try again. So, we did. We went for our Christmas eve meal, because in our family, as you know Christmas meal means Italian food. So we went here and I actually am glad my dad talked me into going. This place is actually really good. I had the lasagne and it was great., The pizza was *amazing* and I am pretty picky about my pizza. And yup, the older Italian American man saw my dad and I and Noboru and stuff. Anyway my dad and he talked for 10 long minutes. I would definitely come back here. I take back my orginal thought about this restaurant. This restaurant has to be redeemed. This place is good. And the guy, is awesome.
Menu.
Man this was good, and the garlic bread too. It's not a fancy place, you can wear shorts, Crocs, or flip flops if you want. It's very relaxing.
We ordered Branden and Noah a large pepperoni pizza. My dad had the lasagna and so did I. Noboru had a meatball sandwich, the sandwich was longer then a footlong at Subway but home style. He could barely finish it.
Munch, munch, munch.
The boys could not finish the pizza, so us adults each got a slice. This guy makes excellent pizza. We sat for 5 minutes discussing his crust. Noboru said he uses a bit more sugar in his crust then I do. And I agreed.
After a big Christmas eve dinner. We all went for a walk along the hotel road. Now about the cookies. My dad is seeing 2 ladies in Guam. 1 older Japanese lady (whoops sorry dad, I mean his age, not old) and 1 Korean lady who works at DFS. She is fluent in 3 languages, English Korean and Japanese. Because she spoke to Noboru in Japanese the entire time, lol. He does speak English, very well actually. Anyway she works at DFS, she is my dad's age as well, they also are walking buddies, my dad says she wears a silver type walking outfit??, to sweat more or we don't know what that outfits about. But anyway she's nice. She's very awesome. And she knew we were heading to Vitales that evening and she gave Noah and B some homemade otameal and raisin cookies and put them into a Christmas tin. I thought that was very thoughtful and she won me over instantly with that. And so Noah carried that tin of cookies from DFS to the restaurant to our actual walk and then back to where we parked our car. : ) Anyway it's good dad has company while living in Guam.
During our walk from the restaurant to see the lights. We saw this amazing Christmas tree, it was part of the decorations type area for us vacationers I think. So many people were also taking pics of their families while we were as well. Geeze, we have seen SO many Christmas trees while on Guam.
Christmas on Guam 2009! Ahhh. Taking pics with Christmas lights is tough because if I use my flash and get crisp details of my family's faces. The lights don't come out. And if I concentrate on the Christmas lights their faces aren't sharp at all. Double sigh. : ) Oh well, I tried. : )
The boys and a surfing Santa and you can see the 2009 in the background. : ) : ) We had a very Merry Christmas and a holiday season. The weather rocked, the quality family time was special. Yeah it was a good holiday for us all. : )
And then it was December 26th and it was sadly time to leave, but not until about 3:30pm though, so we still enjoyed the day. The last tree we would see. A Christmas tree in the airport at the NWA/Delta check-in. Do you see this tree? The blue tags all over this tree? : )
A Delta tree! As part of the NWA/Delta family we loved this so much! We were like, awww. : )
The movie we saw on the way back to Japan. 500 Days of Summer. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. This was a good movie but it wasn't in order, if that makes sense at all. It told the story, of the 30th day then say zipped to day 400 then back to day 15. Just so you know that part/aspect of it. But it's a good movie. The movie we saw on the way to Guam was, Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Tim McGraw. This was hands down such an excellent movie. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmases as well. : )
Here's a pic of all the stuff we brought back. Well technically some things couldn't fit on the table, like the big keyboard Branden got or Noah's toy or my Prada bag. But you get the idea at least. ; )
Frozen waffles for when the boys do go back to school, this way I can switch things they eat for fast mornings. Some days eggs and rice or eggs and toast, some days cereal and toast and some fast school day mornings, frozen (fast) waffles. Also we picked up 2 bottles of Mrs. Butterworth's syrup (my favorite syrup).
Spaghetti sauce for fast dinner type nights when I need a short cut yet need to get dinner served and the family fed. Some Italian style bread crumbs because I am making chicken parmesan soon. And some frozen ravioli again for fast nights. Perfect to have some ravioli and maybe a tossed salad on the side and presto change-o dinner is done. : )
String cheese because the kids love to eat it. Sliced mozzarella for sandwiches. Some ham for sandwiches for the kids. A pack of hot dogs. Some pepperoni for pizza's and we do make a lot of pizza around here. Some Colby/longhorn cheese for nachos or something along those lines.
Chili beans, these are spicy like a bowl of chili type beans but they have no meat in them at all. These are good for either chili cheese dogs or for nachos. Cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls. I plan to make the cinnamon rolls on January 1st morning as a special treat. And sliced cheese for grilled cheese. Yup, we are downright cheese maniacs around here. Gomen ne~ Ha ha ha. : )
Strawberry cake mix this is SO good. It's quite frankly freakin' good! Some nutella because I saw in a Parents magazine to swirl a tiny bit onto some yellow cake mix batter (cupcakes) instead of frosting them with regular frosting for a "healthier treat" versus flat out frosting and I wanna try that. Just a swirl and to do it before baking them and throwing them into the oven. Also picked up some hot fudge because obviously I am planning to make hot fudge sundaes sometime around mid January. : ) Some M&M cookie bits and some health toffee for toffee cookies. And the Andes cookies are so good. Probably one of my favorite cookies now.
3 packs of corn tortillas because I do like to make tostadas or enchiladas. It's pretty much a no brainer to make them and they always turn out yumm.
Some mac and cheese and some miracle whip, we need this for sandwiches. And a lettuce knife I picked up at Macy's in the cooking department upstairs.
I had no idea it was the metal blade that turned lettuce brown. Wow, now does it work? I don't know I haven't used it yet. And the price for it was so cheap, I thought well, even if it doesn't work, it's not that bad a price at least.
Hmm, at $3.99 even if it doesn't work, then I won't be too terribly upset. We'll see. : )
Popcorn, 36 bags and we need it because with all the DVD watching we do. ; )
Hubby's favorite cereal in the whole wide world. So he lugged these boxes back for the family. He gave the kids each a bowl the other morning. And the 3 of them ate it. : )
Lemonade, because sometimes a person just needs a nice tall glass of lemonade with ice. ; ) Turtles. Caramel, pecans and chocolate.
Green apple dish soap, granted we use our big dishwasher daily but we do get that odd pan here and there. And the rest is just hand soap, the lemon one is for the kitchen, the 2 on the right are for the upstairs laundry room and bathroom sink. The pomegranate mango ones can be used either way.
Shampoo. Sometimes I bring shampoo back, yet sometimes I don't, just depends on my mood while I'm on vacation. This time I did. Pantene clarifying shampoo and ice shine conditioner. I like the clarifying removes buildup. Although I wear no product in my hair, it's still nice to use once a week. Vanilla mint tea shampoo and conditioner, thought this smelled absolutely fantastic. 
Tampons, now I am a Tampax Pearl user, I am, I am. Sorry if it's a bit TMI for you. But then I saw the Kmart brand ones. It said with silky smooth applicator and I thought, "ugh huh! a knock off of the Tampax pearl" and then I looked at the price. Because saving a few bucks is just plain smart. And Tampax pearls were $5.99 a box and these were $2.99 a box. Saving 3 bucks a box and 6 bucks for both, heck yeah. So, yup, bought these. I'll try em. Rolaids. Because while I do like spicy food, you know like Indian or Mexican. I do get hurt burn sometimes, not all the time. But these rolaids will definitely come in handy. Furniture polish. And 2 deodorants. I have a few deodorants here already. So, I'm good now.
I'm naturally a brunette but I find myself going from brunette to red head sometimes. And no, I'm not like a chameleon changing month to month, ha ha ha. It's just sometimes I feel like a change and keep it for a few months then dye it back to a near exact match of my regular. It just depends. And this time I was thinking, redhead again. My hairs still growing like a weed, it's long and still straight as a pin. Now I am just deciding brunette or redhead. Hmm. :P
Okay I just gotta share this story. I saw this really amazing Christmassy platter/candy dish. I saw it and it was $10.86. That's too high, I thought (okay and honestly not really too high but I know how they have discounts after the holidays so held out). So, I held off. These were being sold at the grocery store by the way but too cute for words. I counted them, there were 10 of them.
I wanted this and whenever I went to the store the stock of these platters was slowly dwindling. They ended up with 5 last time I checked and I contemplated buying it? Contemplated how I would feel if they sold out and then I would not get one? I imagined I'd be beyond disappointed and then I'd kick myself for being such a cheapskate! Ha! But I didn't buy it. Christmas came and went and on the actual Christmas day, after we spent the day at the beach and the hotel swimming pool. And while we were heading to lunch I went into the store real quick for a looksee, they were closing Christmas day at 2pm and it was 1;30pm. I ran in and there were now only 3 left and they were marked down to $8 dollars. I wanted/hoped it would be marked down more but figured I might not end up with one if I waited again, so $8 bucks was the price I paid. And it is so cute. I am happy I ended up with it. And I also stocked up on some Christmas cupcake liners.
I think I ended up getting a good deal on this. : )
It is indeed deep enough to hold some Christmassy M&M's or something or other. I'll think about that next year. : )
1 pack of Spongebob underwear for Branden. B just got quite a few packs last time we were there. Noah hadn't, so the other 2 packs are for Noah. He got a mix pack of Lightning McQueen (Cars), Buzz, Nemo, Wall-E, The Incredibles, etc. And a pack of Cars undies.
Some magazines. Apparently, Katie Holme's prenup has expired since she has been with him the amount of time so far and they are renegotiating another prenup for another set amount of years. Good thing her father is a lawyer.
A new calendar. With all the boys 1/2 days and observation days etc etc. I really need to find a calendar I like. ; )
I love Chelsea Handler, if you recall I have her other book I picked up in Hawaii this past Summer. She writes so honestly and with such humor. I was glad to pick up this book. Her 3rd book is coming out this coming March. I also picked some some Christmas gift tags at 50% off. They'll come in handy next year.
A Blockbuster run was in order. Desperate Housewives the 5th season. This is why I was so delayed in my blogging, after we got back home from Guam, I started watching this and let's just say 6 whole DVD's later (the 7th one is a sneak peek dvd of Ugly Betty and other shows) This was probably my favorite season of Desperate Housewives, *so* much has happened. We also got the Wizards of Waverly Place the movie dvd. And the movie Julie and Julia. This looks fantastic and I love Meryl Streep, so I am looking forward to this.
Branden's keyboard, his Christmas gift from grandma Mitsuko.
Noah's gift from grandma Mitsuko. His gift was really marked down and it was a mere $16.00. Bless his heart. Mitsuko told the boys they could get anything as long as it was jointly under 25,000 yen. B's cost was $169.00 US (about 15,000 yen). A costly gift and I didn't even wanna let him but Noboru and my MIL discussed it at the Indian restaurant the day of Noah's recital and she said please get that for Branden from me. She insisted. We then told Noah, granny said you can choose anything you like he walked around the KB toy store and he fell in love with this toy little boys gun set. We even asked him, do you want anything else? he said, "I don't need anything else" Noah has always been this way, never had a greedy heart or bone in his body. Branden either. But Noah is something really special and I was pretty proud of my boy. So, yeah I think he picked a pretty good gift. He's definitely no Veruca Salt, let's put it that way. ; ) Plus he got gifts from us, quite a few and from my family as well so both the kids actually made out pretty well in the presents department. ; )
I like the Ralph Lauren shirts with the big pony's on them. Look at Branden's side of pics on the front of this blog and where it says, "my prepster" you see B wearing a Polo with a big pony. Anyway I had been wanting to get both my son's some new ones, but the Macy's didn't have any of the big pony's just the regular sized ones. However the DFS had them.
We bought Branden these 2. A traditonal navy with white pony, he's had this one before but different size. And the orange one was really gorgeous we thought.
B wears a size 10-12. The Ralph Lauren online says the numbers do not match the age. That was a bit shocking when I read that a few years back because every other store a size 4T is for a 4 year old. Apparently not at Ralph Lauren. @_@ So, since I read that, I always make my kids try them on. The size S that is for an 8 year old is skin tight on Branden and like a half shirt almost it's small, let's put it that way. Seriously. And I don't think my sons a giant either, ha ha ha. But the 10-12 is good and a bit of room to grow. I wish they'd make the age match the size. Grrr grumble grumble.
The size 4T was way too tiny, then the size 6 looked like a dress on Noah. @_@ But the 5 looked about right, a bit of room to grow. I said to Noboru, seems the age matches Noah but not B. And then the crazy size chart at Ralph Lauren then mucks me up completely.
I tucked Noah's away in Noah's closet and B's in his closet. They all hang nicely and will wait for the Summer.
Noboru bought me a Prada bag for Christmas.
Cloth bag cover. I have quite a few Prada bags already (about 5 bags and 2 cosmetic cases) and a Louis Vuitton bag, and I always enjoy the covers that come with. And to be fair, I also have Target bags and Gap and Old Navy. I'm not caught up on name brand, if it's cute, it's cute. ; )
It's a cross body and I love the size. Large enough to fit all my stuff but not so large that it looks like I am carrying a diaper bag. : )
Wide enough to hold my wallet, my camera case, my keitei. Looks like I'm set. : ) I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, I know we did. I hope to catch up with you all soon. : )
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