Merry Christmas Everyone! Sorry I am late with this holiday greeting but I have been quite busy lately, finding no time to sit down and have a proper blog session.
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This year, A and I stayed in Okinawa for the holidays. It is always hard being away from my family in Canada on Christmas. We made the best of it and had a pretty good time. We also were able to have a couple of fun Skype Sessions together with my Canadian Family and that made me feel squishy and good. It was nice to see everyones faces and talk a bit.
On Christmas Day, I was at work. It was the last day of school for the students before winter holidays. As soon as the final assembly was finished and the students were leaving the school, I was suddenly overcome by an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loneliness. I decided to take the afternoon off and try to medicate my lonesome feeling with some last minute SHOPPING :) Ha! I went to JUSCO and bought a few gifts, ate some soba and then went home to meet up with A to start our Christmas together. I felt a lot better being at home with A. We opened some gifts, took a nap, then started prepping for our Christmas Nabe Party.
I was lucky enough to find a Cheese Store a few days before Christmas. A Cheese Store that sells REAL cheese!!!!!! Below is a picture of the cheese, meat, pickles appy assortment we put together. It was great!
One of the kinds of Cheese I picked up looked like a delicious flowery petal of some sorts. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of this cheese, but it was AWESOME! and FUN!!
For dinner we had a Seafood Nabe (hot pot) which is cooked right on the table and everyone scoops out food from the common pot. We had large prawns, and 3 different kinds of fish in this Nabe of love! I also bought a new table cloth for Christmas. It's a 3 green striped piece. I love it.
In attempts to make Christmas in Okinawa seem a little more festive, I had purchased some silly Christmas hats to wear! I think A makes a great little elf!
We had 2 freinds join us in our Christmas celebrations. Mr. Chris and Avril Mung-Bean. They were extra fun that night and even took part in the silly Christmas Hat event!
Later that night, we had a proper Christmas Dance Party!!!! It was one of the best dance parties I've had in a while! Thanks! You can see this picture must have been taken mid-head banging. I don't think we were dancing to Jingle Bells in this one.
One of the best things to do in Japan during the Christmas season is to sing Karaoke! For real! It's the thing to do. I had a couple of pretty awesome Karaoke sessions with fellow co-workers. But one of the most memorable nights was with Kocho-Sensei (The Principal). We had last sung Karaoke together 4 and a half years ago when I first came to Okinawa. Shortly after, we were both transferred to different schools. We were lucky enough to be placed at the same school this past year. This was our first Karaoke reunion together! Here we are sharing a moment while singing Peter, Paul & Mary!
Merry Christmas to All! Wish you the best in the New Year!
Love, Julie
Looks like a lot of warm and fuzzy fun! A does make an adorable elf! :) Happy New Year!
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