Our first visitors

Oh, melancholy. This time, it creeps around at the departure of our first visitors, Gran and Uncle Allen. It was a chaotic, yet great 11 days.

We were so pleased to learn, after realizing we wouldn't be home for Christmas, that some family would be coming to us. It was so wonderful to have them here to share Christmas in Japan with. We started out the visit with a trip to Kyoto that involved a lot of trains and train stations, alot of walking, alot of map reading, heavy bags, crying/screaming kids, and rain, but also, a night in Tokyo, our first shinkansen ride (with a killer view of Fuji-always exciting for me), good food, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle, Gran's discovery of yakatori, new sights, and time together.

The next several days were spent preparing for and celebrating Christmas. I made a Christmas Eve dinner, which I think turned out well. It was a challenging task, having to orchestrated everything around a teeny, tiny oven. For this reason and others, we got one of Trips' gifts early. He left his gas grill at Claremont, so we got another and grilled some chicken for our Holiday meal, which, as we found out, is the traditional Christmas meal meat of choice in Japan. As a matter of fact, I read an article recently claiming that the reason for this choice of chicken at Christmas stems from a major marketing campaign here in Japan by none other than our hometown chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Even though I was missing my family alot, I did a bunch of skyping and online chatting , and Christmas day was really, really nice. There were so many gifts for the girls to open that we actually stashed away a couple of Lacey's unopened presents for her birthday in Feb.! She was much more into the ad pamphlets and instruction booklets that came with the toys and, in sure Lacey fashion, the small and dangerous twisties and pieces that held her toys captive in their boxes. Later that day, we drove around and showed off a couple of the pretty spots around Hayama and had Christmas day dinner at a great Italian restaurant nearby on Zushi beach.

After Christmas, Allen took a couple of days to have his own solitary adventure in Tokyo and we continued to show Gran around Hayama and Yokosuka. We had some more good food and Trips and I actually got to go to a movie together, alone. Being so severely out of practice, we found ourselves at a loss for what else to do, out on the town, without the kids. We made our excuses, no dinner (Trips wasn't hungry), no walking around (I forgot my coat), no bars (one of us had to drive home), and decided to go rent a couple of movies and head back. We were home before Stella was even asleep, and not very well received. I think Gran and Stel were mutually disappointed that we interrupted their time alone. Maybe in another 5 months we'll get another shot at it.

Finally, our last full day together was spent in Kamakura, which is a short drive from our house. We saw two beautiful temples and had some great food, the common theme of the visit. We had the most authentic Japanese meal yet, for any of us. Shoes were removed and stashed in lockers and we sat on cushions on the tatami mat floor around a low table in a small upstairs room adorned with old, smoke stained Japanese decorations. We shared the one English menu and picked noodles, and rice, and Japanese potato pancakes that came to us uncooked. We threw our plates of goodies on the skillet in the middle of the table and helped each other cook lunch. Gran learned the word 'foku' Japanese for fork. We took them to the Daibutsu and visited the Hase Kannon, a beautiful, sprawling temple with lots to look at and cool views, which included another view of our neighborhood.

We are so thankful to Gran and Allen for making the trip here. We are sad about their departure 'cause we are going to miss them and miss having family around. Also, because we know they are heading back to Louisville, a place we are missing, and a part of us wants to go to. Stella actually did ask her dad if she could go back with them. I think we are going to have a devastated little girl on our hands as she was stuck to Gran like glue these last 11 days.

Trips and Stel just took them to the airport and the house seems really empty.

At least 4 new albums on our photo blog.