Christmas in Oki

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Our friends, Joe and Meg stayed at our house to celebrate with us.

We began our day with a big breakfast - compliments of Noa and his new griddle! His secret is using the chopsticks while cooking with it. How innovative.

After that, we opened stockings. We decided to stuff each other's stockings - including the dogs.
Meg and Joe put a whole bunch of crazy Japanese candy in our stockings - we've yet to sample all of it. One of the items we put in theirs was a set of wine charms made out of Mah Jong pieces. Mah Jong has become one of our new favorite games to play together. Megan, however, found another use for the charms -
Noa and I also opened up gifts from our families. Even though we are thousands of miles away from "home", my dad did not disappoint this year with the traditional "Lego set in the stocking" gift that he gives every Christmas. I got a green truck.
I think Noa was happy with his gifts this year. One of the gifts I gave him was the 3rd season of Arrested Development - one of his favorite tv series.
Noa completely surprised me this year with a new digital camera! It's a Nikon D50 - great for the novice photographer, but it has plenty of features for me to learn and take great photos. I love it!

Meanwhile, Sadie and Gunnar found a great napping place as we finished opening the gifts.

Here's some of our decorations from this year. I brought very few decorations from home and we bought our 1st fake tree this year. Joe and I made paper cranes in honor of our first Christmas in Oki.

Thanks for the wreath, mom - doesn't it look great with the nativity scene?

After lounging around for a bit, we all got ready for our big dinner party. We had about 10 people here and had a traditional feast with turkey and all the trimmings. Everything was delicious and now our fridge is bursting with leftovers.

Hope you had a fun and memorable holiday too. Noa and I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.