Spring is Here!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! I can't believe that spring is here. There are tons of flowers blooming everywhere and we even have some cherry blossom trees too. It was a very exciting and long week for us and we are so ready for spring break! Here are some pictures to highlight a few things.

This cherry blossom tree is right outside out front door. It reminds me of Japan.

This is our little courtyard where a lot of the neighbor kids play. Took it mostly to show the blossoms on the trees.

We went to a little gardening 101 workshop on Saturday and got some free seeds. Looks like we'll be getting our own garden ready pretty soon.

This is one reason we haven't started the garden yet. This is what the couch looked like pretty much all week. Emily finished her classes and has just been writing papers like crazy. She'll be completely done with papers on Wednesday whether she is actually finished or not (That's when the last one is due).

This may not look like much, but I gave Emily a coupon book for Christmas. This is one she used this week to go to the movies. We went and saw "The Great and Powerful Oz." The movie was really really weird. I'm not sure if I would go and see it again.

This is an older picture of some things we got in a Valentine's Day package from the Grandbobs; some cute Disney water bottles stuffed with some of our favorite candy. So awesome!

Emily made me this tie rack for Valentine's Day and we never put pictures up. So this is the rack in action.

The rack by its lonesome. I have to admit that it is very effective and I love it dearly!

We sure excited for spring break but are probably more excited to have this term over. Emily is now half way through her program (at least credit wise) which means we need to start figuring out what we are going to do next. I have applied for graduate school and the results will be up on a blog post soon. We hope that everyone has an awesome week!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Happy March everyone! Spring is definitely on its way, at least in Eugene. I (Emily) am pretty thrilled about the warm weather and the sunshine. My cohort had class from 9 to 5 on Saturday (I know, what were they thinking?!), but the good news was that we held class almost entirely outside. AND James and I were assigned our free garden plots this week, which I am quite excited about. We welcome any gardening advice from you expert gardeners out there about Eugene growing (what to grow, when, how, etc...we are pretty new at this). 

Anyway, I am in the midst of final papers and such this coming week. I also had an interview for a fellowship that I am waiting to hear back from, so feel free to send some love and positive thoughts this way :)

Here are some quick pics from a few weeks back when we had a gyoza (pot sticker) party with some friends from church. Good food, good company, need I say more? 

We also had dinner with some friends from BYU-Hawaii who moved here recently. It was so good to catch up with them...unfortunately we forgot to take pictures, so I guess we will just have to get together again :) I love being reminded again and again of BYU-Hawaii and the amazing experience we had there. Makes me a bit homesick for Laie, but the world seems like a much friendlier place when you know people everywhere you go.

Applying to Graduate School

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had a few Trick-or-Treaters, but most of the evening we were in the community center for our apartment complex co-hosting a Halloween party for Emily's cohort that she studies with. We weren't sure how many people were going to show up, so another student from Emily's cohort and us made some taco soup and a bunch of sugar cookies with Halloween colored frosting. It was a lot of fun preparing for, and it was fun to just get to know more of the people that Emily is studying with. Didn't take too many pictures though. :(

Only two people are really dressed up in this one. We have Madeline on the left and Dora the Explorer on the right.

I got to go with two different classes to the pumpkin patch earlier in the week. It was a lot of fun and the weather was even nice. The kids loved being able to pick out their own pumpkins, feed some farm animals, and just get out on a field trip.

I'm not going to get into any politics, but I just wanted to say that Emily and I have successfully voted this year. Yay for us for being contributing citizens... :D

Other than all those fun things, It was quite relaxing over the weekend. Emily was able to get some studying done and I was able to work on some of my own goals for the future. For the past few months, I have been really struggling whether I should apply for graduate school for next Fall or to wait until Fall 2014. I have decided that I will try and apply for several programs for this upcoming Fall and we can see what happens.

Not that anyone really cares at this point, but I decided to apply for the MPA programs at Syracuse University, Portland State University, and University of Oregon. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly how realistic it will be to attend any of these programs next year, but we may find ourselves in a situation that they may work out. So now I have the fun task of gathering all the needed information for applications and getting them in within the next several months. So exciting!!! I would appreciate any advice anyone has for applying to these schools/programs. :)

We love you all very much and appreciate your love and support! Hope you all have a great week!

It's Official :)

Yes, it is official. I (Emily) have decided on the University of Oregon, and I'm thrilled about my decision. Narrowing my decision from about eighty to three graduate schools was an agonizing and painfully long process, but I was shocked (pleasantly!) at how easy it was to narrow my decision from three to one. When I told my nine-year-old sister Anna about my decision, she said, "How can you be so excited about going to school?!" Apparently in third grade, the two don't go together. I really couldn't be happier though, and feel so blessed to be this excited about our next step in life.


Well, this week was busy, busy, busy and full of fun. The event that James and I have been looking forward to for months finally came to pass this week...SPRING CLEANING! Our favorite time of year! Mostly because it means that the sun is starting to come out again and the snow is gone...for the most part. We scrubbed our tiny apartment from top to bottom and dejunked (which we both absolutely love). Eight hours, about six garbage bags, and two sore backs later, we still didn't get through the kitchen area of our house, but we stopped and treated ourselves to our favorite katsudon restaurant. Oh, heavenly food. I'll get to the kitchen sometime later this week before we go on our trip...and then possibly treat myself to more katsudon.

Here are some before and after pictures. Actually, that's a lie. This is really a mid-cleaning photo. But like my momma always says, "It gotsta get dirtier before it gets cleaner!"

And the after picture. I took this picture strategically so you couldn't see the huge give-away pile and trash bags hiding in the corner. The garbage man is not going to be happy with us this week.

Can I just say how pleased I am to have a table and chairs again?! We have been eating on the ground with a kotatsu for the last six months or so, and though I love that hideous beast for keeping me thawed through the winter, my knees were not sad to see it go back into storage.

We are planning a few trips in the next few weeks. This week, we are going to Fukuoka. The next weekend, we are going to Aomori, and we are considering another trip the weekend after. Be excited for pictures in the next month or so :)


This afternoon, we were able to start volunteering with an orphanage for babies under two. I don't think I have laughed so hard and had so much fun in a long time. Those kids were hilarious, and everyone (including us) was surprised at how quickly they warmed up to us. We can't take pictures because of privacy issues, but I hope we will always be able to remember these volunteer experiences. Some of the most memorable and rewarding experiences from the past eight months have come from volunteering, and I hope it's something we continue through our life together.

We had our friend Tomomi over for dinner this week. She taught me how to make nabe, a Japanese soup, and we made this yummy blueberry dessert together.

And this is my baby. Yes, they are green onions. I'm so proud of them. The dark part at the top is how much they have grown in the last week or so. I'm so excited for our first harvest :) Stay tuned for my tomato and basil growing adventures. I love spring!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Moving to Oregon?

Talk about awesome... Emily just heard from the last school that she applied to for graduate school. After lots of thinking, hard work and waiting, she was accepted to all three of the programs she has applied to; University of Denver, Portland State University, and University of Oregon. We are very excited to be a little closer to knowing where we will be having our adventures next year. Although we still don't know where we will be going, Emily is leaning towards the program at University of Oregon. Stay tuned for more details. :)


This week we also went and sang karaoke again and also went bowling. If you have ever wondered about what it was like to bowl in Japan, we took a few pictures to illustrate the fun experience.

These are the awesome Velcro shoes that we were given at the bowling alley for 300 yen. Can you guess who's shoes are whose? If you guessed that Emily's are the bright and colorful ones, you would be wrong folks... Those were mine... 

We had some coupons (play 2 games and get a third free). I started with a warm up for my first frame (bowled 2 gutter balls) while Emily got right into things and started with a strike! It wasn't looking good for me... However, the bowling alley provides a little tambourine to help encourage people, like me. Or maybe they are for celebrating strikes. Needless to say, we used it on numerous occasions. As you can see in the background, the actual lanes look the same. :P 

We also had some coupons to get 2 free drinks, so in between frames, we got to enjoy our ginger ale.

This was the final scoreboard. Top one says Jeemuzu (James in Japanese) and the bottom says Emirii (Emily in Japanese). Consequently, these were our best scores. I will say that Emily did beat me the first game by quite a bit, but I caught up in the 2nd and 3rd games. You also notice that Emily got a strike in the first frame for this game as well. Her only strikes were in the first frames... Crazy. Anyways, you can see that the bowling experience in Japan is not all that different than the US. It was such a blast!

To sum up some other things from the week...

We made some homemade pizza this week (bacon and pineapple) and it was so delicious! The one further is the before we cooked it, and the one closer is the after we cooked it. So yummy!

Emily also made some carbonara and it was pretty awesome.

This month's bulletin board at Emily's school that she made. So pretty!

I think we have explained this about half a year ago, but here in Japan, we watch General Conference a week later than the US because of the time difference. We really enjoyed Conference and the messages that were shared by the Prophet and other Church leaders. Because Easter is today, I want to mention a talk shared in Sunday morning's session by D. Todd Christofferson titled, The Doctrine of Christ. If you have time, it's a short talk in which I invite you to either read or watch.


With all the love we can muster, we hope that everyone has an awesome Easter Sunday and enjoys the upcoming week! 

Japanese HS student + English class = Hilarity.

A few Japanese funnies worthy of a midweek post.


James and I have recently finished up the academic school year here in Japan. James received TONS of thank-you notes and cards from his classes and I did a final evaluation with some of my students. Some of the notes/responses we received were written in typical hilarious Japanglish, so I have documented a few below (unchanged from their original state) for your reading pleasure.


From my final class...

What does Emily sensei want to study in graduate school? (FYI, the correct answer is either mediation or conflict resolution.)

*Merition (close, but not quite)
*Teauch is English. Emily want to study in conflict and mediation.
*Meditional confict and resolution.
*Mediation conflict
*I want to mediation. (Meaning you want to study that also?! Or you need to go to mediation?)
*Conflict resellution and career
*She study conflict in graduate school. (Ha! Just conflict...how to make it, not resolve it!)
*He want to study conflict resolution. (Right field, but try again on the gender.)
*resolution
*She studied Japanese every day. but she thinks kanji is difficult. (That is very true, however...)
*TESOL = Teaching English to Speakiers off Other Languages (Confict Rezorution) (Hooked on phonics worked for me!)
*Japanise (Amazing answer, but no.)

What activities or lessons with Emily sensei did you enjoy most this year?

*I enjoyed the different games with Mr. Emily and classmate. (Again, we have some gender confusion...I'm starting to get worried. I'm definitely growing my hair out this year.)
*I went to go Hawai with her. (No, we did not take any field trips this year.)
*I enjoyed "Do you love neiver game!! (FYI, neiver = neighbor)
*I did enjoy all resson.
*All lessons enjoy!
*Your neighbor (This sounds like a bad "Yo Momma" joke.)
*Last speach (Like a peach?)
*I could enjoy learning English everytime with everyone and Emily sensei
*I enjoy most a school hours
*It's a this class.
*Valentain's speach.
*I always fun your activities and lessons.
*circle play game (heart) very interesting :D
*Rob chair.
*I enjoyed activities that my classmeat hide sharp. (No, none of our class activities involved sharp objects...just shapes.)
*Show me Emily sensei family picture.
*Finding mess takes
*Making ice cream. (I can only assume she is referring to our English club activity that went horribly wrong. We tried to make homemade ice cream in Ziplock bags, but it was an epic fail.After about an hour of freezing their hands off, all the English club girls had for a reward was cold sweet milk. Thank heaven for 7-11 and my hubby who provided us with some real ice cream.)

In your opinion, how can Emily sensei become a better teacher in the future?

*get more experience (ummm...I'm working on it.)
*keep now.
*smile and vigor!
*Rome was not built in a day. (Wow, maybe I'm doing better than I thought at this whole English-teaching business.)
*The important thing I think is never spares any effort.
*Don't shy!!
*You are enough good.
*Yes, I think so much. 
*Yes. Emily sensei can become a better teacher. (Then again, maybe not. Your vote of confidence is so assuring, but did you understand the question?)
*I think you talk with many people.
*You will become a beautiful teacher. (Why, thank you.)
*I think Mrs. Emily should go to Aspen Snowmass, CO. to ski best place!
*No cange in now
*Sure!! Because you're powerful and cute!! (kanji - laughing) Thank you!! (Powerful and cute at the same time, huh?)
*I think that now is better, so I don't went you to change.
*I think she masters various thing.
*Your smile is very cute. (Irrelevant, but nice.)
*Please keep the never give up mind
*Sorry. I can't Answer. (I plead the fifth!)
*Your teach is very interesting!!
*Yes!!
*You have to know        scolding. (That big space was in the original answer...maybe a dramatic pause?)
*You can.
*Keep as you are. I LOVE YOU 
*Emily sensei can become cute teacher!
*Maybe, you have to eat "plain yogurt". (I told my students that the only Japanese food I really hate is plain yogurt. I think this student is implying that it may not be possible for me to become a better teacher.)
*I like Emily sensei's smile. Your smile make us happy. You always keep smile.
*I think Emily sensei more many Japanese people to speak.
*I don't know. It's yourself. (Is this like, "It's your life. Do with it what you want." or "Figure it out for yourself."?)
*I think that you keep what you is.


That, in short, is why I love my job.

Moving to the Caribbean...

Today was a particularly busy week. We have been very blessed for me to get so many different jobs. I am now working about 28 hours a week (which I am actually limited to due to my visa status as a dependent). I also thought that I would only be working until February/March and then have to find more things to take up my time. However, I have been asked by the technical college I work at to continue until August when we are planning on returning to the States.


I know that 28 hours doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add in travel time, I feel like I am working a 40 hour work week. This week we had the privilege of having the missionaries over for dinner, going to the missionaries' weekly English conversation class, and volunteering at a nearby orphanage.


We have both volunteered to be liaisons between the orphanage and a non-profit organization called Smile Kids Japan. Although we haven't had too many opportunities to be heavily involved, we got to spend a couple hours with the elementary-aged kids yesterday playing various games and teaching English. We talked about Hawaii, sang the ABC's (we brought a ukulele from Hawaii and play that at our schools), played steal the bacon, and a few other games. We had a blast, and it seems like the kids had a lot of fun too; I think that's why they were laughing. :) One of the guys that works there drove us back to the train station on the way home and said that the kids don't get to run around too much in the winter time because of all the snow.


Here are a few pictures for the other highlights of the week. Enjoy!

Sue made Alfredo pasta again and it turned out soooo creamy and yummy!

This is Japanese nato which is fermented soy beans. It is supposedly one of the most healthy things you can eat. We bought it for the first time since coming to Japan so that Emily could try it. A lot of people complain about the smell, taste, texture, etc. however, Sue didn't seem to mind it at all. I encourage anyone that comes to Japan to at least try Nato.  It supposedly helps you speak and understand Japanese better. ;)

The Relief Society finally got around to their first party of the New Year. Emily made some toffee to take over and people seemed to enjoy it. I wish they didn't like it so much so that I would get to eat more. 

Before I finish this post, I wanted to comment a little bit about what Emily said in the last post. I really do think that she will get into at least one of the graduate programs she has chosen, but if perchance she doesn't, it wouldn't be all that bad. I think if she didn't get in, we would end up going somewhere in the Caribbean where Emily could spend time with the warm weather, beaches, and sunshine, and I could get a little more international experience. It would work out great for both of us. If that happened, heck, I would even let her shave her head if she wanted to. Although it's not likely Sue won't get into one of the programs she's applying for, it would be awesome to move to the Caribbean at some point. Love you all lots!

The Would-Be Bucket List

I am now officially a graduate school applicant! Yes, that means one application down, two to go. A small accomplishment, but I feel it is worth celebrating. And celebrate we did...with ice cream and cookies.


James heard a horror story this week (and was thoughtful enough to share it with me, the applicant) about a young man who applied to his top graduate programs and was rejected from all three. After hearing the story, I turned to James with a horrified look on my face, and he quickly reassured me, "But I'm sure it won't happen to you!" Ha! Anything could happen, crazy kid. Just hopefully not that.


But it got me thinking: What if I don't get accepted to any of these schools?


At first, the thought was dreadful. I've been looking forward to grad school for months, even years, now. I finally know what I want to study and I feel passionate about it. This is a perfect, maybe the only perfect, time of life to go. We have absolutely no backup plan if I don't get accepted. None. Zip.


Is that really a bad thing, though?


Think...what would you do with an entire year of your life if you didn't have any plans? If it were me, I would make a year's bucket list. Mine would look something like this:

This year, I will:

*NEVER go to a place with temperatures below 70F

*Run a marathon

*Befriend someone who is lonely

*Spend a large chunk of the year at the beach of some Caribbean island

*Open a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant

*Take Latin dance lessons with James

*Discover a mushroom dish that I actually like

*Learn, really learn, Spanish

*NOT wear shoes any more than is absolutely necessary

*Buzz my hair. I've always wanted to do that!

Well, that reassures me that if I don't get accepted to grad school, I'll still have a stellar year next year. This blog post has been therapeutic for me.


And you know what? Some of these things are pretty worthy goals. They might make it to my real bucket list.


Just not the hair one...James would have a fit :)

My First New Year's Kiss

Happy New Year, friends and family! 

We have had a great and very lazy New Year's weekend (six days off work - I love Japanese holidays!). Apparently New Year's is the biggest holiday in Japan, but it was so quiet here that you would never know it. There was one exciting thing that happened, though. I got my very first New Year's kiss! Yeah, I know it's pathetic, but I feel that this statement requires some explanation...

...take a journey with me back into the archives of James and Emily's New Year's History...

2011:  Laie, Hawaii. Let me preface this entry by saying that last year was the final year that fireworks were legal on Oahu. That said, it was also the year that James and I each received an iPod Touch for Christmas. In the Sinkovic house, James was busy expanding his vocabulary by playing Boggle on his new iPod, and I was busy...being asleep. Midnight came and went, and I woke up at about 12:15 to the sound of Laie exploding and James shaking me awake, saying "Sue, wake up. Happy New Year! It's time to drink Dr. Pepper!" Thus began the Annual New Year's Eve Dr. Pepper Belching Contest. The fireworks continued until about 5:00 the next morning, but I zonked again after I chugged my soda (and won the contest). So no New Year's Eve kiss that year. Maybe a 12:15 kiss, but it's not the same thing...

2010: Lindon, Utah. James and I were at that awkward stage of pre-dating life where we liked each other, but our relationship wasn't "official" yet. James had already asked me to be his girlfriend and I had already told him no. (Not sure why he chose to stick around, but I'm sure glad he did!) He was visiting his brother in Utah and decided to spend New Year's Eve with me. We were on our way to a friend's house for the New Year's countdown, but ran into a few problems on the way. The number one problem was called my license plate light was broken. The number two problem was called a cop pulled me over. The number three problem was called I didn't have my driver's license with me. When the cop pulled me over he looked in the car and said, "Did you know that your license plate light was out?" I told him no. He then leaned over and motioned to James and asked, "Is this your boyfriend?" I sputtered for a few minutes, debating whether or not I should explain the whole complicated relationship to the nice officer or not, and finally just settled with a half-mumbled, "Um, yes?" I blushed as James looked at me with a big smile and raised eyebrows. The officer told James, "Well, you make sure this young lady gets that light fixed, ok?!" James agreed and we drove back to my house to get my license so we didn't run into any more trouble on the way. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to welcome in the New Year while driving to the friend's house, and everyone knows it's not safe to kiss and drive, so there was no New Year's kiss that year either. 

So I am very happy to report that my handsome hubby (who is now officially my boyfriend forever), gave me a big smooch right at midnight on New Year's Eve. We happened to be at a friend's house playing games and I yelled, right out loud in their house, "Wow! My first New Year's kiss!" It was rather embarrassing, and James had to quickly explain my excitement.

We did finish the night off with the Second Annual Dr. Pepper Belching Contest, the one day a year where belching is legalized in our house. I remain the undefeated Belching Queen. Here is a short clip leading up to the moment. Sorry I couldn't catch the champion belch on camera. You will just have to trust that it was a good one.

And a few pictures of the fun winter weather that we have been having here.

My walk to school. Looks dangerous, huh? It is. My bruised knee can attest to that.

This tree just looked so vicious to me!

Icicles!

Our beautiful castle covered with snow

This is a most amazing fruit box sent by Uncle Peter and Auntie Linda. I've always heard about people sending fruit boxes for New Year's, but I've never actually been the lucky recipient of one. Now I know why it is such a popular gift! Fresh fruit, all at the perfect ready-to-eat stage, in the middle of a very cold winter is amazing! Does wonders for my soul. 

Ok, this is my new designer handbag...aka my old t-shirt that had a hole in the armpit (why do my shirts always do that?!). I promised Anna (my beautiful baby sister) that I would make her an Asian-style dress for her birthday. The bag project was my pre-practice stage. Next is pajama pants. Then the dress. I'll keep you posted. Now that I know how to thread a sewing machine (not an easy feat!), there will be no stopping me!

And one more tidbit of random information: I finally narrowed my grad school choices down to three. Drum roll please...University of Oregon, Portland State University, and University of Denver. So now I enter the fun stage of trying to get three applications together. It is such a relief to have narrowed next year's fate down to two states...unless, of course, I don't get accepted. But that is another basket of cherries?...or bucket of eggs?...oh! can of worms, right? Whatever...you know what I mean! :)

Anyway, Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas from Japan!

First and foremost, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We had a very eventful week leading up to an awesome Christmas. There was supposed to be a blizzard, but it looks like the weather held out. The crazy snow should start sometime tonight! We took lots of pictures and some videos that I'm sure will tell our experiences this week better than I could. To fit everything in one sentence, Emily took the GRE, we spent a day in Tokyo Disneyland, went to the Tokyo Temple, went to a neighborhood Christmas party, had our own Branch Christmas party, went to a baptism, and opened lots of fun presents on Christmas day.

This is the building in Tokyo that Emily took the GRE at. She was up on the 15th floor . I am just glad that there wasn't any major earthquake.

For some reason, Japanese people think of fried chicken during Christmas time and KFC is  where they go to get it.  Colonel Sanders stands at the front of most KFC's here in Japan and is often wearing the Santa suit during this festive time of year to remind people to get their fried chicken.

This is what "Main Street" in Tokyo Disneyland looks like during the Christmas season!

There were tons of decorations everywhere, but I thought that  among them, Goofy's house in ToonTown looked especially awesome.

Us in front of Cinderella's castle. I think it's Cinderella's at least...

Every time we go to Disneyland, we get a certain number of "cultural treats." We had stayed with Diliana and Chihiro, some friends from BYU-Hawaii, the night before and Diliana told us we had to get the turkey leg. I have to say that the turkey was moist and yummy and would suggest it to anyone who likes meat!

We spent all day in Disneyland and we were so blessed to have great weather. It wasn't what I would call warm, but there was no snow and a whole lot warmer than Aizu!

The picture is a little dark, but we had some pretty fun decorations at our Branch Christmas party. We had to get special permission to have decorations in the cultural hall type area, because it doubles up as the chapel. We spent all morning cooking and decorating the room with all sorts of things.

Last week we talked about how much fun we had going to Costco. We had bought a bunch of stuff for this Christmas party including Christmas plates, napkins, and cups. The Church members wanted to wash everything and save them for next year. I told them to just throw stuff away because it wasn't that expensive. I was asked to plan the whole Christmas party event maybe 2 months ago and of course that meant that Emily and I were going to be planning it together. I also told the Branch that this year was going to be different, that the Branch Presidency would take care of the meat. In the end, Emily ended up making a type of shoyu chicken that we put over rice. It was really yummy, but after eating it before the party when we were testing recipes, eating it at the party, and then taking home left overs, we were pretty much done with shoyu chicken for a while. All the other members brought desserts, salads, soups, and of course sushi.

We invited a group to come and do a little puppet like show. They had come the past 3 years for our Branch Christmas party so I just thought that they would be doing a Christmas puppet show. However, it was a bunch of random stories. It was really funny and they were awesome even though it didn't exactly fit the whole Christmas theme.

The group also had some sing/dance along time. It was pretty funny.

 This is Hiroyuki Haga, the husband of the Relief Society President. I knew him when I served my mission and asked him if he would play a couple songs on the sax. The kids loved it!

We asked the Primary to act out the Nativity and it was so cute! They did such a great job! It is kind of hard to tell in this picture, but they asked the missionaries to dress up and be the wise men (they are the ones with their backs to the camera kneeling down). In the back is Sister Kuwahara, the Primary President, holding a stick with a star attached to the end. Just before taking this picture, the star was being run all over the stage with the wise men trying to follow it to find the Christ child.

Emily pretty much did everything for the party including cooking the meat, making some of the decorations, and played the piano during the activity. We sang Christmas songs in between the kids' acting.

Here is Joseph, Mary, and 2 of the shepherds with their canes. 

We also had Santa time... Unfortunately, Santa got sick the day before and couldn't make it. We had to make due with Santa's friend "Santa." In this video, Santa is asking Yuho (she was the angel in the Nativity) what she wants for Christmas. When she told him some kind of game, he told her to get it from her parents... lol. It was a lot of fun!

This is our cute little Christmas tree Christmas morning. We had fun opening up some packages and presents. Most of our presents revolved around clothing items to help keep us warm for the rest of the winter and various games to have fun with!

This was our Christmas breakfast feast. We cooked hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, bacon, and corn fritters. Super yummy!