A day spent at the farm part 2! : )

Noah totally idolizes his big brother, you can just see it in this picture. Also, by the way, we were almost eaten alive by these goats!!! We've been to this farm a zillion times. This has never happened before. We went first thing in the morning and the goats were starved! We walked in there with some food (you can buy a whole cup full for 100 yen near the entrance of the goats), they saw the food, they were starved and as we walked in....(Noboru, my dad, Branden and Noah and I and the goats swarmed us...they jumped on my dad and dirtied his fleece jacket, but he wasn't hurt. And they jumped me twice! My coat had hoove prints on it!!! And we aren't talkin' from Santa's reindeer either!!! I was kicked and beat by goats and so was my dad and Noboru! ha ha ha! They didn't bother the kids, I shielded them pretty good. We all got so shook up, we just gave them all the food immediately, as if we had just been robbed....robbed by a gang of goats, I tell you! Plus...they have weird eyes, like half their eyeballs are like brown and the other half is like white. Like half moon one side is black or brown and the other half is white. My dad said they had creepy zombie eyes! So we were robbed by zombie eyed goats...a whole gang of them! We left right away to another part of the park. I had to go to the little sinks they have all over the park and scrub the hoof prints off my jacket!!! Best part of it is? My sil caught it all on tape. I can just imagine her and my mil rewinding the tape back again and again and laughing their butts off! Ha ha ha! : )


I packed a good lunch of what else? Turkey sandwiches and Ruffles chips and Christmas cookies and some teas and Qoo. And paper cups and napkins and stuff. I made 7 sandwiches.
During our picnic lunch at the picnic tables at the bukujo, Kobby said he didn't want to leave auntie Gina's house and Mister daddy's house (they meant uncle Noboru), ahhh how nice! I just made sure to tell them how much we love them and hugged them all day and talked and listened to them and all their wild crazy kid stories, ha ha ha! And just basically let them know how much we care about them. And I know they left knowing that! : )

So as we sat eating our lunch we were watching from our lunch table all the people trying the stilts and having a hard time doing it. Noboru and my dad tried it afterwards and they both were pretty horrible! Ha ha ha. But at least they tried I guess : )
























After our lunch and after we all tried the ice-cream. And we were about to leave, the kids wanted to ride this just 1 more time. However they ended up riding it about 7 more times.

Here's Branden going up with his cousin Ju-chan. My niece and nephew and sil and my mil all headed back to Osaka around 5:00 pm. Well that's when they left our train station. And they headed to the Funabashi train station and then were catching the bus back to Osaka. A sleeper type bus.

I fed them again before they left. Turkey again, ha ha ha! And packed them some food and sandwiches for the trip and some rolls for the kids because they loved the Costco rolls, actually everyone did, they were a hit. Kobby cried and didn't want to leave. I felt so sad, and I hugged him and told him to be good. And Ju-chan started crying and threw a big fit because she didn't want to leave, my sil actually had to drag her from the house. It broke my heart. She had grown to be such a sweetheart. Noboru told me that they told him they had the best time and that really makes me happy to hear that!


The 3 bigger kids/cousins all going down the hill together! They really all had a blast playing with each other.

The evening and night of Thanksgiving!

Here's a pic of our hot fudge brownie chocolate sundaes! Pecan nuts on top and even with colorful chocolate sprinkles. Oh man, the kids had these the entire time. And Noboru had about 6-8 servings of ice-cream during the whole time and he actually finished up the ice-cream himself. He had 2 bowls a day! Ha ha ha! I only had 2 small sundaes the whole time but then, I ate more pie then anything dessert wise though. : ) Satoe loved the brownies so much, that when they left I packed her with 4 big brownies and also packed her up with a whole bunch of food for both her and Jun to take home with them : )


Oh man the pumpkin pie was so delicious and really tasted homemade from that little whole in the wall bakery! Next year, I might make my own. And even this year after I couldn't buy the Costco pie, I went looking for the canned pumpkin they had at Costco and it was all sold out! Double bummer! But these pies were exactly the taste I've been craving! So I was happy! Branden ate about as many servings of pie as Noboru had ice-cream. Now Noah on the other hand vomited every time he tried pumpkin pie. 3 times total...somehow he can't stomach the pie, go figure!



Turkey sandwiches non-stop. Around 7:00 pm, I was starting to feel a bit hungry, since we ate Thanksgiving dinner around 1:30 pm (lunch rather, huh?) Even now we still have a turkey in the fridge still. Now making sandwiches for everyone's snack? Try making 7 sandwiches total every single time, ha ha ha! And the kids sandwiches had to be cut in itty bitty tiny squares, ha ha ha!


All the kids played out back all day until it actually got dark. After the last sandwich and sundae and pie was eaten for the night. Everyone took turns showering and bathing. I filled a bath. My sil was surprised by the size of our tub and the extra seat/space on the side for the kids to sit while bathing. I offered for her to shower with her 2 kids first. But she said I should go first since Noah was looking a bit sleepy, how nice of her. So Branden and Noah and I went upstairs. I observed Branden wash his own hair and his own body and of course I made sure to wash extra good between the toes or scrub his hair a bit extra, but he's going to be showering alone come this coming summer in June so he's in training right now, ha ha ha! Noboru dried him and got him in his PJ's. And Noah got all washed up and he also got Noah in his PJ's as well and I got all clean and got in my PJ's as well. As soon as we came down, Kaori went upstairs with her 2 kids and got them all cleaned up. Everyone took turns, my dad showered, Mitsuko showered, Noboru showered, somehow everyone got showered and took baths. Ha ha ha : )


Here's Branden in his PJ's watching the movie Cars with his cousins and his brother. I popped some popcorn and we all watched the movie!


Noah's never seen a futon before, he liked it and ran and jumped on it a few times!







Here's Noah and cousin Kobby playing after Kobby finished his shower. He's going to be six years old really soon and starts first grade this coming year in Osaka.


Here's 3 squeaky clean kids. Where's Noah at in this picture? I don't know, maybe off visiting with grandma who knows. In the pic is Branden, and his cousins J-chan and Kobby.

Aha! Here's a pic of all the kids together. Kobby is 5 years and 11 month's old, so maybe I should just say 6? I dont know. And J-chan is 3 years old. Branden just hit 5 years old and has a whole other year of yochien to go. And Noah is 16 month's old. They are all half American. Noah and Branden had a total ball with them as well. I loved having the kids here.

Thanksgiving

Don't ask me why or ask me how. But this turkey was the juiciest turkey I've honestly ever eaten! Of course my brother in law Jun says it was the *Japanese* butter that did it, ha ha ha! He's so funny. I love my bil. But whatever it was, it was *so* noticeable. Even my mother in law, Mitsuko complimented the turkey saying Jun's host family's turkey was not as juicy as the one I made today. I was shocked, she said that. But happy for the compliment. My dad also mentioned how tender it was as well. The outside was crispy but the inside was really tender and juicy. Okay....maybe Jun could be right...it could have been the Hokkaido butter, ha ha ha. Also in this pic was the chips and dip and black olives. The kids did stick them on their fingers (cough cough) just like auntie Gina showed them how to (shhh) Branden already knows how to stick them on his fingers and bite them off. But it was cute to see my niece and nephew learn it as well.


I had all the stuff for salad and kindly appointed my sil Kaori to salad detail. Ha ha ha. She made a beautiful salad and it was cool everyone got in there and helped like that. In this pic is also the stuffing and the homemade mashed potatoes. We also used the Hokkaido butter for the potatoes as well, and they were some mighty yummy mashed potatoes. : )


The gravy and in the background is my sister in law, Satoe. Jun's wife.


Here's Jun (my brother in law) and my sister in law Satoe. He's a cutie and she's a sweetheart! She's going to have a baby this coming March. She is a flight attendant and is quitting her job in January. Personalities and how are they? They are so awesome! Two truly sweet wonderful people! I am really quite fond of them!
And they are wonderful to Branden and Noah as well. A wonderful auntie and uncle! I'm so lucky to have them as part of my family! I really mean that! : )



Here is Mitsuko my mil in the pink shirt. My lovely sil Kaori on the left of my mil. And Noboru cuting the turkey. : )


Here's a pic of my dad getting his plate of food all put together and served! Yup it was a serve yourself type relaxing atmosphere. That way nobody had to wait to be served or eat something they didn't necessarily want on their plate. Every one picked whatever they wanted and it worked out well that way! : )


Here's a pic of all us adults. The kids are all there as well, you just can't see them because they are all short, ha ha ha. And as usual, I'm not in the pic because I have to be the picture taker, ha ha ha, I don't mind so much though.

And here's my first serving of my Thanksgiving meal, after I took this pic, I put my gravy on everything. But then I realized, I didn't get a pic with the gravy on! But with everyone in the kitchen and dining room and stuff, I didn't really have time to take perfect pictures. So imagine this with gravy and there you go, ha ha ha. Sorry.

After our meal, everyone had a choice of sundaes or pumpkin pie. My dad and Branden and I had pumpkin pie, everyone else had sundaes!

Just a few things my dad brought with him...

My dad arrived safe and sound. He loved his flight, he had no idea he would be upgraded, so it was a nice surprise for him! He brought 2 pumpkin pies with him in his carry-on bag. We really needed these pies! : )


My dad's known I've been sick and he brought me some cough medicine, the day formula and also the night formula! It really is the little things like this, that count and make a person feel thought of, you know what I mean? Not the big expensive type gift...the small little thoughtful ones are what always get me most! : )

Also the Homestyle popcorn is my most fav of fav popcorns. The commercial that aired with this a few years back said...made with real butter and sprinkled with salt "just like grandma used to make" hmmm something about them saying that made me try it. Yup, I'm a sucker for smart marketing, ha ha ha! It really did taste like homemade popcorn, but actually more like my mom makes ha ha ha. So, I've been dying for this and my dad brought me 4 packs of this popcorn! Again, it's the smallest thoughtful gift that makes me so happy! Also dad brought some Christmas cookies, for which Branden has been munching on these since grandpa brought them out from his suitcase! He also brought them some Nerds candy rope necklaces made of nerds (these are a new thing, and I love Nerds candy) and some chocolate covered macadamia nuts and 1 hot wheel cars each. Again not terribly expensive and it shouldn't have to be either! The boys felt thought of and so did I! Man, it felt so awesome with my dad here! : )

He ate the dinner I prepared especially for him. And Noboru and my dad and Branden ate. Noah was dead asleep to the world at the time, ha ha ha.

Dad kept me company while I cleaned out the turkey and before I threw Tom in the oven. We watched TV for about 15 minutes and my dad was exhausted so he went upstairs and went to sleep. Noboru and I stayed awake and watched TV for about 30 minutes and then we headed up to sleep. The turkey was in the oven at 11:00 pm the night before. And Noboru and I took turns basting it during the night with some Hokaiddo butter. Darn that butter was so good, ha ha ha : )

Gobble gobble, please have a Happy Thanskgiving tomorrow! : )

I'm sure my dad's in the airplane by now. His plane took off at 4:00 pm Guam time and that's 3:00 pm Japan time. I think he arrives Narita at 6:45 pm, or around there. and with the walk through customs and stuff, he should be out of there by 7:30 pm. However since Noboru is working and about to get off work at the same time, my dad is just going to wait and catch the train back with Noboru and I'll pick them up from our little country train station down the hill. My dad's never taken a train in Japan before and he's excited at taking one. He also is going to have to hang around Narita until 8:30 pm. Noboru and my dad are meeting up at Starbucks at 8:30 pm. What will my dad do at Narita airport between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm? Geeze, I have no idea! Knowing my dad, he's an avid reader, he'll probably be reading some Newsweek or National Geographic or some book, lol at Starbucks with a caramel machiatto and a scone or something. LOL.

My dad's Japanese is absolutely horrible. If he gets lost, I just don't know what he'll do. He'll be some gray haired man with hazelish green eyes with this great big nose running around the airport. Ha ha ha. His Japanese skill? I think he knows....thank you, excuse me, good morning and good night, oh yes and water. That's about all of my dad's Japanese he knows! Errrrr, I sure hope he can find his way to Starbucks.

If I wasn't busy cooking their dinner and getting ready for tomorrow, I'd be at the airport myself. However Noboru insists my dad will be fine.

What did I do today? Well, I cleaned until noon, when I went to the bus stop to pick up Branden and then I came back and we all took a nap. I was tired and I really should have rested all day, but with family coming I couldn't.

I'm wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow and if you don't celebrate it...then have a wonderful day then! : )

Another trip to the doctor's : )

This morning I woke up and I felt pretty bad again. You know.....when I get better, I really might go and get myself a flu shot because I don't wanna get this strain or thing that's sweeping Japan this season again! The virus is really strong this season! Unbelievable actually! I'm having a light cough. And mostly just my sinuses are so blocked up. I didn't have a headache yesterday but today it's pretty bad. I figure I better go back today and see the nice doctor from last week. Hopefully I can get to feeling a bit better before all our family comes in a few days!

Noah and Noboru are both totally unaffected and not sick at all! It's just Branden and I, that seem to be the ones suffering with this thing, ha ha ha! Since I went back...we also brought Branden with us since he's still sick as well. We both got the same meds as last week. The doctor also gave me a new med on top of that....a sinus medication as well.

He basically told me, I did too much, too fast! And basically I didn't rest enough! Sigh! So, I am going to try and get some rest today! : )

He also mentioned both Branden and I were both wheezing a lot in our chests and thought we could both have a slight case of asthma. I doubt it....I think it's just a chest cold and head cold. Anyway...back to getting some much needed rest. : )
We sent Branden to school right after our doctor's visit this morning by the way! : )

School was cancelled due to some bad weather today!

Monday morning, I wake up bright and early. Make Branden's obento. A chicken and cheese quesadilla. Thank goodness we had that roasted chicken from the night before. Phew! Made the lunch pretty quickly. Super quickly actually. I sat watching about 10 minutes of CNN before I went upstairs to get Branden. Before I could even go and get Branden, the telephone rang. It was the yochien. They wanted to let us know.....school was possibly being cancelled today. Due to severe wind and rains hitting this area. And they added the elementary school already cancelled class today! And to please not drop your kids off, until they call each of us back via the calling tree.

Okay, so Noboru and I were both awake actually having our coffee. And watching the news and we waited (he came down after the phone rang and waited with me) About 10 minutes later they indeed called and said the weather was expected to get even worse around the time school lets out this afternoon. So without a doubt school had to be cancelled...a big storm today was about to hit.

This was sorta exciting to me, because growing up in the US, snow days and blizzards and such often cancelled days from school. I didn't know the same ever happened in Japan. Well, it goes to show, I learned something new today...ha ha ha!

I went upstairs and told Branden he didn't have to go to school today afterall. After a bunch of yippy's and wooohoo's, he ran downstairs and watched cartoons in his pj's and bed head!

Best part of all? I suggested the boys both share the obento this morning. They both wanted waffles. So, I got to eat the yummy lunch all to myself!

I'm going to clean the house a bit today. And do some laundry. : )

The turkey arrived and all, but would you believe...no pumpkin pie? Sigh, ha ha ha!

It's important to add before I tell you about my Sunday. That while I finished taking the last of my meds on Friday, I didn't fully recover. I only felt about 85% better...but I hoped that over the weekend the cold/flu whatever would sorta fizzle itself out on it's own. However it didn't. Also, I'm not a sick type person, I'm more the opposite. The type that gets sick maybe once or twice a year types of people and my colds never last more then a few days. Which, this makes it even more surprising to me that this cold has now lasted nearly 2 weeks long? Almost unbelievable especially for me. Sigh...so saying that.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling sicker then I've felt in the past week and a half. My sinuses were so completely blocked, that not only could I not breath unless I breathed out my mouth. But the sheer pressure on my blocked sinuses had given me the worst and I do mean most severe migraine headache I've ever had...and I don't get migraines and have never suffered one before. Mild headaches yes, but migraines before today? No.

I took an American decongestant pill because my Japanese meds were gone since Friday. And I also took an Advil. My head was pounding so much, I couldn't eat breakfast, I went to lay down on the couch. I felt like vomiting. And this being one of the most important days because this is/was the only day before Thanksgiving we could actually get to Costco (Monday through Wednesday Branden has school, so I can't run to Costco 2 hours away..today was it, the only day) So, this could not be delayed until another day or postponed at all.

The turkey was due to arrive between 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Because that's the time we selected. However the turkey didn't arrive until nearly 1:00 pm! This was the problem due to the delivery company, not the turkey company! We were really upset by this point, because we were all dressed and sorta stuck waiting in limbo-land for the darned turkey to throw it into the fridge and jump into the car by 10:00 am....however with the delivery truck, so behind in their own schedule they sorta screwed everything up for us and made us really late and behind schedule!

The turkey finally arrived and we threw it into the fridge right away and left our house around 1:10 pm! Man...such a late start and not our fault at all! We jumped along the highway and paid the toll, our little ETC thing said, 1400 yen. Ridiculous, but we didn't have the time to drive the slow roads today.

Costco was nuts! So busy, so many cars, so many people!
All the parking lot's were full, we went around and around looking for a spot after a spot. With nothing in site, we checked each floor. Keep in mind it was raining very hard and such an ugly day to begin with. Plus my migraine. And our late start.

Finally we found a spot. Noboru put his blinker on and his hazards on. We waited for the people to unload all their stuff in the car. Meanwhile it's fair to say a big minivan, was about 5-6 car lengths in front and were waiting for a totally different spot. They had their blinkers, blinking left since they were waiting for the car way up and on the left hand side, while ours were blinking right and waiting for the couple to leave on the right. Turns out the couple the people in the other car were waiting for...weren't leaving after all. Now in my mind...that was sad. But it was the luck of the draw and it happens. However...the pushy Japanese man and his Japanese wife....took our parking spot! Yup, she found out they were waiting for a non-spot afterall. So she then stood near the black car where we had been waiting for...forever btw! I'm in our tiny little Suzuki minivan thinking. What the hell? Is she seriously taking our parking space? I told Noboru, roll your window down..*sumimasen her*...and tell her, "we have been waiting 10 minutes for that spot" Noboru, said, "ohhh just let them have it. We are the better people in the long run, because we have manners" Now I'm angry at this point and I say..."screw the manners, what good are proper manners when *they* got our parking spot?" With my migraine and all and Noboru feeling all...koombaiya and all!...he drove off and let them have our spot! Sigh!

We went around another 5 minutes and luckily for us we found another spot! Now, it's like 3:00 pm.

We get into the Costco and it's a pure nightmare. Carts all over the place. Total anarchy! In the US, and not always but most of the time.. the carts going forward are on the right and the ones coming toward you are on the left hand side. Nope not at Costco Makuhari, carts are going every which way and in every direction. Carts playing a brutal game of chicken with each other all over! Many people bumping other peoples carts. Some people practically ran over 2 little hafu girls (their Russian mom was pissed! ) It was nuts, meaning the crowds! Kids were getting nearly run over by road raged adults. Adults cutting in front of other carts. It was a total mad house. Going to Costco right before a holiday like this? Horrible idea. I wished we coulda gone on a weekday instead.

So many people. I actually lost track of what I was looking for. I couldn't think properly in there. Just a complete frenzy. I grabbed some Kleenex brand tissues because they are cheapest. Some Bounce dryer sheets that smelled like febreeze or whatever...and with my nose all stuffed up, I hope they smell okay, ha ha ha! I got some Pantene shampoo and conditioner. Some Olay Shea butter body wash. And we headed downstairs to the food section.

The food section/basement was actually worse. Carts were so busy they weren't really moving at all. They were all just sorta stuck. People were giving each other dirty crusty looks to each other. Huffing and puffing. I hate when people are like this......the ugliness that can come out in people and I don't mean the outer appearance wise, I mean the inner. The meanness and hateful attitude that comes out of some people. I wanted to get out of there! I dislike mean people immensely! I swear I should be one of those people riding around with that old sticker that says..."mean people suck", ha ha ha. And also just thinking back how just about 25 minutes prior someone actually was so mean to have stolen our parking space and everything else...I just had it and I wanted to leave this crazy place and go home!

Searching our minds to get what we needed and shop fast, so we could get the hell out of there....oh wait, what did we need again? Sigh! ha ha ha! Noboru searched his mind too. He said...Waffles! Bacon!! I said, Pumpkin pie!! Dinner rolls!!! We were off.

We walked the bakery department and would you believe not a pumpkin pie in site. The plan was, whichever one of us, found it, was supposed to grab it and throw it into the cart immediately! We were both walking back and forth throughout the bakery a few times. And yet no pie. A mild panic started to set in. Then the worry wart part started to come in to play...what if they had no pies? No...don't think so negatively. So we both asked the lady in Japanese, where are your pumpkin pies, please. She said, we sold out of them today and will make some more tomorrow. Try tomorrow!
What???...I knew I must have misunderstood this lady. I told her...we can't come back. We live over 2 hours away. It's for Thanksgiving. Please! I was desperate! She searched high and low in the back and we were actually watching through the glass window. She tried! She also told us, she would have baked us one, but with the store about to close, the pie wouldn't be ready by the time the store closed! Okay...now is when the major panic really sets in! We both thanked her so much, because she totally tried and it wasn't her fault. Granted it wasn't really our fault either....we were waiting since 10:00 freakin' o'clock in the morning, but with the late delivery guy with the turkey...everything got really screwed up!

We go to get the dinner rolls, they have just 2 big bags of dinner rolls left...they had about 100 bags of corn bread rolls, but only 2 bags of the normal yeasty dinner rolls left. We only needed one so we got one. I also helped another family find the last pack of yeast dinner rolls. I saw them looking for them and I knew where they were (on the bottom row) so I just grabbed the bag and handed it to them. Boy, where they happy! Hey...when everyone is being mean...it's sometimes cool to be nice still!

We got our bacon and our chocolate syrup and pecans for the sundaes. And left. Even after we paid, we still had trouble just getting our cart out of the sea of carts. PS. about Costco...all the turkeys were gone! We kept hearing people frantically saying...the turkeys are sold out! Oh no! The turkeys are gone. People speaking English, people speaking Japanese. So many disappointed people on Sunday at Costco Makuhari. Anger in their voices...despair in others (seriously no exaggeration). Thanksgiving so close, yet they have no turkey??? And with me and the no pie thing...I could totally feel their pain! One thing I was happy about is...I was at least thankful I had my turkey at least.

Noboru suggested we check Carrefour (sp?) a European store right near and see if they had any pumpkin pies. Sadly they didn't, in fact they told us, they have *never* sold pumpkin pies. Yikes! Ha ha ha! I guess don't go to Carrefour to look for pumpkin pies, ha ha ha! Sigh.... We grabbed a roasted chicken from there and brought it home for dinner. The flavor was so delicious, actually Noboru said it was the best roasted chicken he'd ever had before. Hmmmm. I wondered...better then mine? ha ha ha! : )

At this point, I feel just sick from this everlasting flu thing I've seem to have. And the pie thing has got to be a total nightmare among nightmares. Suddenly Noboru suggested, why not call your dad! Presto, great idea! I phoned my dad, around 8:30 pm. I told my dad the whole entire pie story, the late turkey and delivery man story and whatnot. The whole ordeal was relived via me talking to my dad over my Skype phone on my computer. He says, he will gladly bring 2 pumpkin pies from the same exact bakery that baked Noah's birthday cake back in July! Talk about utter relief! I let out the biggest sigh, ahhhhh! Thank goodness for you dad! And then we hung up and I went to lay down on the couch.

So, it looks like we are all ready for Thanksgiving now. I'm looking forward to tasting the little homemade bakery's pumpkin pies. Because I tasted a few of their things back in July when we got Noah's cake and the things we had were all so delicious. So...although today was a bit rocky... (okay our day at Costco sucked, lol) things seem to be under control now and back on track. Phew....what a day, I'm telling ya! A bit of a stressful day for sure!


Regarding the turkey, I will be ordering from this place again. I would link the place, but I can't link squat, ha ha ha. I'm too low tech, sorry. They were so easy to deal with. They could ship it any day you wanted! And this is best especially since most people in Japan don't have the extra space in their freezer to hold a big turkey. They can come 3 days before and won't ever bother your freezer space at all. Ours came and went immediately into our fridge for a slow defrost. Also, I didn't have to worry, if I could get one at Costco Makuhari or not. And it came directly to my door! Of course FBC also ships them as well. But many places also do the same.


25.73 pounds, is huge! We'll be sick of turkey by the time we are done with it! Ha ha ha : )






It's defrosting in the fridge on my roasted chicken platter. Way too small of a platter for the size of the turkey, I know, but it'll have to work. And yes, I do have a turkey platter, but for the fridge space, we are defrosting it in this instead. And our fridge is huge. But space is always a worry though, especially with a bird this size, you know. : )


See, the gray skies? The cold weather you can just tell, by looking at the sky. Raining so hard! And the long line of cars all waiting to turn into Costco!


Cars going in and in. And a few cars coming out, but mostly it was more cars going in!



Here's where politeness seemed to go out the window unfortunately. The parking garage! It was just brimming with cars. People were tired of going round and round! Honking at fellow cars! It was just all so frustrating!

Bacon and waffles. It was nice to get these, because our family does use this stuff a lot. The dinner rolls for Thanksgiving (I stuck them in the freezer right away) And the chocolate sauce and pecans for the sundaes. It wasn't a total loss. The day was good because of the things we did get to cross off our list.

There you have it, our crazy day! : )

Saturday! : )

Okay so the front of the house is all done now! Of course the tree isn't twinkling in the window yet, lol but that'll have to wait until all our company leaves from the Thanksgiving holidays. But here's the gist or idea of it. We kept everything basically super simple and traditional with regard to Christmas decorations. In Japan, they sometimes go a bit crazy, with lights thrown all over their houses in a wild spider web type fashion, bunches of different colors all bright and lit up like a rainbow! And blinking like a "love motel" type stuff! Seriously you should see some we've seen. Very understated at our house...nothing more then what you'd see at a typical middle class home in the US. Nothing super shishi poo poo type fancy or way out! Just basic, and simple. But man...it took a lot of work though, I'll tell ya! Noboru wants to light up the trim of the entire house now and that will be our next project for this week and next week. Anyway...here's a pic of what it looks like right now, I know a lot of you had asked for pics, so here you go....: )


Here's a close up for a better look! The red poinsettia's in the hanging baskets. The garland. We added the bows and lights ourselves and it was a bit more tricky then you might think. All the lights that are not the icicle lights. Like the lights on the garland and the lights wrapped around the poles. We honestly bought each of these boxes for only 250 yen each set! We bought and used 4! They came from a recycle shop that is actually going out of business near Branden's swimming school. They were new, but the guy had a bunch of them, nobody was buying them...they were being sold for 500 yen each box, but when we got to the counter he said, he would lower the price to 250 yen each. We were only interested in the clear lighted ones, so we bought just the clear ones.



Here's the front door! We switched our flower wreath to a Christmas type one! : )


Since Branden requested Mc Donald's as we were leaving Tsutaya and since it was right there, we said okay! Noboru and I are going to be eating what we've both been craving, so might as well let the boys have something they both love as well. So we cruised through the drive-thru and got 2 chicken happy meals with 2 red Lightning McQueen race car toys : )

Movie rental choice for tonight? We got 2 awesome ones...we rented the Davinci Code with Tom Hanks and the remake of the Omen! Insert scary music here...Dun dun..dun!!! Ha ha ha! Now, I am a big chicken! Yet I like scary movies. Go figure! We'll watch the Davinci Code and when the boys fall asleep, we will scare ourselves silly with the help of the Omen! Ha ha ha! : )

Noboru and I have been both dying to eat some Indian curry, so he's making me dinner tonight. I'm going to help though as well...a joint effort! And then we will run upstairs and get showered and jammies on and then it's totally going to be movie night tonight! : )

Oyasumi nasai everyone, have a good night and sleep well! : )

Making a run to Chiba New town! : )

The weather has been so chilly in Chiba. Our house is toasty warm with the central and all. But going outside is horrible! Brrrr! We picked up Branden at the school this afternoon and headed straight to Chiba Newtown. Noah was wearing his Gap fleece overalls to keep warm and his little turtle neck (the turtle neck used to be Branden's and the overalls are what we picked up in Tokyo a few weeks ago). The hat he needed to wear because, we were at a DIY and the place is big but unheated and so kids get quite cold being in their and they needed the hat to keep his ears and head warm. It's freezing cold in there actually, brrr. See, the Christmas decos in the back? Noboru picked up some garland and some red ribbon. He's still getting ready for the front of the house with his holiday decorations. He wants to light it up for the first time tomorrow night, so he's almost done with it.





















I had to bring Branden's clothes in the car with us and he changed in the car on the way driving to Chiba New town. Because wearing his uniform is ridiculous in this winter weather. Why oh why do kids have to wear super short shorts in the heart of winter? Poor kids! Ha ha ha! So I brought along his fleece jeans and turtle neck and fleece zip up. He also had to wear his hat and it has ear flaps to keep his ears warm. The hat came from Gap and the color of this hat matches his winter coat. Just like Noah's hat matches his winter coat as well. : )


Getting a hug from daddy. : )

















Since we were in Chiba Newtown anyway...we thought we'd check the furniture store. Didn't buy anything except a big picture frame that is more for like a collage of pics and it was really cheap like 2000 yen, or around $20.00. It's really nice and hard to believe it was only that price really. Noboru also picked up some poinsettias (sp?) because he wants us to transfer all the fake flowers in the front hanging baskets to the fake Christmas flowers. Sigh! And this really irritated me a lot, because it was hard and time consuming doing it a few weeks back and to have to redo it right now? Ummm not too thrilled about it at all! We also hit the big Daiso in Chiba Newtown as well. I wanted to go there for just some of those cheap nylon washing clothes for our bodies type things. And wanted to get some cheap plastic tumblers/cups since we are having company this week and could use them.
















Branden my #1 helper! At this age...all they wanna do it help! God, I love this age! Ha ha ha! After buying the few things at Kaldi and at Aeon. Yes we were at the Chiba Aeon because they got the whipped cream in the can. After finally finishing up....and about to go home. Noboru and I stopped off at our fav place. Starbucks. We each got a grande caramel machiatto and headed out! However Branden is so used to going there and knows how we drink our drinks, so he actually gets all our stuff and packets ready while the coffees are being made! Good kid...very helpful kid! Can't wait until Noah also hits this age, ha ha ha! : )

Grabbed our coffee and jumped in the car and headed home! We had leftovers and then we all watched TV. The boys fell asleep and I watched Six feet Under. I'm sure nobody watches this show. But, of the guys wife is missing and they suspect she was murdered and I've been nearly falling off the edge of my seat each week watching this!