Thanksgiving!

Well, our Thanksgiving celebration with all of our Japanese friends was a huge success today! We had so much fun getting to spend the day showing our appreciation to all of the special people in our lives here. We tried to do all traditional American foods, but since no Asian meal is complete without rice, there is a picture of Rachel getting the rice cooker going with our neighbor, Kazuko. Also before we ate, Andy gave a short speech in Japanese thanking all the people for the many things they've done for us throughout this year that we've lived in Japan. After he gave a speech, Luke said a short prayer in Japanese, which I will load a video of soon.



Here's all the food! All the girls on the team worked really hard to pull off this event, and it went so well! The food was all delicious. Thank you SO much to the many people who donated food for this special day!
We ordered the turkey off of a company called the Foreign Buyers Club of Japan because they don't have turkey here. So as Luke was carving the turkey, all the Japanese people were coming over to take a picture of it!




Dessert time! Japanese people don't bake and pies are a really rare item in Japan, so everyone was getting out their cameras again to take pictures. We made apple, pumpkin, pecan, and chocolate pies as well as fudge.



At the end of our night Kunio (one of Sterling's teacher's husband), got out his guitar and started playing some songs for us all. The kids loved it and danced around while he played. It was funny because he played American songs (the Beatles, Elton John, etc.) so none of us knew all the words and of course neither did the Japanese people, but it was still fun!

Breakfast, Pet Store, Pink Headband

This may just look like a very strange picture, but really it's a successful breakfast of biscuits and gravy! It is Luke's favorite meal and I haven't been able to make it here, so he hasn't had it for 11 months now! The other day Caitlin's mom sent her seasoning for ground sausage, so we used that on ground pork and then I made drop biscuits from scratch...I know, I'm little miss Betty Crocker! I actually was really happy that I was able to make it for him since it's his favorite breakfast meal.

Rachel, Erin and I took the kids to a mall in Nagoya the other morning while all the guys had a meeting with a former missionary to Japan. We took them to a pet store and that was a huge hit! Sterling couldn't take his eyes off of the animals once we got there.



Sterling went and got a flu shot yesterday. Everyone here said he should get one, especially since he's at the little daycare 3 days a week. He really freaked out about having to go to the doctor, but it all went fine. He screamed and cried and then when the shot was over, he hardly even cried. I took this picture outside of the hospital. Him and Luke have on matching pants- they're so cute together!

I took these pictures tonight because Sterling wanted to wear the pink headband I got in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma Chase. They sent us a whole big box of goodies, but since it's evening I wouldn't let Sterling have any of the candy- but he liked the pink headband! (And by the way- he chose the pink one over blue and green!)

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we went and bought a little fake Christmas tree to put up in Sterling's room. It was really fun! It's strange because people in Japan don't get Christmas as a holiday or anything, but they go all out with decorations for Christmas. So luckily for us it was easy to find things to decorate with, because we had nothing! So here is the process of putting the tree together. When we very first got started Sterling pulled the bottom part of the tree out of the box and hugged it and said "I love the tree!"

Sterling

Here are a few random pictures from this past week or so. Just a brief description: Sterling in a maternity shirt that he wanted to put on and wear around, Sterling looking at the coloring book that his Gigi and Papa sent-- which he said was "so cool"; him, Brayden and Miku playing at the McDonalds playland together--they were actually running and then flopping on the ground like this; and the last is him in his Rose Hulman Jacket that Uncle Kyle got for him. We had a hard time convincing him to switch up the routine and wear a new jacket, but when we told him that it was from Uncle Kyle and where he goes to school, Sterling gave it a try.

Zoo, Toys R Us, Mini truck

This is a little 600 cc engine mini-truck that is all over the place here in Japan. Luke says he wants one but I don't know what in the world he would do with it. But in real life, my dad is thinking about getting one that has been shipped straight from Japan to use as a little farm truck. We think he should put fancy rims on it and paint it silver like this one (HA HA, that's just a joke dad!) They are usually all plain white.

On Thursday, Erin and I went with her friend Akemi and her little girl to the Okazaki Zoo (this is the third time in about a month that we've been to the zoo- Sterling LOVES the animals). Akemi's little girl is named Momiji, which means autumn leaves. The picture below is the three of them eating their lunches together at the zoo. The other two pictures are from when we went to Toys R Us on Saturday. I actually went to look at stuff at Babies R Us while Sterling and Luke played in the toys and this play area. Sterling was all decked out in his John Deere hat, T-shirt and yellow and green shoes which aren't JD, but the same color at least.



We went out to eat the other night at the Thai restaurant, so the boys put on button down shirts (Both of them pretty much refuse to wear anything but sweatshirts and long sleeve t-shirts these days). I had to get a picture of Sterling looking so handsome in his nice jeans and shirt. He liked the elephant at the Thai restaurant, so we got his picture by it too.

Halloween 2008

This funny picture is because Sterling got some new hand-me-down pajamas from a Japanese friend of ours. They say "Shinkansen" which is the bullet train here in Japan. Luke had a meeting last night so I put them on him while luke was gone. When Luke came in, Sterling said "Look at my jammies dad, don't you love them?"

Sterling got pumpkin balloons from my parents, so we gave them to all his friends and he's been playing with his nonstop since I blew it up for him. I think it's knocked over just about everything in our house.

This was the cutest little girl I've ever seen. She was at the birthday/costume party at the Parsons for Owen's birthday. Her name is Erena and her family is neighbor's with the Parsons.


This was at Owen's party; Luke, Sterling, Taiyo and Hinako (my tutor's kids). They were eating pumpkin cupcakes.


Sterling dressed up as Bob the Builder for Halloween. We actually just had Owen's b-day party to go to, but everyone dressed up and it was a lot of fun. Bob the Builder was the easiest costume we could think of because Sterling was NOT all about dressing up this year.

And here are some pictures of everyone dressed up. Luke was a baseball player (not much to his costume...) and I wasn't anything...I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be embarrassing in a picture so I just opted out of dressing up.

End of October Activities

Erin and I took Sterling and Brayden to McDonald's yesterday morning for breakfast and playing on the playground. I had them stand there so I could take their picture and Brayden wanted to do the peace sign because that's what all the Japanese kids do for pictures. So then it became hilarious trying to get both of them to make a peace sign, smile and look at the camera- I obviously never succeeded in getting all of that, but it's a cute picture anyway. And then there's Sterling giving his biggest "CHEESE!" possible.


We finally cut Sterling's hair (and it was a HUGE ugly affair with lots of screaming and tears and me having to hold Sterling's arms down so that he didn't hit Luke while he was trying to cut it...) But anyways, here's a picture of the new buzz cut. I love this picture because I actually caught him smiling so nicely instead of looking like a goober which is the face he usually likes to make for the camera.

We went to the Okazaki Zoo on Saturday. It's small, but the perfect size for a morning activity as a family. Sterling especially enjoyed getting to feed the deer and looking at the pig. We got there just in time to watch the zoo keeper feed the rabbits, turtle and pig. It was a fun morning together!

Birthday

This was just one day that I was outside with Sterling letting him ride his bike.

Later that night we had over our friends on the team for cake and ice cream. Before they all came over, two of our neighbors brought over flowers and the Winnie the Pooh card- it was so thoughtful of them!


This was the morning of my birthday, Sterling was handing me my present from him and Luke.