A Low Key Christmas

When your Christmas grocery list includes Pedialyte and 409 you know it's not the Christmas you hoped for.
Christmas Eve morning Mina and I were struck with the stomach flu. Later that afternoon Brett and Marie were. Yeesh. It was a gross day.

However, the night before Christmas we prayed that we would all get better for the next day, and though we weren't 100% we were still blessed with some good health on Christmas Day.

Marie asked Santa for two things:
1. Christmas M&M's
2. Enough dolls to have a doll party.

g
I think it turned out pretty good.

Mom and Dad got a new toy also. Something fun to take the kids hiking in.

Watch out Mt. Fuji! We're coming for you!
This is a song we always sing to Mina. It goes, "Wilhelmina, little Mina, Wilhelmina, little Mina..."

It was a super low key day. Everyone was feeling good, but just tired. Mina especially. She threw up like a trillion times and at one point we took her to the Urgent Care Center for dehydration. Just a terrible time. But it made us so thankful to have two healthy girls Christmas day. We are so blessed.

Mina is growing like an adorable weed. She is SO CLOSE to walking! I was saying she will be walking on Christmas day... but she wants a little more time. That's ok Mina. Today I packed away 1 bumbo, 1 bouncer, 1 swing, 1 playmat, and put up 1 babygate. She was up the stairs twice before we noticed she was gone. Scary. My sweetie is growing up, but that is alright because I am reminded of the saying, "it kills us to watch them grow up, but if they didn't grow up it would kill us."   Speaking of which, it's 12:06 am and my girl just woke up and nothing soothes except mom. It's a blessing and a curse.

Christmas dinner has seen better days. The salad was the only festive thing, and I'm glad we had some frozen shrimp, because the reheated Popeye's just wasn't cuttin' it.

After Skyping with family for a few hours Marie felt good enough for some sledding with Dad.  Later, the girls chilled out with a few minutes of Thomas the Train.

It turned out to be a lovely, low key Christmas here in Japan.
Miss you all very much!

Santa Rocks

Santa came to my daycare to help Marie and I teach.
He read stories, helped do crafts and play games.
What a great Santa!

We all came back later that night so Santa could make an apperance at their Christmas Party. I am sad I missed it, because Mina was not well, but Brett told me they told him to say "Merry Christmas" and just "talk for a minute or two." Apparently he ran out there and gave everyone high-fives and rallied the kids. He is a great Santa. They paid him with a cake. Very cute.

Tokyo Disney Sea

Marie woke up Tuesday morning worn down. I'm not sure what I expected as she had eaten only fries and stayed up until 12am. But the good news is that we were staying in the awesome "Happy Magic Room," where a cute witch lives. She helped Marie take it easy that morning by entertaining her in the hotel room.

But we only had one more day of vacation so we stuck the kids in the stroller anyways and headed off to Disney Sea. And the awesome thing about Marie is when she is sick she sleeps it off like a superhero.

It was kind of nice to have some time with Brett while the girls slept in the stroller. It's a good feeling to be surprised by a sort of "mini date" (while pushing the kids) and remember that you still really like each other.

But Marie couldn't sleep forever. We were at Disney Sea after all. And she wasn't contagious, so we made her meet Ariel. The Disney princesses overseas are so fun. Especially when you are one of the only people they see all day that speak English. This girl was really sweet to Marie.

 

The rest of these pictures are mostly to show how interesting Disney Sea is. There are not as many rides as Disney Land, but the architecture is wonderful.

And gotta love the Disney touches...

Above is the outside of Ariel's Grotto, an indoor play place for younger children (and Moms still obsessed with the little Mermaid). It had some great indoor rides that even Mina went on and also this fun playground with Ariel's cave of treasure.

And back to the hotel for some solid cuteness.

Such a wonderful vacation. Marie & Mina I want you to look back on this and know that you had the most fun childhood.

If Disneyland were a country, I would apply for citizenship

For me (Rachel) there is something about Disney and Christmas that is the most fun when you are a child. However, I would have to say, being a parent and watching your kid go to Disneyland for Christmas... is the best thing EVER.

Mickey's Tree is so much better than mine

And nothing beats those "tea cups."

Actually, one thing does, and it's that Mina could ride them.

Marie is a HUGE fan of Lightining McQueen, but when we finally got to meet him, she was just not having it.

This guy was a bit more accesible, however.

The Country Bear Jamboree in Japanese is just really hard to sit through. But Buzz Light Year in Japanese? That's straight up awesome.

So is meeting one of your best friends.

These Tokyo Princesses rocked it. I was tempted to tip them.

Snow White was awesome. And I actually remember this prince from last September. Looks like he broke up with Sleeping Beauty and moved on to Snow White. She was phenomenal. She even asked Marie to sing a holiday song with her.

I almost wanted to put my hand over my heart while looking at this thing!

And My Mina Chan!

Look out global warming!

And finally, at 9:45pm Marie finally sees the man she's been after...

Marie would probably kidnap him if she was capable. Mina however, did not like him as he accidently hit her in the face with his huge nose.

As the Japanese would say...
HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Let's Meet up with Brett

One morning I woke up and decided that "today- I want to travel with 2 small children on a train."
And I did. It really wasn't bad. On the Bullet train one adult can take up to 2 children under the age of 5 for the price of one ticket. But you just get one seat. So we each enjoyed our own seat for one stop until the others filled up and then the rest of the time we enjoyed walking up and down the aisle. Later we found a "multipurpose room" to hang out in. It wasn't easy though, I had to sucker the conductor to let me "nurse Mina" in there. It was so nice to sit down. Marie could have sat by herself in the chair while I held Mina in the hall, but she looked so freaked out sitting next to the Japanese business man, and frankly so did he. I don't know why they gave me a window seat. I kept coming back to my seat and asking the man next to me to "pass me that bottle" or "pass me the little girl in the seat to me" or, my favorite, "pass me that diaper sitting there, I promise it's clean." I stopped coming back after I got the diaper I needed.



Anyway, two Fridays before Christmas we girls packed down to Tokyo to meet up with Brett who was working down there the previous week.

Meeting up in a town of 13 million people was kind of scary, but we said, "meet me next to that one shop that serves rice" and we found each other without a hitch.
We actually planned this trip in October, but even 2 months advance isn't long enough to get a good reservation in Tokyo so we stayed 3 places; US Army's Hardy Barracks, US Navy's New Sanno, and good ol' fashion Hilton.

Between The Hardy Barracks and the New Sanno is a 10-minute walk to the temple. Saturday we took turns going to the temple and hanging out with the girls in the Hardy Barracks watching Muppets or playing at the playground.

On the way to the Temple I found this sweet deal on a Christmas tree. Y42,000=$ 537.63.
What a STEAL!

On the way back from the temple I spotted some cute kids at a park. Here's Mina sitting on top of a slide. And below is Marie holding on tight.

Later that night, we went looking for some food in an area called Omotesando.

We didn't eat here.

(hahaha, I am still laughing at this sign)

And tried to take a picture of the bustling streets of Tokyo before Christmas.
It was a nice little beginning to our trip. Sunday morning we headed to the church service (in English) right next to the temple. It was Marie's LAST time in Nursery so SHE insisted she stay for the entire time. I headed back to Hardy Barracks and walked our luggage to the next hotel and checked in while Marie enjoyed the last fun time at Church. Sorry Marie, but you will learn so much in Primary!