celebrations

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!    

We had such a great Christmas season this year. We had to carry on the tradition of torturing our kids by visiting Santa Claus.  When she looks at the picture now Ella says "Oh Oh Oh"!

We got to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. It was so nice to have them come up to visit, even though it didn't seem long enough. The kids really enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma again.

We didn't bring any of our Christmas decorations with us so in honor of Okinawa our tree was garnished with origami cranes, little wooden shoes, round balls of Japanese folk art people, and red and green boots hand folded by Mailee. 

 

Ella would like to thank all those who sent packages to us for Christmas, she loved sitting in the empty boxes.

The new favorite chair in the house.

Ella enjoyed gnawing on Morgan and Mailee's apples left in their stockings while everyone else opened presents.

We got the opportunity to visit an orphanage here in Okinawa and bring them gifts for Christmas.  It was a great experience for both me and my kids.  The children were just beautiful, I could have taken them all home.  They were  so sweet to each other as well as those of us who came to visit them.  They were natural sharers, you would think since they rarely get gifts they would want to hold onto it for themselves, but it was just the opposite.  They had such love for each other.  It was really a great thing to see. I had so many favorite pictures so there are a lot to look at.

Morgan was so good at playing with the children, here they are playing with one of the toys we picked out for them, a car that flips when you push it.

This little boy hung out on my lap for a long time.  He wanted to try every piece of candy that was in his sack.  I love this picture.  When the kids knew they were getting their picture taken they would put up two fingers, so funny that they all did this.  If you notice he has his two fingers up but is so excited about this sucker that he just can't take his eyes off it. So funny!!

This is how they kept track of all of their personal things like hats and toothbrushes and backpacks. I'm not sure why, but I found it sad to see so many toothbrushes hanging on the back of the bathroom door. This is an experience we will remember for quite a while.