Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!! : )

I couldn't figure out which Christmas picture of our home here in Japan to share, with the ol' Christmas lights up and such. Hmm, one in broad daylight, or one in a sorta mid almost dark, yet not quite all the way dark. Or one in pitch darkness. Ha ha ha. So anyways, I posted all 3.
: )


After much anticipation it seems the holidays are right upon us, aren't they?

You are all special, near and dear to us! Whether you are a friend or family member! Love to you all, and Merry Christmas from us here in Chiba, Japan!!!

I had to share this letter from Branden to Santa Claus. After watching so many Christmas movies, he had asked us, if he could write Santa a letter. We said, sure. So, last night, he sat himself at the computer desk in the living room and began to write. I wondered what in the heck he was writing. Because he was there for quite a long time (was there forever, ha ha). When he was finished he brought us this. Many parts he obviously erased and tried to fix on his own, as best he could. Not bad for a pre first grader. I didn't tell him what to write or help him at all. He did it by himself, he likes to read a lot and his spelling is not so bad either, I taught him how to spell a lot this past summer myself. He's about right level, I'd say. But jimminy crickets, his letter U's look crazy! Ha ha ha! And in case you can't read his handwriting, in which case, I don't blame ya. It says this.

Dear Santa

1 bike

1 ultraman max

1 snow globe

I thank you.....I had to chuckle and wonder why he said...I thank you. Instead of just a simple, thank you. But, okay he's only 6. But I liked his letter, straight and to the point, ha ha ha. Kids! : ) And Noah can't write a letter, he's too little, but he crayoned a picture for Santa instead and it looks like, well...... It looks like a Picasso! Ha ha ha! But he tried and that's what counts! : )

I told Branden his letter looked fantastic. He's so proud and he is going to leave it right near the tree along with some Christmas cookies and a glass of milk on the little table near there. So, drink up Noboru, err I mean Santa...ha ha ha. Shhhh! : )

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you all just have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas tomorrow!!! : )

Our morning and afternoon! : )

First thing this morning, we got up, ate breakfast and we headed to the city of Narita and hit every electronics store there. In between, we hit a ramen shop and had some ramen for lunch. But Noboru has been researching himself silly regarding the TV. And we are now 99% sure we will end up with the one in this picture. It's a 42 inch flat screen. It's huge. But since it will probably last us a good 10 years, it'll be worth it. Also, he is going to purchase online because the price difference is huge. So that's sorta what we have been up to lately. Not really important really.

Then we came home and I took my Christmas meats out of the freezer and let sit for about 30 minutes. Don't worry they are still rock hard frozen and are now safely in the fridge defrosting. And if you can see the crust on my stove in the background, and the pumpkin pie in the bowl, I was about to pour my pumpkin pie and throw it into the oven for some baking. So, I am already starting the baking of our Christmas dinner in bits and pieces right now already. My pie is already baked now and it's cooling on the stove. Ahh, it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas isn't it? So exciting. And all the Christmas movies are going to be on Cartoon Network tonight. Yay, Noboru is home and so the 4 of us will be watching those tonight! Have a good night everyone! : )

Sunday, aka, the day Christmas break began! And Christmas recital #3!!! : )

Today was the 3rd and final Christmas performance for Branden's school! It was at a local shopping mall in Narita someplace. And it was really nice! It started at 1:30 pm and we arrived a bit early, we arrived by 1:00pm.

The mall was decorated really Christmassy! All of us parents were really happy. I think we were all ready for Christmas break to begin. And I think the teachers were ready for Christmas break to begin too!: ) So we were all happy and with our kids singing at the mall, it sorta felt really special. So, yeah, really happy kids, teachers and parents! : )

A bunch of father's and parents and 1 teacher all snapping pictures and armed with their video cameras, ha ha ha. All were video taping it. I also brought my digital camcorder with me too. So, I was video taping and then I put my camcorder away and then I was using my digi camera too. Noboru told, me to just take pics off my camcorder, but, I just prefer take pics off my actual digital camera. Look at all those cute and wonderful proud parents up there in this pic! Ha ha ha! How cute! I was doing the same exact thing except I was closer, and downstairs. Ha ha ha. : )

Only the oldest yochien class sang at the mall. So just Branden's class came, the younger classes didn't come. I wish they would have come, they would have been adorable. But Branden's class did an excellent job though. They sang about 5 Christmas songs. And it was neat because a lot of just normal shoppers, would stop and watch. And more would come and then finally there was this really good sized crowd all watching our kids. It was really cool! : )

Noah was clapping for the entire class! He thought they were fabulous! He really did! : )

The ladies were part of a bell group, they actually played the bells. And they were awesome! Now if you look at this pic and see the little classmate of B's in the background near the stroller, now shopping with his mom and grams? Well, the kids concert had just finished and a good deal of the kids had left. However the ladies had asked if any of the kids were brave/willing enough to wanna try to play a song with their bells. The ladies bells. Branden, who is not even a single dot of being shy, said he wanted to. Seriously, he ran up there and gave it a try! So this is the pic of the kids who wanted to try it. 4 of the kids were from Branden's school. And 2 kids were just wearing regular clothes, they were just audience members who tried as well. They did jingle bells. All of them did great and they got a present from the ladies in dresses for trying. So Branden got 2 presents today. A present from the school for coming and a second one from the ladies because he attempted to play jingle bells with a few of his classmates. Ha ha ha. It was all in good fun! We all had fun. And we all said good bye to one another, waved to a few of my fellow mommy friends and Branden's friends and left.

Here is another picture of the 6 kids who wanted to give the bells and the song jingle bells a try. After this, we went looking at an electronic store for flat screen TV's a bit again. And then we headed home.

One of Branden's friends/classmates, gave Branden a Christmas card and some delicious panettone. I thought that was really nice and thoughtful! We all changed into our comfy clothes. And we all were just on cloud nine for being on Christmas break *finally*! Oh man, it's finally here, someone pinch me, quick! Ha ha ha! We had leftover curry and stew for dinner. And we watched "So you think you can dance" on TV. And we also watched A Miracle on 34th Street on satellite too. Just a really lazy Sunday. That's it. : )

Saturday! : )

Saturday, we all slept in, got a good sleep. I think we woke up around 9:30 am, which is a good sleep if you are a parent, ha ha ha. I made fried potatoes, crispy bacon and eggs to order. Branden wanted cheese omelet and Noboru wanted scrambled and Noah had some of both of theirs and I had that bell pepper, cheddar cheese, onion and mushroom omelet I had been wanting. Hot coffees for Noboru and I and milk for the boys. After breakfast, Noboru loaded the dishwasher. And we all started watching some Christmas DVD's. Noboru watched Home Alone with us. And then we watched the original Santa Clause movie with Tim Allen. We have seen Christmas movies like a bazillion times this year! I am nearly Christmas movie-d out almost by now! Ha ha ha. We lazed around all day. Stayed indoors. Never left the house at all.
What's for dinner? Well for us tonight, for us adults (Noboru and I) it was hot curry. And for the boys, they had beef stew. Again, fantastic to just separate in two pans after it's nearly done. Thank goodness for the roux's/packs of curry and whatnots. I had bought this little lean roast beef.

Diced it up and fried it in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. And then I boiled for 2 hours on high. Came back, checked my beef. It was okay. But not fall apart type tender, so I came back in yet another hour.

This time it was fall apart tender. The kinda beef that melts into your mouth, just really really tender. When it got to this point, then I started to add my veggies. 1 onion, 1 potato per person, but since my potatoes were huge, I added only 3 potatoes. 1 carrot, button mushrooms and boiled for only 20 minutes, with the lid on, by now the veggies were all soft. And I separated the boiled beef and veggies into 2 separate pans. One kid friendly and one not. ha ha ha. Sorry my sons! Ha ha ha. : )

Man was this a really yummy beef curry tonight. Very hearty. The hubby loved it and the kids ate 2 bowls each of their beef stew. And some Christmas cookies for dessert. Baths and pj time. And again we just stayed home and hung out. Nothing really spectacular really. But a nice Saturday though. Good night! : )

Thursday and Friday! : )

Thursday's catholic candle service, was just amazing! I took pictures from this thing last year and blogged it. But this year, even though I had my camera, along with me in my bag, I just wanted to enjoy it. Soak up the atmosphere and just forget the pictures this time, so that's what I did. Sorry no pics this year. Branden took the school bus in the morning as usual. Meanwhile the candle service started at 10:30 am. So, I got ready really slowly and then I hopped into the car and I drove to the yochien. Noboru's work schedule was to start at 4:00 pm that day, so since the candle service ended at 11:30 am, and I would be back *way* before he even had to even think of going to work. He stayed with Noah. So, he and Noah had dad and son time. They were watching an Anpanman DVD, when we got back and seemed to have an awesome time together.

I got to the school, went upstairs and found some friends right away. I was sitting near Noriko-san and Rieko-san. They are both really friendly, very talkative and I always have a good time and a good laugh when ever I am around them! They are both really outgoing and really fun to be around. I speak Japanese with Rieko-san and I speak English with Noriko-san, because she speaks great English. They're nice! The kids all came in. And all the lights went out and we started lighting candles. Each of us mother's held our own little candle, during 90% of the ceremony. And we sang and had prayer. And the kids also sang and prayed as well. And then candles were all laid near the baby Jesus and it was so bright by all the candle light. It was just glowing and gorgeous. And there was one song in particular, that this yochien seems to sing a bunch around Christmas time, and it is so beautiful, it's not like jingle bells or anything else I have ever heard of. I think it is a Japanese Christmas song and it's lovely. I am going to try and learn how to sing this in Japanese for next year, that way I can follow along next year and sing, this song with them! I just had a really fantastic time, really and truly. Next thing I knew it was over and they were turning the lights on.

We all helped folding the chairs and put them away. I think I put away 5 chairs and then by that time everyone had all the rest of the chairs in their hands as well. So, I said good bye. And I headed downstairs. Took off my slippers. Which I bring my own slippers now. ha! I finally mastered the bringing my own slippers thing. Phew! : ) Ha ha ha. And I folded my slippers into my bag and slipped my ballet flats on and went our the door, waited near Branden's class. Meanwhile my girlfriend Kaya-san came and said hello. She is leaving to Malaysia December 25th. Because her Japanese husband is on assignment for his work in Malaysia for a few years. She's been there once before, this past summer, she says it is a wonderful gorgeous place. I really wanna go there someday now. So we talked about her trip to Malaysia a bit and then before you know it, Branden and the rest of his class came out. And Branden and I hopped into the car and we headed home. It was a very nice Thursday. We did finish off the lasagna for supper that night. And had a nice salad with Italian dressing. And garlic bread. It was nice. And with dinner made from the night before, I enjoyed just relaxing at home a bunch more that evening. Things are starting to wind down, I can really feel Christmas break coming even more so now.

Friday. Our family of 4 all woke, up. And we all sorta got ready really slowly for the day. Considering the practice for Christmas recital #3 didn't start until 11:30 and only runs for 1 hour. We had decided, just one of us would take Branden and the other would stay at home with Noah. I had planned to go, I even was dressed and had my keys in my hand, about to walk out the door with Branden and Noboru said at the last second. Let me go instead. He had been mentioning he should go instead of me all morning long actually, but I continued to get ready. Let him relax, I thought. Meanwhile he thought the same for me. So anyways, he really wanted to go with B, I asked him why? He said, because you have been so busy this week. You should use the hour to relax a bit. Ahh, he does notice how crazy busy I have been lately, I thought, he he. To me, that meant more to me, then anything, just the fact that he appreciates how busy I have been. Sometimes to be acknowledged is all I need and I do the same. Good husband, I thought! I told him, no I am fine with going. And I headed towards the door, geeze it was only an hour, no biggie. And he insisted some more. So, since he was dressed since early that morning, he and Branden headed out the door and I stayed home. Meanwhile there I sat in my jeans and pepto pink wool sweater. LOL. And tortoise shell headband. Thinking, okay, now what? Ha ha ha! So, I went upstairs and changed into some gray yoga pants and a black sweatshirt and threw my hair into a pony tail instead. Geeze, I wasn't expecting staying home. So, I sat on the couch and had a nice hot cup of hot caramel machiatto. And watched some CNN, Larry King, I think. And then I started thinking if I could just finish the house cleaning for the week, then I could rest afterwards, besides it wouldn't take too long. And then my house would be clean for the weekend. Besides I do bits and pieces all throughout the week anyway, it was nearly done anyways.

I vacuumed the entire downstairs, again. Under the couch, corners, cervices, you name it, I vacuumed it. Even the genkan, ha ha ha. The carpeting on our stairs. The upstairs, the closets. Then I put Noah dressed in the bath tub and he sat and watched me scour down the shower area, the walls, and then I rinsed it and then I cleaned the tub but I moved Noah to the laundry room part of our washroom first. And then I washed the toilets again second time for the week. And before you know it, the hour was up, I was done. Noboru phoned me and said they were on their way home. Ahh, no more house cleaning or thinking of house cleaning until Monday. Yahoo! And with the weekend being here! I am ready! And Christmas break is *so* almost here. Just Christmas recital #3 this Sunday and then it's in the bag! I will be on Christmas vacation/break. Whoops I meant Branden will be on Christmas vacation/break. Ha ha ha! : )

Friday after an hour or two of watching some afternoon TV and lazing on the couch with the kiddos. I got up and prepared some butter cookie dough. I bought 3 boxes of butter the other day while I was at the store. And 2 bags of flour and 2 bags of sugar. So, I can make heaps of cookies if I want to now. ha ha ha. But this is our 3rd batch so far this year and we are still enjoying them. When we get sick of them, we can whip up something else! But as for now, we are still **really** enjoying these a bunch! I made the dough ahead of time and let the dough chill in the fridge for a few hours.

Meanwhile while the cookie dough was getting cold and firm in the fridge, I got dinner prepped a bit. Ginger pork tonight. I like this miso based ginger pork sauce a bunch. And it's easy to make and prepare, so it's busy mommy friendly, so I find I make this about once a month.


Put the pork into a big gallon type freezer bag, all separated of course, so each piece can get marinated. Pour the one bottle in there, I wash my hands really good with soap and water and ziploc the plastic and then I marinated and massage the meat from the outside of the bag, if that makes sense. I do that, so I know the sauce hits every part of the pork. Then I put this into the fridge for a while to get a deep marinate. Washed my hands again. And then I start making the rice. And I went to the living room for another hour and watched cartoons with my kids and laughed and just spent time together. Felt really nicely rested. Rice was all nicely cooked by now. And I went into the kitchen, steamed some broccoli in one tiny pot. Meanwhile I started frying up the pork, in a frying pan with no/zero oil. There's enough oil from the pork anyways so it doesn't need any extra.

The boys and I each had our own plate of this for dinner. It was quite good, I must say. Pretty easy, really simple meal. And then I threw my dishes into the dish washer. And we started in on the cookies.

Noah made all the red ones. And Branden made all the green ones tonight! : )

See that cookie in the lower left corner? It has the most sprinkles? Well, Noah, my 2 year old, decided he wants to put all the sprinkles on just that one cookie alone. Ha ha ha. Sure he eventually added a few to the other cookies, but he really concentrated most of his time and effort and sprinkles towards that particular cookie! However I think for him being just a little 2 year old, he did great! And heck, he tried his best!

Don't ask about this one! Ha ha ha! Do, you see how this star is errr, umm. Slightly decapitated? Noah did that, it was an accident! Good thing he didn't do that to a gingerbread man cookie huh? Ha ha ha! : )

And what did Branden think about the cookies Noah made? He thought they were fantastic! What a supportive brother! Ha ha ha! Next was B's turn and he did wonderfully, but again he's older though.

Their finished product! Beautiful and delicious cookies made by the hands of some mighty happy children! Meanwhile, we have seen the movie Home Alone twice since Wednesday. And the boys love it! They laugh hysterically every time they see it! I am so happy, we bought that! It was a good buy. Also, it has honestly felt like Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving,at our house, seems we have been having Christmas for over a month now at our house! I guess I just really love this time of year, all of us do at our house though. : ) I hope wherever you all are, you are all feeling that holiday cheer! Good night! : )

Wednesday, Christmas recital #2, a brand new swim level for B, and some lasagna baking! : )

We dropped off Branden Wednesday morning at the yochien. Noboru walked Branden into his classroom. Now let me back up a bit, while driving, I turned back in my seat, I saw Branden had watery eyes and looking out the window. I felt awful. I reassured him, everything was going to be okay. We would be there right after it was finished. So, Noboru walked him into the building. Branden hugged him about 6 times, as I watched this and knowing my son. I knew he was sad. It honestly made me sad too. I saw loads of grandparents. I felt like Noboru and I were family-less, even though that is hardly from the truth, it still felt like that at the time. One grandpa was video taping his grandson and I just felt a pit in my stomach. So, we drove away. Meanwhile we were trying to figure, go to, Coco's or Mc Donald's. Ha ha ha. We went to Mc Donald's, we three, each had a breakfast combo/set. I had an egg mc muffin combo and some hot coffee. We sat, we tried to eat slowly, take our time. Because heck 3 hours is a long while, especially if you are not watching the play. Ha ha ha. We stood there for about 45 minutes. Then we went to Tsutaya, We were their first customers of the day, ha ha ha. Noboru wanted to rent a CD, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. I wanted to rent a DVD, but when I looked, I realized I have rented all the new releases already! So, as we just wandered the aisles of Tsutaya, I saw, they had a bunch of DVD's on sale. They seem to always have good deals on their DVD's. I flipped through them, saw a whole bunch I liked. But I was thinking about Branden, since he was heavily on my mind, so I bought him this. It's actually for both the boys. But Home Alone, is set around the Christmas holidays, which is perfect since it's the Christmas holidays right now. And you know we have a lot of US DVD's but we have only a handful of Japan region DVD's. And so I thought if I bought this, they can watch this at home in our region free DVD player or watch it in the car. So it was a good buy really. And the story is about a little boy and he is a hero in a sense, he protects his house from burglars and it's a good story. And since I have 2 little boys, I knew they could relate to a boy story, ha ha ha. So I bought this. After leaving Tsutaya, we then hit a recycle book and DVD shop. We both saw nothing we liked there, but we did kill some time, so that was great. We again wandered around aimlessly in that shop. And when it was about time, we got in the car and headed back to the school. When Branden came out, he was as happy as a clam, beaming and smiling. I asked him how was it? He said it was fine, fun and he had a great time. Talk about a relief. Phew! So now, 2 performances knocked out of the way. And only 1 left to go, this Sunday. I can almost feel Christmas break. It's within reach! I can feel it! Light at the end of the tunnel here, totally. : )

I got my lasagna fillings prepped. I got my ricotta mixture, mixed and I saran wrapped that and out it in the fridge.Fried up my meat. Got as much prepping of dinner out of the way. Prepared lunch for the boys. Did 2 loads of laundry. And then before you know it, I was having Branden pack his swimming backpack up, and making sure he got his swim trunks on, bundled up Noah and we were out the door yet again. The boys and I drove down to the swimming school. Noboru was at work. And we were at the swim club.

They tested Branden today. He did just beautifully you guys! I shoulda brought my camera to the swimming school. My gosh I have not taken pictures of B at swimming school in forever! I will do so, next week! He passed, he is not a level 14 anymore. He's now a level 13! When he came into the locker room, I was waiting in there, he was talking really loudly and excited like. And his friend Taito-kun also was telling me, Branden-kun passed to another level. I said..."really, that's wonderful" In Japanese of course. And I smiled. His mom congratulated me and B. I said, thanks. When I got into the car, I phoned Noboru on my keitei. I said Branden is now a level 13!!! He said put him on the phone. He congratulated him and told him how proud he was. I hung up the phone and we drove home. Jungle Boogie by Kool and the Gang playing on my CD, I love that song, it's so funky and cool! It makes the boys smile!

The boys and I rushed back home. Branden unloaded his swimming backpack. And they watched TV while, I started preparing dinner. I managed to get the lasagna into the oven. Set the timer for an hour. As you can tell by the picture, they were waiting for it to be ready! There's Noah looking in the oven. I had the oven light on for them.

Woh, that's a lot of lasagna there! I guess we will be having leftover lasagna on Thursday night too. Yay! I also made a half loaf of garlic bread. Tomorrow night I will make a salad with it, but tonight, the lasagna and garlic bread were more then enough. And besides, I was tired by this point.

Here's a picture of my meal. Sorry, I didn't care how I flopped my lasagna on the plate or anything, I was starving by this point. I wanted to eat and get showered and start to actually relax some. Sorry, I just pointed at the food and clicked tonight. : )

Tomorrow/Thursday's plan, is I have the Catholic candle service thing at the school. And then come home, do whatever I can around the house. And Kumon. And make salad, but dinner will be easy Thursday since we will be eating leftover lasagna and the other half of the garlic bread. Have a good night everyone! : )

Tuesday's Christmas recital! : )

What a fantastic Christmas play/recital it was today! It was 3 hours long. From 9:00 am to about noon. So, we just woke up as any other school day. Each class does their own thing, whether it be a song, musical instrument or play. There's 4 classes at our yochien. The just turned 3, before April at age 3. Hard to explain but Noah will be this next October. He will be a red badge next year, because technically he is too young for yochen yet. Technically, Noah isn't supposed to start yochien until April 2009. But, this school accepts, early students, as soon as they hit age 3, that is. So, Noah will join next October and be a red badge which is basically, pre the first year of yochien still. And then in Actual April 2009, he will be a standard 3 year old yochien student. Sorry about all long explanation, but yes, there is a pre 3 year old yochien class. And then the regular standard 3 year old first year student. The second year yochien student, age 4-5. And the 3rd year yochien student which is age 5-6, which that is what Branden is right now. So, in a nut shell, there are 4 classes and each of them are taking turns today doing their own Christmas skit for us.First to come out were the oldest kids and that included B.This was the entire class.

I love this picture. It was taken like the second the other curtain was pulled back. I can see one child, a good friend of Branden's giggling behind Branden, how adorable that is, it must have been nerves. The little girl on the same row as Branden, on the far right, both her eyes are looking towards the right. And Branden's expression is no better, he has this look of shock on his face. It cracks me up this picture. Kids at this age are so darn adorable. Their faces and expressions are so honest! First they opened up with a Christmas song right away.

And by this time, all the kids were over their stage fright and giggles, they were all perfect. They whipped out their harmonicas out of their pockets. And they started playing right away. The kids all did really good with the harmonica.

The pink and yellow badges did a few numbers in between. And then it was time for the oldest class to come out and do a play. Now for those of you in the US, I am sure you are probably wondering what's the connection between Alice and Wonderland and Christmas. And all I can tell ya, is I honestly don't know. Last year they did Jack and the Bean Stalk for part of the Christmas recital and again I didn't get the connection with Christmas and Jack and the Beanstalk either. But then, that could just be me. Ha ha ha. However the kids seem to enjoy doing the play. So, I won't knock it! Ha ha ha. The little girl with the blue and white dress on the right was Alice, in this picture.

A slightly blurry picture, sorry about that. But Branden was a lovely green bird! : )

Yup, a mighty fine bird! Plus someones fluffy hair in front of my camera, ha ha ha. Whoops sorry about the persons hair. It couldn't be helped. : )

And here were, the cards in Alice in Wonderland.

Aha, this was a hard picture to take, I had to zoom in a bit, but I can see my little green bird again! This was the end of Alice and Wonderland. Then another class went and did, Snow White.

The red class went and gave their first performance and I could kick myself for not taking a picture because they were just so cute! Each and everyone of them. And they all looked so small and cute! I whispered to Noboru and said, Noah will be doing this Christmas recital next year as a red badge. And finally this was the last performance of the show. This was my favorite program of the entire show and I only say that because this play actually applied to Christmas. So, I really enjoyed this a lot. It was basically the story of Mary and Joseph, the 3 wise men and stuff.

Here's Branden, he's the one in the middle, he was a soldier.

Branden did fantastic. He had lines to say and he said them just fine.

What a little cutie! : )

Three wise men.

Three wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.

Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.

Branden and the other soldiers just finished paying their respects to the baby Jesus as well.

The oldest class all together at the end of the last play, this was the last performance of the day. I really loved this last performance in particular, as I already said. It was great!

And here they were singing a religious song and that just about wrapped things up! Voila, there you have it, Christmas recital 2007. Wink! : ) I really loved the whole Christmas recital, the whole thing, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White plays and all. It was good. The kids all did a fantastic job! It was obvious all the kids worked so hard on this. The mom's who helped put the show together, did a fantastic job as well. The whole thing was great! It didn't even seem like 3 hours. Time seemed to go really quickly. Could be because I was really enjoying myself though. : )

Each child received this bag of treats, cookies, chocolates and marshmallows and stuff for doing such a good job today. Branden was really excited to get this. Wednesday he has to go right back to the same school, same as the rest of the kids and they have to do the entire performance all over again. Our last yochien/school, it was only 1 Christmas performance and that's it. Not bad, right? But this school has a really small auditorium and so they made this rule. They would have 2 performances at Christmas. First day would be for parents and siblings only. And the second day would be for grandparents only. And the 3rd performance will be at a small local mall in Narita someplace. But the grandparents day is tough on us. It's hard for people like Noboru and I. Noboru is from Osaka and for his mom to come, she has to fly here. Noboru's dad has been in hospital for a few years and obviously can't come. Mitsuko has always come before, hasn't ever let us down with coming to his performances. but she couldn't come this time, and it's not really her fault at all. Noboru did not ask his mom until December about it. He should have asked his mom in November, like I asked him to. But he procrastinated asking her. And by the time he asked her, she had made a doctors appointment for his father, so she will be making sure he can get seen by the neurologist. So she can't make it. And she couldn't reschedule on the short notice Noboru gave her. Noboru asked if Jun could go in place of a grandparent and the principal said no. Flat out, no, if she made an exception for us, blah blah blah, she would have to make an exception for everyone. Which is understandable. *But*, everyone at our school has grandparents that live like 20 minutes from the school, everyone else's grandparents are showing up. Branden is going to have nobody show up for him tomorrow, for the grandparents only Christmas recital. And it's not practical for my mom to fly all the way from California just for a performance. Plus again, we assumed Mitsuko would be able to come and so it's too short notice for my mom. Sigh, this is tough. And my dad would have come 100%, but again no advance notice, because we thought Mitsuko could come. So it's really a bummer for us. Tomorrow when my son looks out into the audience, there will be no recognizable face there especially for him. There won't be anyone for him there in that audience tomorrow at all! And it's heartbreaking, especially if it was happening to your own kid. Then I am sure you will understand how we feel as parents. We feel so sorry for Branden, it's not even funny. And we thought of having him missing the grandparents day altogether. But that's not really fair to the other kids, because the play is out 1 green bird and one soldier. And plus Branden practiced so hard for this, he should show up. But even today, when he came out, we could see his eyes scan the audience until he saw us and then he smiled and relaxed. But what will it be like tomorrow for Branden with nobody's there for him at all? Sigh. I've talked with him, and I told him, how mommy and daddy would have been there, how we tried to be there.Branden says he understands and that he will be okay. : ) Actually Noboru got into an argument with the principal about it last week. I think it's safe to say, we are not thrilled about it. She should have had 1 ounce of thoughtfulness or consideration. Considering 1 child would have absolutely zero, nobody there for him, you'd think she'd make just 1 teeny tiny exception. I coulda sent Noboru alone and I woulda stayed home with Noah. But, I guess, when the principal means no, she means no. Sigh. No flexibility whatsoever. So tomorrows/Wednesday's plan? We drive Branden to the actual school. He goes in alone. And we will drive to a local store so I can pick up lasagna noodles. I am making lasagna on Wednesday night. I have my ricotta and mozzarella already, I just need the pasta. So I will get that out of the way, while B is at his Christmas grandparents recital thing. And then we will probably sit in some coffee shop near by and wait for a few hours until we go back to the school and get Branden. Branden's a good boy, I am sure he will do wonderful. As you can tell, we are just heart sick that he will have nobody in the audience for him though. Oh and just one more thing, today for the parents and siblings day for the Christmas play, there were about 15-20 free/available seats unused!!! And I am sure there will be 15-20 unused seats tomorrow as well, they could have let Noboru go. Sigh, we just feel badly for Branden is all. Good night everyone! : )