I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. We really enjoyed ours. It was quiet, low key and spent poolside.
Our room.
A different view.
Flat screen TV.
We had the best view, ocean view and pool view too.
Noah enjoying the view about to take an afternoon Christmas swim.
Can see right down below to the slide.
Peter Thomas Roth products are now being offered for the guests.
Christmas dinner. You know, if we wanted we could have went downstairs and had that beautiful Christmas feast buffet they were offering at the hotel, the meal poster was hanging right in the elevator, it said, roasted turkey, ham, roast beef, roast lamb, crab legs and many countless meats, side dishes and desserts. But you know....between you and me, I'd really just prefer a nice pan pizza and some bread sticks. So that's what we had. It was awesome. Right up our alley. After this, we went to Circle K and picked up some mini Hostess donuts the chocolate dipped kind and some Fritos and Funyons for the boys. And we went up to our room and had a nice shower and then had a blanket picnic on our bed and watched some good TV shows.
Noah playing around with this cutout at the movies. He's such a silly goofball! : )
We saw 2 different movies while in Guam for Christmas time. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked. I liked this Alvin and the Chipmunks movie better then the previous 2. And we also saw the newest Twilight movie....Breaking Dawn! Finally at last, at last! So, happy I saw this.
Branden and Noah, the day we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The beautiful Christmas tree at the Hilton Hotel. The entire lobby and whole hotel as a whole are so nicely decorated at Christmas time, they really do a fantastic job decorating.
The largest Christmas ornaments, we ever did see! ; )
Tony Romas, my serving. Double baked potato versus getting a side I really don't want. And the garlic butter on the fresh baked bread in the background.
A smiley Branden with dimple. : ) Both Branden and Noboru had ribs. I did too.
Noah enjoying his bread and his chicken strips.
Branden and Noah enjoying dessert. It's free with a kids meal.
And the next morning. More swimming! I love this picture, father and son! Noboru drinking his coffee and enjoying that gorgeous view, Noah enjoying the view too.
A happy family in the pool! : )
What a view!
Branden taking an underwater swim/cruise.
Branden said..."come on Noah, go too"...so Noah said..."alright" and there he went.
And again. Noah is such a great little swimmer. Noboru meanwhile watching the boys.
And then Branden switched swim strokes/styles.
And so Noah followed quickly behind switching also. Noboru holding onto the beach ball in the pic in the background.
Pool play!
The view from the pool.
Father and son walking together poolside. Boy is Branden really stretching out, huh?
Noah going down the slide.
And again.
Branden sliding down too. He also made a friend, an American boy near Branden's age, his name was Mark. So Branden, Noah and Mark slid down about 100 times. I slid down about 200 times. LOL, but seriously yes I did. : )
Go Noah go!
Go Branden!
We had brought Vitamin Waters down with us to the pool area. So whenever we were thirsty throughout the day, we'd just take a drink here...take a drink there.
Branden about to sneeze and Noah zeroing in on Branden, he's gonna getcha! : ) We made it a point to swim every single day we were there, whether if it was for 3 hours in the morning, break for a movie and an hour in the evening. No matter... we swam so much and played poolside daily.
Branden and Noah right before, we went upstairs and everyone got showered and we had a nice late lunch around 1pm-ish. At Wendy's. But we swam since 7:30am that morning though.
Yogurtland, opened up right near Cost U less near the GPO. They're a yogurt shop. There is one near Agana shopping center also, but same parking lot though.
Cost U Less. There is no Costco on Guam. But this is awesome and no membership is required. : ) Plus there's like 30 different grocery stores at least throughout the island. if not way more. And as for Cost U Less, there are 2
After running into Cost U Less. For spaghetti sauce and I forget what else. We went to lunch, all that swimming sure makes you hungry. I had the Asiago chicken sandwich. Combo. And since I rarely eat ground beef, however this day, I was in the mood for it, I had a junior bacon cheeseburger. It was quite nice.
Noah and Branden had kids meals. Cheeseburger kids meals, plus Branden got a side chicken nuggets since he eats a lot more then Noah. Which is understandable.
Noboru had a side cesar salad, big chili and a triple decker cheeseburger. @_@ In his defense, he really was starved after all the swimming we all did.
After eating Wendy's we went to the Payless grocery store in Agana. It very briefly rained for about 5 minutes and then stopped. Here's the temps. 99F. Shorts weather no doubt, very tropical and beautiful. We enjoyed the weather.
That is 31 Celsius for those of you who prefer Celsius. Meanwhile in Japan in our neck of the woods, there's been frost on the grass, the shed roof, on our car windshield evey morning.
After Wendy's and the grocery store and swinging by my dad's condo, we hit the Micronesia mall.
After shopping at the Game Stop. We stopped in Cold Stone Creamery for some signature creations. Noah had the combo called birthday cake (cake batter flavored icecream, brownie, sprinkles, hot fudge and nuts or something like that). Branden had the minty choco one, it had a brownie and other things mixed in, Noboru had the cheesecake one and I had..."this is how I roll" Ha ha ha.
Noah enjoying his birthday cake creation. Yumm.
There was a group of teens behind Branden so I didn't want them to think I was taking their picture, which I wouldn't have done anyway. But anyway...in the background was Branden eating the minty choco one. And this was my "this is how I roll" one. Tasted like a cinnamon roll exactly, so good! Yellow cake, cinnamon and pecans, I should try and recreate this at home, lol. I will be eating this again next time.
Noboru wearing his Dairy Queen t-shirt eating his Cold Stone, lol.
The lights were so pretty at the mall.
The lights changed colors to the music. It was awesome!
We then went to the DFS and I picked a very nice bag, then we swung and dropped it off in our hotel room before meeting up for dinner. We went to have yummy Chinese food that night for dinner. We love this place! On my plate, there was, pork fried rice, vegetable egg foo young, and salt and pepper shrimp.
On the center round giant lazy susan-esque type turntable. We had, mayo walnut shrimp, which is Noboru's fave, chow mein, fried rice x2, egg rolls, egg foo young, salt and pepper fried shrimp and twice cooked chicken with dipping sauce.
We talked and ate and talked and ate. It was an awesome dinner. The restaurant is called Chuan Fu, I think that's the name, I've blogged this place before. It's on the hotel row on a corner. And 98% of their meals are all $5.00 I think maybe like 3-4 things are higher, but everything we chose was $5 each item we picked. And the egg rolls, you get 5 egg rolls for $5 bucks. So it's quite affordable and Noboru first found this place about 9-10 years ago in a Japanese tourists Guam booklet they mentioned the mayo walnut shrimp. : ) It is not a fancy looking restaurant by any means, but it's a good basic simple food. And if you don't see what you like ask. They have seafood egg foo young on the menu but not veggie....but I always ask and they always give it to me no problem.After we had dinner, we went back to the hotel. It's important to note, that for as long as we've been coming to Guam at Christmas time throughout the years. And staying at the Hilton. I've never really captured or showed how truly breath taking the outside of the hotel looks. Finally this year, Noboru asked me to video tape it a bit for you all to at least get a tiny glimpse. Because believe me it is truly magical being here at Christms time. However...figures I muck up the video. I wanted to say...here we are in the Hilton parking lot. That's how I wanted to start the video. However after we exited the car, I must have got discombobulated, possible brain fart or whatever you want to call it. But I instead said...here we are in the Guam parking lot! @_@ Ummm Guam parking lot? Did I really say that. @_@ In any case case...I could always choose not share the video...but you know what...I'm human I am by no means perfect and yeah I screwed up what I wanted to say the first 5 seconds. Sorry. But the bright side is...you can at least see the magic of what it looks like outside. See those, lights, they're on all the trees outside and they like moving and glowing all the way down on each branch and then starting again. They're so beautiful and they're all over the parking lot on all the trees as soon as you enter the Hilton. You can see more decoratiosn even. Hear the trolley or shuttle that are carrying tourists. And finally see the magical color changing tree that truly dazzles us always. I know I didn't even capture 1 10th of how pretty it truly is at Christmas, but it really is gorgeous and it's hard not to feel in the Christmas spirit staying at this gorgeous resort.
Branden and Noah in front of the tree, after coming back from dinner.
Though it's too warm for snow in Guam, they still have a cute skiiing Santa, we've enjoyed this Santa throughout the years.
International Santa's. We've enjoyed these throughout the years too. They're really nice if you can see them up close.
There's always a moving train suspended from the ceiling, it's always runing throughout Christmas and this just mesmorizes Branden and Noah as well as whoever goes into the lobby, we always see people pointing up above and smiling at it.
Our last and final day on Guam. We were to catch the 3:30pm flight back home to Japan. So, we had the whole morning and afternoon to enjoy still. We woke up around 7am-ish. We always leave the blinds open in the hotel room and the sunny skies usually wake us up bright and early. Anyway, we went to Winchell's for breakfast. Everyone had 2 donuts each, however Noboru picked his 2nd donut after he had the first one. We both had coffee and the boys had apple juice.
Noah had a cinnamon twist and a chocolate rasied donut. Noboru had a glazed twist x2. Branden had a strawberry filled and also a cinnamon twist. And I had a strawbery filled one and a toasted coconut raised and glazed one.
They have such a great selection. We went back to the hotel afterwards and let the boys swim for an hour. I sat on a beach chair watching and chatting with them. Noboru put his swimwear on and played with them. The last day was the only day I did not swim, otherwise I swam everyday. The boys did swim everyday though. We went upstairs, Noboru and the boys quickly showered. And we all packed up and checked out of the hotel. And then went to lunch. Last thing to eat.
The boys voted on KFC. So we went there. I had a 2 piece combo with biscuit and mashed potatoes and gravy. 1 chicken was orginal and 1 was extra crispy, only because they only had 1 orginal recipe breast, which was fine, I'm flexible.
Branden had an adults chicken strips combo and Noah had a child's chicken strip meal. We took the rental car back and they drove us to the airport. Oh yeah we went and picked up a few things in my dad's fridge and hugged and said as usual..."this is not good bye but see you later." : ) And to the airport we went. Checked in and to the gate, we sat until boarding.
Noah sitting in first class, enjoying that gorgeous sunset. It was honestly so pretty. The flight was quiet and uneventful. I sat with Noah and right to the right of me, same row though, Noboru and Branden sat together. We all enjoyed our meal and the movies. 3 short hours later we arrived in Japan. It was cold...so freezing, smoke came out of our mouths that's how cold it was. : ) But you know what...it was good to be home. We went and had pasta and pizza after we arrived. At Mama Pasta in Narita. So delicious, wood fired pizza and everything. And went home. The boys requested to skip their shower when we got home, which was fine they just showered before checking out of the hotel that day anyway so they put jammies on and went to bed. I meanwhile took a steaming hot shower and into my Christmas pressie jammies and black long sleeve fitted top. Emailed my dad immeidately to say....we made it. It was awesome seeing you, love you and good night. 28 emails waiting for me, replied to like 5 and then turned the computer off and sat on the couch flipping through the channels, just being happy to be home. Though Noboru takes his laptop with him to Guam and elsewhere, and I could check my emails if I wanted while I'm away....I do not check while on vacation. It sort of does me a world of good being unplugged so to speak for those 3 nights-4 days. Came back feeling refreshed, revitalized. Happy and smiling.The behind blogging I had to do, left me feeling quite. @_@ : ( But other then that....everythings just really awesome and quiet here. We started in on the huge year end.... before New Years cleaning today already and I'll be blogging all about that tomorrow I'm sure.
I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas. I really do. : )
This post is so absurdly behind. But you know what...I'm going to post it anyway, what the heck! I had these pics up and waiting/paused and just sitting as a draft since before Noah even went on Christmas break. Since before the Christmas recital actually, yet with working those 3 days that week. And with the Christmas recitals and the candle light service and plus shaon kai meetings. And plus with packing getting ready for our trip. Which we went, it was AWESOME! Post coming today about our Christmas in Guam. But yeah back to this post...my original title for this was even..."getting ready for Christmas" yet now it's over. @_@ LOL. So, a bit wonky title, but again...posting it anyway. Hmm. Good thing, I remember what and why I posted each pic and the story I wanted to share with each. Things I have been enjoying on TV lately. This show is on the TLC channel and it's called, American Muslim. I really like this show a lot. Though I am born and raised Catholic. I enjoy this show because some of the cast, regulars on the show. Some are more religious then others. While some are not so religious. Some wear regular street clothes while some dress more traditional. Like this lady in the pic, she's pregnant but she had the baby 2 episodes ago. And is going through like a post partum depression right now. She talks about her life being all turned upside down. And she's just really relatable and I like watching their relationship
Shadia, on the otherhand, is 1 of 3 sisters. She also has 1 or 2 brothers. Her 1 sister dresses traditonal. And her other sister made the decision on the show a month ago, to start wearing the head scarf as she calls it. Though there is a technical term. Anyway, Shadia here in this picture, does not dress traditional at all. And she's fine with it! And she also married this Irish Catholic man, in the pic. Though he converted to Islam. But she has tattoos and she's really quite funny, she said on one episode... she is a hillbilly at heart! She's very funny and very different from her sisters.
This lady is also muslim and she also chooses to dress in western type clothes, she colors her hair and she's fine with it. Here in this pic, she was slightly arguing with a more traditonal lady. But they're all different, all have different personalities. Same as any other religion. In my family, some are more traditional hard core Catholics. While a few are a little more open to different ideas and such. So, yeah I've been enjoying watching this show every single week.
Another show I really like...is this show it's called, "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" But it's so hilarious and I have been enjoying this weekly as well.
They were chaperoning the school dance but decided to embarrass their daughters instead so they danced their butts off, needless to say...their daughters were totally mortified. LOL.
This show on the E channel, is called Scouted it's a brand new show. It's a reality show that looks for that next big super model. No contest like ANTM. This lady was beautiful. But her mom, was a total a total stage mom. They called her a momager, you know half manager, half mom. She did not get picked. : (
Gillian, she made it.
The pics, Gillian took.
This, is one of Branden's awards from Kumon. Now sure how I missed this, but October, was quite a busy month for us....Halloween, Hakone, Branden's birthday, it's honestly understandable how it got lost in the mix. But Branden's English level is getting so high and she told Branden if he reaches H2 by, April he will get a trophy. So, he's working really hard with that.
What else got lost in the shuffle? Noah needed new yochien shoes. With Noah graduating in March, I don't really want to buy/invest any money into any yochien clothing, know what I mean? But his shoes needed replacing BIG TIME. In other uniform news. Branden needed new stuff too. He got it well before his marathon. We bought Branden, 2 short sleeve tops, 1 pair of shorts (will buy another pair in Spring. And he also got a pair of pants, gym uniform pants. So, in January, I'll think, he'll get a new sweatshirt for gym class. And that should be enough for a while.
A tiny glimpse of things we got for Christmas. I got this super cute Wintery sweater. Paired with a jean mini skirt and black leggings and Uggs, it's going to be so cute.
Some clothes for Christmas as well. I got this navy blue and white Gap sweatshirt. The boys got some nice long sleeved tops. Yellow and green.
They each got these.
I picked these. And I can now show my Denver Broncos pride, no matter where I am. : )
The cutest flannel PJ's from Old Navy. I love my PJ's I got for Christmas, thanks dad. Black flannel plaid, I'll be wearing these with a black long sleeved fitted tee. The pink pair so cute and I'll wear with the pink fitted long sleeve tee. And the Christmas pressie flannel pair, I'll be wearing with a fitted long sleeve tee as well. I'll be looking quite cute this winter after shower and bath time. : )
Another shipment arrived. Amazon. See, they didn't just get clothes. ; ) These were books.
And here are my new Uggs. A gift from Noboru.
Black, my last pair were the caramel colored ones.
Books for the boys.
These were for Branden. Branden enjoys all the Diary of the Wimpy Kid books. And we added this book to his collection. And then this book, called, 100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet. It got great reviews from parents. One person said, it got her child to read. So she was happy. Branden loved this book, devoured it, read each and every page. And loves going back to this and looking at the photos. And the Ripley's Believe It or Not 2012, Branden loved this too. It's fair to say, he enjoyed some new reading material.
Noah received these. The first human encyclopedia, we read this together he and I each night, we read 2 pages ever night after I tuck him in and he loves it. I find Noah looking and flipping through the pages of this. And the Click Clack Moo, book, was a hit, it received awards and has great reviews. I was so happy, I chose these for Noah.
Branden had a Christmas kai/party at the Plaza. It was only for kids who attend our elementary school. So no yochien kids were invited. : ( However, I took Branden there and he enjoyed playing a few hours with his friends and he came home with this fantastic tin of candy and chocolates.
Christmas roll cookies, Santa chocolates, he got a very nice assortment.
Also first week of December, each child brought home a note saying...what role their child got in the Christmas play and what was needed for that role. Noah's note said, white tights, and a pair of pants, NO JEANS. I looked at last years dvd and saw most of the kids wore cords. So, I packed Noah his pair of tan corduroys to wear.
What else...I also am still making homemade pizza from scratch about once or twice a month. And pizza movie night is always a hit at our house.
Another shipment came. The first shipment was books up above. This shipment was dvd's. I picked, Bridesmaids, and The Help (this is the best movie ever!!!!, anyone read the book..anyway fantastic movie) and I also picked, Crazy Stupid Love. Each of the boys received Street Fighter, this is a popular game for kids right now. Noah got the newest Transformers movie, since he's Transformers crazy! Branden got Kung Fu Panda 2 and they received 2 shared dvd's, Cars 2 and Despicable Me. And 1 extra book for Branden, he received another Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I can walk up to his room at bedtime and I will catch Branden reading this, which makes me happy. He really loves these books. And I'll sit and let him read some to me each night.
A misc pic, Noah in the green sweatshirt following the jinbei boy in the blue coat and backpack, and Genki is in the red and black coat and Branden was ahead. They were walking to the closest park from our house, which is about a 1 minute walk from our house. To play soccer together.
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.
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