Merry Christmas 2015

Well I can safely say that our second Christmas in Japan was much better than our first.  Having Daddy home to help/share in all the festivities certainly makes a difference.

We had Leyton's BFF Ava over for some playtime and Frozen cookie making.

Fun in the Family Gym on base

Before school Tea Ceremony.  LC was in charge and she closely monitored the correct order of the ceremony they practice in school (it's a Japanese thing).

Modeling their new Mimi (Elf on the Shelf) jammies

We ran into Santa one day while shopping, so E hopped on his lap for a quick photo and candy cane.

New clothes from Grammy.  Love it!

Ah, another post about E's hair.  So they had their first ballet recital, and we were instructed to have their hair in a 'tight bun.'  The other mom's smiled and wished me luck.  I started by blowing it back the night before with the hair dryer.   It made her hair super fluffy.

After straightening, pomade, mousse, and a LOT of hairspray

My beautiful ballerinas did awesome.

E with straight hair.  Leyton said she looked like a whole new sister.  She was correct.

I cheated and let Ms. Minori, their ballet teacher, do the actual buns.  I just did ponytails.

Backstage -awaiting rehearsal 

They performed on an actual theater stage.  E was not a fan of the very bright lights.

The older girls performed songs from The Nutcracker.  Leyton and Ellis were mesmerized. 

So fun to watch our big girls perform

Christmas Eve we went to our friends, the Baker's, for dinner.  The girls LOVE 'Baby Madeline'.

Eh, as usual, these are all out of order.... I'll explain this one in a bit

Christmas morning!  Intentionally, the girls got very few toys.  Santa brings 3 things and puts a few things in their stockings.  Don't let this picture fool you, though.  There are plenty of gifts under the tree from family.

After opening presents all morning, we headed to the mountains to 'an amusement park by day and light show by night'.

The theme was London and Paddington Bear.

LC going down one of the many very fun/dangerous slides in Japan.  

Finally, at 5pm, they turned on the 5.5 million Christmas lights

It was amazing

Nothing says Christmas, like an LED fish and turtle.  We are in the land of pagan Christmas celebrations.  So we had to make sure to read the true Christmas story and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!!