Thanksgiving

We finally have the computer hooked up and internet so I can post a few of the pictures that were on my camera. We spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends, the Butalas. We were SO excited to come back to Norfolk and spend the next several years with them, but alas, the Navy had different plans. A few weeks after we got back to VA, they received orders to San Diego. We are soaking up our last few months with our friends!

 

Amy made a delicious meal! I love our Navy family, but I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye so soon after saying Hello again!

 

On the road again.

Glenn and I are taking advantage of being in driving distance, our new 50 mpg car and his time off to take another road trip. We're headed to Ohio for Thanksgiving #2 with the Lawson family.

I'm over the long drives, but I can't wait to see my family.

This is helping too. I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving Feast

I had Thanksgiving dinner at our COW's house this year. She invited all the spouses and families over so we could celebrate together spouse/daddy-less.

 

 We had an amazing spread of food thanks to everyone bringing their favorites. We even got sweet potatoes and granny smith apples shipped in from America! Thank you Kristy's mom!

After dinner we had a rousing game of kickball. Some of the little ones need to work on their baseball rules, but they got the hang of it. A nice way to burn off a few calories from dinner.

After the little ones went home we watching several episodes of "Raising Hope" a new Fox series. If you haven't seen it yet, it is hilarious! All in all, a quiet Thanksgiving, but surrounded by friends.

Happy Lawson Thanksgiving

I wish I was here today. Every year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is my dad's family's big Thanksgiving. My grandma's tiny house can barely fit everyone and people usually end up coming in shifts because there just isn't room for all 60+ of us. I think this year there will be 2 or 3 new family members that I haven't met yet either!

This picture is from my Grandma's 85th birthday party this summer. Another event I missed, but I hope we can make it back for Thanksgiving next year. Hopefully we'll be in Virginia and can make the drive up to Ohio. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We miss you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year is going to be a little different. No Glenn. No family. Just my Navy family. Something that I am very thankful for this year. It's hard to be 9000 miles away from family, but without this gang, it would truly be unbearable.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope everyone is with their family today, whatever family that might be. Have a good one!

Happy Thanksgiving USS George Washington!

I'm thinking of the thousands of sailors today on board the USS George Washington who are training and defending so many people today. I'm thankful for everything you do even though you took my husband away today. :) Be safe out there!

Nikko - Day 2

On our second day in Nikko, Glenn and I checked out of our hotel and headed on a bus towards central Nikko. This area is home to several famous shrines, the most famous of which is Toshogu shrine which is one of the most elaborate and intricate shrines in Japan.

One of the things that the Toshogu shrine is most famous for, is a carved wooden panel on the horse stable. It depicts the famous hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys. Glenn was reluctant to take this picture because of the large crowd, but believe me, he wasn't the only one doing this same thing.

The shrine was beautiful and I wish we knew more of the history of this area, but regardless, I enjoyed walking around with my hubby and enjoying the beautiful leaves. We were a little late in the year for most of the bright red and orange leaves, but there were a few gorgeous trees still holding out for our trip north. I think if we had been there 2 or 3 weeks ago, all of the trees would have been beautiful. The fall leaves in Nikko made me miss Minnesota and Iowa a lot. They are so beautiful in the fall.

Another recommended destination on my Nikko sightseeing map was the Shinkyo bridge. Initially it was built for only the emperor and important such people to cross the river, now it sits next to road that crosses the river. So it has lost some of it's luster, but you can still pay $5 to walk across the bridge and feel like your someone special. We decided to just take pictures of the bridge instead.

 

After checking out all the shrines and temples, Glenn and I headed to our final destination of the Nikko trip, Lake Chuzenji. We arrived around check in time at our second hotel, bundled up in our gloves, hats and scarves and headed to the lake to enjoy the sunset, eachother and a chu-hi. A great end to a second day!

 

Nikko - Day 1

The morning after Thanksgiving, Glenn and I got up early to hit the trains for Nikko. It takes about 3 hours to get to Nikko, one on local trains to Tokyo and then 2 hours on a limited express train straight to Nikko. Side note: the limited express train had compartment cars just like the Hogwarts express. If only they weren't so expensive to reserve, I would have gotten one just so I could take pictures. They even had a lady with a food cart, but sadly, no Burt's Anyflavor Beans.

We arrived in Nikko around lunch time and found our hotel eventually. Interestingly enough, the walking directions lead you to a hotel (not always ours) the exact same way whether you leave the station to the north or the south. Our first night in Kinugawa, we stayed at a Japanese style hotel. I was excited about this because we got our own private onsen (aka hot tub) out on our patio. Fun!


We got to the hotel before we could check in though, so first we headed to the local attraction - Tobu World Square. While what I'm about to say may sound corny or hokey and if we were in the US, it would be, but in Japan it was awesome. We went to a miniature display of famous world architecture. So imagine, the great pyramids of Egypt recreated in a 1:25 scale complete with camels and all!

 Or the colesseum, the Tower bridge, Tokyo station and every other architectural marvel you can imagine. And to our (ok, maybe my) delight, during the Christmas season that it is, they have a special Illumination which means the displays light up after 4 pm (the usual closing time).

Here's a picture of Glenn and I at the actual Golden Pavillion in Kyoto-

And the tiny version-

I think the part of TWS that impressed me the most was that all the trees and plants were real. They were all tiny bonsai trees so the trees even change with the seasons.

Even the World Trade Center still exists at Tobu World Square.

Thanksgiving

Glenn and I spent the weekend up north- North of Tokyo that is, in an area called Nikko. We actually stayed in two different hotels so we could see different areas. We were a little late for the fall leaves, but still got to see plenty. A nice, relaxing trip with just the two of us. I think it's what we needed.

I'll post more on Nikko this week, but since I had scheduled the posts over the weekend before Thanksgiving, I haven't posted anything about our actual Turkey day.

We had our soon-to-be-departing-Japan (:( ) friends over for dinner- the Wrigleys and the Moores. Glenn made an awesome Turkey and I made jello salad (Glenn's favorite) and stuffing and green bean casserole. The stuffing is the only thing I wasn't too happy about. Gotta check with mom on that recipe. The recipe card says to "add broth til moist enough." How moist is that?! This is not helpful if you've never made it before! Oh well though, it still tasted great it just wasn't the same. Annie made potatoes and cranberry sauce and Laura made pie and butternut squash salad. What a great dinner!

You might not recognize the table in the picture, that's because I had to borrow it from the O'Club. My tiny 4 person table wasn't going to work for 6 of us. I used a lot of wedding gifts for Thanksgiving this year that we have yet to use very often or at all. Like our roasting pan and all of my fun china. It made me glad I moved everything over here to Japan with me!

It was a relaxing day and fun to spend with friends. I'm going to miss you guys so much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Glenn and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving this year. I'm a little nervous because I've never cooked all the food for Thanksgiving before. They are all family recipes for the most part, but mom, dad or a Grandma always did the cooking. I'm excited though. This year, we are having our Golden Dragon friends over- the Moores and the Wrigleys. They will all be leaving us shortly (boo...) to head to LeMoore, California.

This year, I am thankful for-

• Great friends. Wherever the Navy may take us.
• Having my hubby home for the holidays.
• The unconditional love and companionship from my Stella bear.
• The opportunity to see the world and learn new things every day.
• The fact that Glenn has a great job that gives us these opportunities - even if that means having to be apart for a few months.
• A loving and supportive family
• A healthy and swine-flu-free (now) household

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Glenn and I are off on a mini-vacation for a long weekend. I hope you had a good holiday!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Ohio was wonderful this year. With all the craziness yesterday of getting tickets and things packed and shipped, I never even wrote about it. It was great to see Adam, Laura and Connor (my brother and his fam) one last time before I move. It's hard to believe that Connor may be in school next time I see him. Hopefully it won't be that long though. Christmas in Hawaii 2010 we're thinking!

One of the highlights of the weekend was probably my cousin Taylor's basketball tournament. As a surprise to her, the family decided to attend one of her games. We left some of the family at Grandma's house, but a few of us decided to go. We even made t-shirts that spelled G-O T-A-Y-L-O-R. In the end, ~50 of went! I think we filled half the stands.

Before the game, we had to get ready though, Dad and Grandma got really into it.

We also realized how much fun shirts with letters can be!

My family likes to have a good time! I'm going to miss them in Japan!