Highlights from December

December has been an awesome month for us. We've spent some great family time together and Shawn's 30 days of leave have gone by VERY QUICKLY!! Some of our December highlights include a trip to Ueno Zoo, German Village, Holiday parties, and of course, Christmas.

We never get tired of going to Ueno Zoo. Each trip, we find something we love more than the last time. This time it was the Vivarium which exhibits the largest salamanders Shawn and I have ever seen and a beautiful tortoises.

This great shot of the boys only took about 4 tries...

If you ask Caleb what his favorite animal at the zoo is, he'll tell you it's the elephant, but we almost had him convinced that it was the hippopotamus because it's so much fun to hear him say, "hiptamonaness".

The day that we went was cold, but beautiful.

This is Riley mimicking the Puffin Fish. I love this face!!!

By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but neither of the boys fell asleep on the 1.5 hour train ride back home.

The boys got their box of Christmas presents from Nana and PawPaw and had lots of fun pretending to be race car drivers with the empty box.

Caleb wanted to be mailed off to Nana and PawPaw's house in the box. When we asked him where he would go potty while he was in transition, he said, "just get me a bag". He was SERIOUS too!!

Our next big event was an ITT (Information, Travel and Tickets for military) trip to German Village, which is right outside of Tokyo. We took a big sightseeing bus, which Caleb always thinks is so great!

So, this place had buildings inspired by German architecture, but that was probably the only thing that made it anything like Germany. We were kinda expecting German food or German beer...but nope. It did, however, have bumper cars, archery, roller coasters, grass sledding, an arcade, riding trains, and the largest display of Christmas lights that I have ever seen.

The bumper cars and riding trains were the only fun things that Riley was old enough to do. He got extremely upset when Caleb ran off to do other things, like ride the kiddie roller coaster with mommy!

Oh my gosh, did I have fun riding the kiddie coaster.

It was bitter cold on this big hill with the wind blowing, brrrrr.

It was a lot of fun.

We had a little Christmas get together with friends and Riley helped make a gingerbread train. Ok, so he helped eat the candies off the train after his friends decorated it.

This is Christmas Eve after "Santa" dropped off toys and ate cookies and the reindeer ate carrots and left poop droppings (raisins) out on the sidewalk.

The best present Santa brought was a dual decker Radio Flyer Tricycle. Caleb pedals and Riley holds on for dear life. It's incredibly funny to watch them on it together. Riley yells, "so fast, so fast" and Caleb giggles.

It's been the best month of the year.

12 months to go

I don't know why, but this Christmas I seem to be missing home more than ever. I am so ready to come home. December 7th was our 2 year anniversary in Japan which means 12 more months to go.

Many of our local friends are headed to Saipan for the holidays to sit in the sun, but we have no big plans. We are finding it very relaxing to just be a family again . Shawn has been on leave (vacation) since December 6th and for the rest of the month. It was been wonderful having him here to help out with the daily activities with the boys. Caleb has really loved having "daddy" to drop him off at school, but asks for "mommy" to pick him up. We've been busy with just making dinners together, baking Christmas cookies, making tree ornaments and holiday cards, taking walks to see Christmas lights, and playing at the parks since the weather is so warm.

We are thinking of all of you and missing you so much. Enjoy your family and friends and be thankful for the love that surrounds you whether it comes from the person sitting next to you or from half way around the world.

Finished product

This is for my mom. She wanted a finished picture of the lights.

Putting on the glitz

We put up our Christmas lights and the boys liked helping daddy.

Of course, Shawn gets so irritated putting lights on our townhouse because it's not really designed for lights. Finding something that will stick to textured concrete to hold the lights up is an extremely difficult task and usually an impossible task. What normally happens is you spend the time putting up all these sticky hooks only to have them fall off one at a time (after the lights are up).

But this year, I think we found the ultimate hooks, "Command" outdoor sticky clips. So far they have worked very well.

This year we also had some separation guilt because Shawn has NEVER agreed to putting lights above the porch rim and this year without much pleading he got out a ladder and climbed up to hang lights. I guess separation does make the heart grow fonder.

I keep forgetting to take a picture at night of all the lights lit up, but it really turned out nice.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving activities started with a "Feast" in Caleb's class on Wednesday morning.

Caleb learned that a "feast" means "lots of yummy food" and there was a lot of food. I think most of us parents had a little trouble eating a feast at 9:00 in the morning, but it was fun to see the kids all together at this long table.

Thanksgiving Day, I got up at 7:00am to get the turkey and the stuffing ready. At 10:00, I finally got to sit down for a small break all the while thinking "wow, how has my mom done this all these years?"

Our wonderful friends, The Benefields, joined us for the day. It was such a treat to have them with us. We have been so blessed to have them in our lives over the last 2 years. They will be truly missed when they move next week...

Jen and I

Riley, John, and Caleb in true play mode.

Riley, REALLY enjoyed pumpkin pie. He had 3 helpings and still wanted more.

Us...picture perfect and what I am most thankful for.

Halloween

We started our Halloween day with a boat ride around Monkey Island. The rides were free if you wore a costume. So at 10am we were walking around the base dressed up.

Amy and Zachary went along for the ride.

Riley was devastated by wearing a life jacket. He literally threw the worse tantrum EVER!! He pulled and tugged on the vest and stomped his feet and threw himself to the ground and then he got up and slapped me. I really thought this was going to be the worse part of the morning....

I was wrong. We (about 9 kids and 5 adults) were escorted to perhaps the smallest boat in the marina. It was high tide and there was rough waters. Needless to say, I was counting down the minutes till we hit the pier again. It took every breath to keep from vomiting over the side. Caleb was turning green and Riley was clung to the deck of the boat. It was not the ride I was expecting. (Thanks Jen).

Later that day, we headed out for Trick or Treating.

Of course, we went with Amy and Zachary. Riley and Zachary were ready for whatever each house offered them. Caleb on the other hand kept saying that he was tired and that he wanted to go home. He would not go up to doors. I really thought he was just being shy and difficult.

Riley was having a blast!

After awhile, Caleb went up to a few doors, but started complaining about not feeling good, so we decided to go home and give out candy.

I have to tell you, Trick or Treating on this base is CRAZY! They open the base to the Japanese and there are more kids then there is candy. Most houses post signs, "Out of Candy" an hour or so after it all starts. So when we got home to give out candy, the kids just lined up down the street. Literally there was probably 20 kids in line at any given moment.

I really think that the boys' highlight of the day was giving out candy. Riley was so cute! I never thought he'd actually give the candy away. I though he'd sit there and eat it all instead, but nope. He was very eager to give it away and then once he did, he'd clap, like he just did a good deed. And Caleb would say, "your welcome" before the kids ever said, "thank you". I was very proud of them.

So the video above was taken literally seconds before Caleb vomited all over the sidewalk. One moment he was giving out candy and the next he was throwing up. I think the kids waiting in line thought maybe it was part of our Halloween show.

He'd been saying all night that he didn't feel good... It was the perfect ending to the day!

Pulling out my hair

Shawn has been gone now for about a month and half and I feel like I'm pulling out my hair everyday. It's amazing how much those few hours at night when your spouse gets home from work can give you a break from being the sole parent. I am really missing those few hours. The boys are so demanding, as they should be, but it's draining me. I'm beginning to forget who "Rachael" is because I"m too busy being "mom" "dad" "grandparents" "playmate". I'm exhausted. I really don't know how single parents do it. There should be an organization for single parents that lets them drop their kids off once a week for a few free hours.

For all of you that have your husbands home, take advantage and enjoy every moment. Let them take care of the kids so that you can enjoy being yourself for awhile.

Friday night fun

Our Friday night fun started with a clam chowder dinner at our friend's house and then we were off to a Halloween Party.

As you can see, the boys are going to be Batman and Robin for "Trick or Treat" night. Caleb was very excited to wear his costume. I'm hoping to get our money's worth and wear it a couple of more times before Halloween night.

After the party, the boys came home and did some wrestling on the floor in their pjs.

I'm not sure who won the match, but both got in some good moves.

After wrestling, it was time for some popcorn and a movie, "Hero of the Railway", which we have watched every day for the last month, but they both picked it out to watch as their Friday night movie....again!!!!

Le Soliel Field Trip

Caleb had his first school field trip and I may have been more excited than he was, although, he was pretty excited about riding a school bus. The trip was to Yokosuka Le Soleil, which is an agricultural park. The surrounding fields are lined with cabbage this time of year and the park displayed Cosmos and Marigold flowers. The park included a small petting zoo, go-cart track, observation hill that over looked the ocean, horses, Koi ponds, a train, and bumper cars.

This is his class and his teacher, Ms. Williams. There's actually a total of 12 children, but not all could make the trip.

This is what pure happiness looks like. He got to drive a go-cart (of course, I was in charge of gas and brake) and he did awesome.

We never came close to hitting the wall. It's like he's done this before. I'm sure in his sleep, he has.

Ok, this was so weird. I'm not sure if this was their idea of a Halloween display or if these figures always have pumpkin heads.

There was an entire field of these figures, almost like a war scene.

They had pony rides, but we weren't there for the right times.

Caleb makes a cute cowboy.

Goats

He loved feeding the goats. At one point, he had four of them at once trying to get food from his hand.

Thomas the Train, bumper car. Thomas is everywhere in Japan. And he's not cheap. This ride was 200 yen, (approximately $2) for 60 seconds of fun.

The Koi pond had swan boats to rent. Who ever came up with putting a swan on a fishing boat? The boats are peddle powered, meaning "mommy peddle faster".

And of course we rode the train..

This is a picture of Caleb and McKenzie. They are two peas in a pod. They talked the whole way to the park and McKenzie was in the back of the bus and we sat in the very front seat....

And this is the "trio", as Ms. Williams calls them. They do everything together at school. And at home, Caleb talks about Allen and McKenzie all the time!

We had such a great time. It was awesome to spend some time with just Caleb. I kinda missed those days, until we got back on the bus to come home and Caleb and I both decided that we missed Riley.

It was nice to see how Caleb interacts with his classmates and where he fits into the hierarchy. He's definitely a leader, which surprised me. I've seen him be a follower so many times on the playground with other kids, but not in a closed group like his class. It was very interesting to see.