Two days before New years eve. Our family had a big clean up of the entire upstairs and the day before New years eve, on the 30th is when we cleaned the heck out of the downstairs. If you don't live in Japan, you may not know. But in Japan it's pretty much custom for a family to do a great big family clean up right before New Years. You got to have a clean house to ring in the new year. This is a tradition that I really love. As odd as it sounds, I like ringing in the new year in a spic and span house. I pulled the mattress right off Noah's bed and vacuumed underneath. Do this a lot of the time anyway, so it was pretty clean under there, hmm. But felt good to get it done though. Cleaned every inch of Noah's room, windows, blinds, vacuumed, dusted. Washed his bedding then moved onto Branden's room, then our room, then the upstairs toilet, then the shower/bathroom. And laundry room. We all jumped in and helped with music semi loudly playing. It was fun and we kicked butt on the upstairs. We stopped at 2pm and started around 9:30am, so we got a major cleaning done upstairs. Next day would be the downstairs.
It was 11am in this pic, but we started that morning around 9:30am again, I first started with the toilet downstairs. Noboru cleaned out his paperwork. The boys fixed the books in the bookshelves. Then Noboru cleaned the fan above the stove, he took this puppy apart and cleaned it spotless. We were all busy cleaning on the 30th and so was our whole neighborhood. We counted 3 neighbors washing cars. All ladies were wiping windows etc. 
The boys Windexed the big patio windows. They were a great help!
I spot cleaned the walls downstairs.
I cleaned the blinds downstairs. As I was cleaning the blinds, "boy next doors" grandpa was washing their vehicles. I semi watched him wash the vehicles while I washed up the blinds. He noticed me too and gave me a wave! :P
Vacuumed under the couch cushions.
Vacuumed under the couch. With the kids cleaning, the hubster cleaning, me cleaning, the neighbors cleaning. We had music, we sang, we jammed to the Black Eyed Peas.
Now it's 1:24pm and we knew we'd stop at 2pm. We got a whole day of good cleaning and we were ready to ring in the new year in a clean house indeed. Last but not least I cleaned out the fridge. And this right here is the ice holder where our automatic ice maker drops the ice for our fridge. I washed it out good and thorough. And then we were done. We felt really proud, like we really accomplished something. We did diddly squat from 2pm until dinner time. Just rested and lazed around in our nice clean house. We went to the grocery store the day before and bought a weeks worth of groceries, so we were all set.
In Japan, it's pretty common for people to eat soba (noodles) on New years eve, in hopes for a long life, much like that long noodle. And my husband eats a bowl before midnight strikes, usually around 11;30pm. I like that whole long noodle and long life connection, so just like last year. I made spaghetti and meatballs, because spaghetti is long too. ; ) So pasta, salads and garlic bread was our New years eve meal. Yumm.
These meatballs came out so good so much flavor. Some fresh mushrooms and bell peppers.
Making the garlic bread and about to whack it in the oven. Hubby was making the salads.
The garlic bread was now done and about to put it on a plate for all of us to share.
Not a fancy dinner. But a simple basic meal we enjoyed for sures. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad and the bread was for us all.
We watch Japanese programs every New years eve. Noboru enjoys the Japanese programs they have at New years. Susan Boyle was here in Japan and she performed.
She sang, "I Dreamed A Dream".
She did a really great job and she is looking so good these days. I really like her a lot. Good for her! Well done, well done.
We also got into this other program on another channel about this family. They call him "big daddy" because he has so many kids. They show this family every New years according to the hubby. This year I watched and I really fell in love with this family. They don't have a whole lot of money. So they may not be rich in monetary types of ways but they are indeed rich because of the strength and love in their family. The father lives someplace else for work. And they live in a smaller island near Okinawa meanwhile the dad is living on the mainland of Japan. So tanshin funin. The father didn't get pay for the first month because it was a trial so he would get paid for 2 month's after the first 2 month's. Meanwhile the family back on the island near Okinawa where scraping by with close to no money. The mom and the daughter went to the store and were deciding to get hakusai or eggs and put the hakusai back and got the eggs that's how tight their money was. And it wasn't a downer of a show. This family had the best outlook on life that I ever saw. So positive. 
At one point they didn't even have rice. And they couldn't afford to buy it either, so they bought flour and made udon. And again the laughter coming from this house was real and true. I love families like this. To persevere in a way like this was amazing. To be strong even when the chips are down and still be smiling. I respect that so much. They made Christmas cakes in their rice cookers. And the only gifts they got were handmade clay ones the father sent yet they were so lovely and the kids appreciated them so much. This family was amazing. A real feel good type show.
Their littlest child a girl in this pic. The father was not able to be there for Christmas or for New years (he was there beforehand though). Instead he sent the small amount of money he got for a bonus back to his family instead. This story was so good for the soul. We enjoyed watching this on New years eve.
And then we rang in the New year. : ) A very quiet way to spend New year's eve.
31 degrees at night. Actual freezing temps outside in our area of Chiba. Not a spot or dot of snow but shoot it's cold enough it might as well. ; )
We had cinnamon rolls first thing for the New year. Noboru and I had coffee and the kids had milk with the cinnamon rolls.
We went to visit the shrine for the first time of the New year. We walked up some pretty high steep steps.
Some very old steep steps. I imagined how many people walked up before, 50 years prior, 100 years prior and so on. And now us for 2010.
The going down was pretty easy, ha ha ha.
Dragons guarding the entrance. Warding off any evil or bad.
The washing of the hands, this is pretty important and Noboru always makes sure the boys do it right. I did mine after and boy that water was freezing cold.
Hi Noah, my little sweetie pie! : )
Random ladies buying some stuff.
Each of boys, both Branden and Noah tossed coins in. Noboru had to help Noah since he's a bit too little to get a good toss. And then they prayed and then I went and did mine as well.
Noboru doing his.
Then we drove home and then we went for a walk. First family walk of the year. ; )
Walking in the fields behind our house.
Hmm, if I zoom in, I can see my house. We sure like the privacy our house brings us. And with the great big rice fields, we have that protective barrier. Like a rice field buffer zone, lol. We never have to worry someone will peek in our yard, it's just not an issue for us in the country. perhaps if we lived in a great big city. But not where we live. It's very rare a car even drives up our street, and if one does it's a neighbor, lol.
A very very big buffer, with the zoom off, yup that's quite a big buffer. We can play in the backyard and not worry someone will see. Besides we pretty much don't care if someone would see anyways. We're not movie stars. Nothing wrong with someone seeing a family in their yard.
And now we were walking on and farther and farther away.
And farther away even. : PMy thoughts on 2009:
Is it my imagination or did it seem like a whole lot of people died in 2009? Luckily for us, no one in our immediate family has passed this past year. But I have some friends who lost loved ones and for that I am so sorry. Who did we all lose in 2009, after a search of the internet, I found some of these names on About.com.
Jett Travolta, Jan 2,2009
Ricardo Montalban Jan14, 2009
Natasha Richardson March 18th
Bea Arthur April 25th
David Carradine June 4th
Ed McMahon June 23rd
Farrah Fawcett June 25th
Michael Jackson June 25th
Walter Cronkite July 17th
DJ AM, August 28th
Patrick Swayze September 14th
Thought we were done for 2009, that was certainly enough loss and then...
December 20th Brittany Murphy died. That was shocking, loved her in Clueless, Uptown Girls and as the voice of Luanne in King of the Hill. That was very sad. I'm sure there was more loss, but the ones I listed, are more then enough.
So, what are my thoughts on 2009? Well it seems we all lost a lot of wonderful people in 2009. So that's sad. However the good parts of 2009. The positive parts of 2009.
Noah started yochien January 2009. And that's a positive and for that we are so proud of our little Noah!!! Well done Noah. We enjoyed Guam and Hawaii and also Saipan this year so that was a postive of 2009, lots of good travel. Also, I met the Jogo-san in 2009 and that is totally a positive because she's one of my closest friends. So, we had a whole lot of positves for 2009.
What are my hopes for 2010? Just the same ones I always have basically.; ) Just hope we all remain healthy. We all continue to make each other laugh as a family and continue to have an amazing family life. That's more then I could ever ask for. I hope you all have a Happy New Year! : )
I hope everyone had a lovely and wonderful Christmas! We really did too! I put these pics on my blog after we got back, but have yet to actually type any words to these pictures. My Desperate Housewives box set season 5 is to blame on that one. ; ) I started watching that after I got back from Guam and well 6 DVD's with 4 hours each DVD, yup the DVD's had me quite occupied) plus, I also feel always really unbloggy after I get back from a trip, if you notice. : ) Basically I have put off blogging because of Desperate Housewives and also being a lazy bum. : ) I will give myself an hour to try and type in as much as I can right now. And hopefully these 2 posts can get up today. This is a pic of our room. Yup, same amazing hotel and all the rooms always look the same. And that is exactly why we love this place, no surprises. ; ) Three cheers for the Hilton Hotel in Guam. We always enjoy our stay there.
This pic was taken while we were at KB Toy store at the Micronesia mall. Most little boys in the US like the Terminator movies, same as the Star Wars trilogy. And the toys for those 2 are always popular for kids. I considered getting some Terminator toys for the boys but didn't. Maybe next time though.
We always had late night snacks and took them back to our hotel room. Sometimes the big bag of the freshly popped popcorn from the Kmart. Carrot cake from the convenience store. A few tacos from Taco Bell. And on this night we stopped off and went through the Wendy's drive thru. We enjoyed snacks, some drinks. Noboru filled up the ice bucket and we watched some excellent cable on TV and had a little picnic on the bed, same as always. It was great. Very low key as always.
After the night time snacks and picnic and showers were given. Branden zonked out and Noah stayed up a bit and watched TV. Noboru was in the shower when I snapped this picture.
Branden had been wanting a keyboard for Christmas. In Japan, kids in Japanese elementary schools all learn to swim and also play some form of instrument. Instrument depends on your school. Branden's school learns the pianica. Which is sort of like a piano with keys etc. Anyway he has gotten quite good. And has been asking for a keyboard. Noboru researched them quite a bit. And plus Noboru took piano lessons for like 10 years himself or some odd number of years I forget the actual number of years but he wants to teach B a few things. This was a gift from grandma Mitsuko. Branden got a really nice one, he was pretty happy about this.
The boys eating at one of the food courts. Micronesia mall food court.
They had a big Christmas tree, a train that gave the kids rides and Santa Claus was also there.
Here is a different day, well technically night. And we went to Tony Roma's with my dad. There's grandpa carrying Noah on his shoulders there. : )
The boys using crayons creating pictures/masterpieces. :P The kids and I had lemonade. Noboru had the coke in the picture.
My cup of baked potato soup. Oh lordy, I don't even have to tell you how incredibly good this was. I'm licking my chops just thinking about this soup again. ; )
I ordered the half slab of original baby backs, my 2 sides were the baked potato and corn on the cob. My dad gave me some shrimp from his meal. My dad had the half slab and shrimp. And Noboru had a half slab. The kids had their own meals.
We always choose to eat outside because there is usually no other people outside but us. Usually everyone else eats inside, where we prefer the quiet/to have more privacy. The weather was hot/warm definite shorts weather.
Here's one of the Christmas trees at the Hilton. I tell ya, we saw so many Christmas trees this trip, you wouldn't believe it. :P And the way they decorate the hotel especially is fantastic. Really great for the kids, still felt completely Christmasy even while on vacation.
The garland illuminated near the elevator. Just really really special and fun for all of us.
One of the many days we spent at the pool.
A teeny tiny hermit crab in Noboru's hand. : )
Perfect weather for swimming. Very tropical.
Noah swimming! : ) Face down in the water.
Branden on the slide.
Silly kid! Laughing as he slid down! : )
Noboru being silly as well! We enjoyed ourselves so much you guys! Life's good. Life's definitely good. And for that we do feel blessed.
Tossing the inflatable ball around. Same free KFC ball, one of the boys got as a free kids toy in Japan year ago. This ball has been everywhere. : )
Wrist tags since we were indeed guests of the hotel. And just being happy together as a family at Christmas time. To never lose sight what the holidays really should be about, very important.
At the GPO, walking to the food court for some lunch. Also the Kmart is the largest in the whole world, you can check that online. ; )
Famous Footwear, Ninewest shoe store.
Finally we reached the GPO food court. I went to Sbarro pizza. : )
My slice. : )
The movies that were playing. There are 3 different movie theaters total that I know of, the GPO, the Micronesia and the Agana theater at the mall there, there might even be another as well. So there is quite a bit to offer on Guam. 2 TGIFriday's, not just 1. Denny's at quite a few locations. Definitely comfortable. Oh yeah and also a Ruby Tuesday. : ) 2 Capricciosa. Pietro is also there. 2 Tony Roma's, Outback Steakhouse. Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock cafe. Little Cesar's pizza at Kmart. Pizza Hut. And Blockbusters too. : ) We went to the movies twice during our stay. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks the day it came out. And we also saw Avatar. I read online that Avatar was the most anticipated movie of the decade (?), and that I did not know until I read that online. It was an *amazing* movie. James Cameron directed it, (Titanic and Terminator).
We hit the DFS this time. We went because we wanted to shop at the Ralph Lauren for some shirts for the boys. And I also got to choose my gift from DFS from the hubby. I wanted a new bag. I was interested in either Gucci, Coach or Prada. I knew I wanted a crossbody bag. Meaning one that hangs diagonally across your body. That way I can be hands free since I am a busy mom on the go, my bag does have to be functional. I own Prada and a Louis Vuitton already. Have yet to own a Coach one and considered it. But in the end, went back to Prada. The Coach one that I was sorta interested (crossbody) was $328 so the price was fair. The Prada one was $600 flat/total. But ended up going with the Prada. So, yup, that was my gift from the hubster. I love my bag a lot. Before kids, I used to get about 1-2 good bags a year. But after having Noah, I sorta became disinterested in name brand bags completely. Noboru bought me a large Prada messenger and that was what I used as my diaper bag when Noah was born all the way until he was nearly 3 years old. After that, I just bought, Target bags or Old Navy, Gap bags. Cheap affordable bags. I liked that I could change them often for sures. All my other bags, like my Prada baguette type etc. I use, but not daily so they remain in their cloth bags. I needed a crossbody. And then I started to think, should I get another brand name one? And then I said no way! And then I thought some more and some more and some more. And I figured if I get a new crossbody. And it's basic enough that it can be worn daily and nylon so it's an easy to wipe down or take care of. Why not. I mean I seldom allow my husband to ever buy anything nice for me anymore. So, again I thought why not. It's nice to get a treat or to feel special every once in a while.
After leaving the DFS, we headed to the Micronesia and we had some Cold Stone icecream. A perfect way to wind down the night. Before heading back to the hotel. Look at this pic and all the topping for the icecream.
I had the cherry cake double take. it has yellow cake in it and the icecream was cake flavored. OMG! So heavenly and the black cherries and nuts.
The kids had their own kids sized cups. We all had the kids sized cups actually. They were large enough for a small dessert. Plus the prices for the adult size is ridiculous. The kids cups were good enough for us all. So 4 kids cups sized treats for us.
Late night snack after leaving the DFS and the Cold Stone creamery, we had Mc D's. Menu's totally different. I went for the grilled club sandwich. It has cheese and crispy bacon and some fries. Then we headed back to the hotel and watched Christmas Vacation, omg we laughed so hard. We have that DVD but it is hilarious.
Branden entering out hotel, same night as DFS and Cold Stone and Mc D's. We had a bunch of juice and lemonades and drinks in our room that we bought cheaply at Kmart a few days earlier. Noboru just filled up the ice bucket and we watched Christmas Vacation. See the decorations in this pic? So pretty.
A life size nutcracker. Ha ha ha.
Another big beautiful Christmas tree and behind the glass was, Santa's from around the world. We got to see what the dress and costumes each Santa wore. That was very educational, don't laugh, it honestly was.
One morning we grabbed some donuts. I had a jelly filled. Some coffee, then headed back to the hotel to swim. Our hotel sells donuts in the lobby but, not nearly as good as Winchell's.
See the movie posters. That Tooth Fairy one that is coming out January 22nd looks so funny. The previews to that made me laugh. Meanwhile the poster on the left we saw that one. Avatar it was 3-D.
At the movies.
Grandpa carrying Noah after the movies.
We saw two movies while on Guam this time, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Avatar.
We were on the 12th floor and on the 12 floor, is a private lounge area and another Christmas tree. Which is behind Branden in this picture. At night our floor was really pretty.
The day grandpa/my dad came to swim with us. We swam all day long on this particular day. From 9:30am to 2pm. Then it was showers and supper afterwards. Resting and then going to look for something to munch for our night time picnic. :P
Hugging his only 2 grandkids.
Grandpa watching Noah swim! Noboru playing with Branden. And me, taking a few picture before jumping into the water to join them.
Family time just watching the waves crash into the shore.
Noboru playing with Branden.
Beep beep! Noboru beeping Branden's nose! :P And you can see B smiling.
Noboru smiling and flipping his son gently into the water. The family time we had was amazing. Not to sound like a dork but you all know how important family time is to our family.
Grandpa tossing the ball around with B.
Grandpa/my dad sliding down the slide. Branden had my dad slide down about 10 times with him. Boy did my dad get his exercise keeping up with the boys. Ha ha ha. He was kept on his toes. : )
After showers and everyone getting cleaned up. This was us, Christmas eve about to go feast! Do you notice Noah carrying some homemade Christmas cookies in a tin? : ) : )
All the palm trees were decorated and the pine trees were also decorated the way they decorated the main street or "hotel row" was awesome. So festive.
We went to Vitale's. Now I went there this past Summer or was it last year? I forget. Anyway I ordered the ravioli and didn't care for it too much. It was okay but not great. I blogged about it but said the guy, the owner. A fabulous Italian American older guy was amazing, when he saw me, he chatted to me for ages in there that time. Anyway my dad has since tried quite a few different Italian restaraunts in Guam and he says this place is good and I should should try again. So, we did. We went for our Christmas eve meal, because in our family, as you know Christmas meal means Italian food. So we went here and I actually am glad my dad talked me into going. This place is actually really good. I had the lasagne and it was great., The pizza was *amazing* and I am pretty picky about my pizza. And yup, the older Italian American man saw my dad and I and Noboru and stuff. Anyway my dad and he talked for 10 long minutes. I would definitely come back here. I take back my orginal thought about this restaurant. This restaurant has to be redeemed. This place is good. And the guy, is awesome.
Menu.
Man this was good, and the garlic bread too. It's not a fancy place, you can wear shorts, Crocs, or flip flops if you want. It's very relaxing.
We ordered Branden and Noah a large pepperoni pizza. My dad had the lasagna and so did I. Noboru had a meatball sandwich, the sandwich was longer then a footlong at Subway but home style. He could barely finish it.
Munch, munch, munch.
The boys could not finish the pizza, so us adults each got a slice. This guy makes excellent pizza. We sat for 5 minutes discussing his crust. Noboru said he uses a bit more sugar in his crust then I do. And I agreed.
After a big Christmas eve dinner. We all went for a walk along the hotel road. Now about the cookies. My dad is seeing 2 ladies in Guam. 1 older Japanese lady (whoops sorry dad, I mean his age, not old) and 1 Korean lady who works at DFS. She is fluent in 3 languages, English Korean and Japanese. Because she spoke to Noboru in Japanese the entire time, lol. He does speak English, very well actually. Anyway she works at DFS, she is my dad's age as well, they also are walking buddies, my dad says she wears a silver type walking outfit??, to sweat more or we don't know what that outfits about. But anyway she's nice. She's very awesome. And she knew we were heading to Vitales that evening and she gave Noah and B some homemade otameal and raisin cookies and put them into a Christmas tin. I thought that was very thoughtful and she won me over instantly with that. And so Noah carried that tin of cookies from DFS to the restaurant to our actual walk and then back to where we parked our car. : ) Anyway it's good dad has company while living in Guam.
During our walk from the restaurant to see the lights. We saw this amazing Christmas tree, it was part of the decorations type area for us vacationers I think. So many people were also taking pics of their families while we were as well. Geeze, we have seen SO many Christmas trees while on Guam.
Christmas on Guam 2009! Ahhh. Taking pics with Christmas lights is tough because if I use my flash and get crisp details of my family's faces. The lights don't come out. And if I concentrate on the Christmas lights their faces aren't sharp at all. Double sigh. : ) Oh well, I tried. : )
The boys and a surfing Santa and you can see the 2009 in the background. : ) : ) We had a very Merry Christmas and a holiday season. The weather rocked, the quality family time was special. Yeah it was a good holiday for us all. : )
And then it was December 26th and it was sadly time to leave, but not until about 3:30pm though, so we still enjoyed the day. The last tree we would see. A Christmas tree in the airport at the NWA/Delta check-in. Do you see this tree? The blue tags all over this tree? : )
A Delta tree! As part of the NWA/Delta family we loved this so much! We were like, awww. : )
The movie we saw on the way back to Japan. 500 Days of Summer. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. This was a good movie but it wasn't in order, if that makes sense at all. It told the story, of the 30th day then say zipped to day 400 then back to day 15. Just so you know that part/aspect of it. But it's a good movie. The movie we saw on the way to Guam was, Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Tim McGraw. This was hands down such an excellent movie. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmases as well. : )
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