Christmas Eve Bash

Even though we decided to stay in Japan for Christmas, we still wanted to find a fun way to celebrate and be surrounded by people we love. So, we invited some of our close friends over for dinner on Christmas Eve, then opened our house up around 8:00 to anyone who would like to join us for dessert and drinks. We had a great turn out - about 30 people stopped by over the course of the evening, and there were plenty of sugary treats and bubbly for everybody!

For dinner, I got a little ambitious and decided to make a Christmas ham. I'm not very experienced when it comes to cooking meat. I suppose that's because I would usually just help prepare side dishes or desserts whenever I helped my mom in the kitchen. I didn't think it was a good idea to attempt a turkey. It could go horribly wrong and then we wouldn't have enough to eat. So, I went with a pre-cooked, spiral cut ham instead. All I had to do was warm it up and glaze it. What could possibly go wrong? Ha. The simple directions on the package did not tell me how far in advance I should begin to thaw the ham so - although I appeared to do everything right - our 8 lb. ham came out of the oven still half frozen! Thank goodness it was pre-cooked and sliced so we were able to cut off several pieces at the last minute, stick them in a glass baking dish, and warm them up in time to serve. But it was a little chaotic in the kitchen there for a minute.

Other than the near-crisis with the ham, the rest of the meal was delicious. I made some real garlic mashed potatoes with gravy, roasted asparagus, and baked apples. Our guests brought a collection of soups and chili's, as well as some bread and lots of tasty desserts. I also made some ice cubes with raspberries frozen inside of them to mix with sparkling cider or champagne. Very fancy! Needless to say, it was a very satisfying and festive meal!

9 friends crammed into a tiny kitchen.

After dinner was finished, our friends helped us clear away the dishes, pack up the left-overs, and reset the room for the cocktail party. I had already set out a large assortment of drinks, and baked 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies, plus a tray of tiger butter. I also set dishes full of mixed nuts, pretzels, and boxes of holiday candy all around the house. That, combined with everything our guests brought to share meant our house was bursting with good things: sugar, friends and laughter! We have a small 2 bedroom townhouse and knew that our space was not sufficient for entertaining everyone that we invited. There was no way we'd be able to seat that many. However, we've learned through experience that no one wants to sit down in the living room during parties. No matter how many chairs you set out, all of your guests will invariably end up crammed like sardines into the kitchen. So we decided not to worry about it. Sure enough, we had just enough room. It was cozy but that's perfect for Christmas time. =^)

It's always kind of a bummer being away from family during the holidays. But honestly, our Misawa community is so tight-knit that these people feel like family. I was particularly excited to have our newest Samurai couple - Matt and Laurie Clark (pictured below on the right) - join us. They had a rough first couple of weeks here in Japan but are hopefully starting to settle in and make some friends!

The night was a huge success! Our neighbors hung around until 2 am so we were exhausted but happy at the end of the night. We woke up to a filthy kitchen but it was 100% worth it. Provide a place for people to gather and celebrate Christmas was our gift to our friends. Hoping you had an equally joyful Christmas wherever you are in the world right now! Blessings from Japan!

Jenn's Semi-Surprise Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated the 40th birthday of our squadron commander's wife Jenn. Originally it was going to be a big surprise party attended by couples from both squadrons and the chapel. FANG (our commander) put a lot of effort into planning the whole thing, recruiting friends to make the food, picking out the yellow and blue color scheme, commissioning a beautiful cake, and stocking the party house with Jenn's favorite wine. But at the last minute the guys all got called in to work, and so he had to let her in on the secret to prevent her from canceling the baby sitter. It was so disappointing because we knew how much he was looking forward to this. But such is life in the Air Force...

Even though the party was not a surprise, it was still a big success! Eighteen friends packed into a warm house full of food and bubbly... Who could complain? We made sure to sing happy birthday and laughed when Jenn discovered that her cake was topped with trick candles that refused to be blown out. It was well worth the effort though. The cake was delicious!

This night is a perfect example of why I love being stationed at Misawa. We may be half a world away from home, in a small Japanese town, where we often have to fend for ourselves while our husbands work round the clock. But this community of brilliant, beautiful, and caring women has become much more than a network of friends. They are my sisters, mentors, and partners in crime, and make our military life a marvelous one.

Snow!

Yes, it has finally started snowing here in Misawa! I know it will get much worse as the winter progresses and soon I'll be miserable. But right now it's the perfect kind of snow for Christmas: giant, fluffy flakes that cover the ground with a thin layer of pristine powder. If only the base wasn't so strict about shoveling the sidewalks by 8 am sharp, I'd be 100% happy.

Samurai Christmas Party

Thursday night was the annual Samurai Christmas Party at the Grand Komaki Resort in town. Since James is still considered one of the junior members of the squadron, he was assigned the task of organizing it and served as our MC for the evening. I was a part of a team of six other women who made the reservations, set up the catering, sent out the invitations, put together door prizes and decorated the room. Most of them had one or two specific tasks. For example, Lisa came up with the evening's black and gold color scheme and put together our stunning centerpieces. But I just kind of helped wherever people needed it. I also got to be the official photographer and document all of the fun we had!

Me and the good-lookin' MC. =^)

Our Money Tree (a fun raffle game). Only in
Japan can you find a black Christmas Tree!

Bonzai, our Samurai mascot, even got
into the Christmas spirit!

The many incredible door prizes we gave away.
We rigged it so that our enlisted guests won the big-ticket items.

One of the things I did was put together a box of
quality prizes for each person at the two tables
that would later win the party games.

Lisa's incredible centerpieces. Those are fresh-cut evergreen
branches and flowers combined with gold accents.

The flower arrangement below was my favorite.
See the gold leaves wrapped around inside the vase?

It was my job to take formal portraits of each couple that wanted a photo. We found a cool Japanese-style nook in the back of the room and went nuts. One of my favorite things about events like this is seeing get all dressed up. The couple in the top left hand corner of the collage below is our squadron commander Aaron Steffens and his lovely wife Jenn. I still can't get over his yellow tux jacket. SO cool!

I also got to take the official group photos.

Our meal was provided by the hotel staff. It mostly consisted of traditional Japanese dishes and lots of sushi, which I wasn't a huge fan of but it sure looked pretty! They did have a fabulous dessert platter of pineapple slices and little rectangular cakes, though.

One of James' tasks was coming up with some fun games or activities. The first one we played was a Christmas carol relay race. One member from each table had to run up to James, who gave them the name of a popular Christmas song. They then had to play a quick game of charades to get their table to guess the name of the carol and lead them in singing it until one of the judges gave them permission to move on to the next song. The first table to complete four rounds won. It went much more quickly than we thought it would, but people seemed to think it was fun.

The second game was sort of a mix between musical chairs and a scavenger hunt. One representative from each table brought their chair into the center of the room. Then James called out the name of a common item that people usually carry with them (like an ID, camera, or lipstick). Then they had to run back to their table, collect it, and then run back to the center of the room. The last one back would not have a chair and would therefore be out. We were impressed with how much people got into it! You can always rely on a room full of fighter pilots to be competitive. ;^)

The final event of the evening (before the last of the door prizes were given away) was a song. James wrote some special lyrics for a Christmas classic, so he and the other wingmen in the squadron could serenade us with The 14 Days of Christmas. It began: "On the first day of Christmas the Air Force gave to me..." and then they listed off lots of silly or irritating things they deal with at work. He also managed to convince the base wing commander, Col. Mike Rothstein, to join them. It was hilarious and everyone seemed to appreciate their creativity.

Over all the night was a big success. James and I joked that we felt like it was a wedding - lots of planning and stressing over details, then rushing around that night to accomplish our goals, trying to say hi to everyone, and neglecting our food. hahaha. Oh well. It was worth it! Any excuse to dress up and celebrate with friends is fine by us!

Christmas Coffee & Tea

Tis the season for holiday parties! On Tuesday night we had our squadron holiday coffee. Since the guys in the other squadron are deployed we invited all of the ladies in the 13th to come celebrate with us. Our commander and DO's wives hosted the event and decorated the house beautifully! Everywhere we turned there were shimmery lights, festive decorations and delicious food!

Jenn and Becky - our lovely hostesses!

As a party favor/Christmas gift, they had a crystal ornament made that has our Lady Samurai logo etched on the front. I'm generally not a big fan of party favors and rarely end up keeping them, but these are so beautiful and I will truly treasure mine!

Part of the evening's business was saying farewell to two wives who will be moving away before our next coffee in January. =^( One of them is Sarah Cross (pictured below on the left). She was the one who first invited me and James to the Bible Study we attend on Sunday nights and will be greatly missed!

It was a great night with so many friends in one small space! I took pictures of many of them and finally remembered to jump in one myself.

After dinner and the farewells were over, we did a combat gift exchange (similar to White Elephant except we all got nice presents instead of silly gag gifts.) In fact, many of them were so nice that people were playing pretty ruthlessly in order to walk away with the one they wanted. I brought some lotions and other good-smelling items made with pure New Zealand honey, and was proud that people kept stealing that one from each other. The gifts I unwrapped also got stolen several times, but I finally went home with a beautiful calendar with pictures from all around Japan and a $15 iTunes gift card. Not bad!

Below is the whole group of lovely ladies! I love them all!

This morning was our MOSC Christmas Tea at the officer's club. We dressed in our best 50's dresses, pearls and gloves and shared tea sandwiches and scones with our Japanese neighbors. We also did an activity where we were given some loose, festive materials and had to construct a Christmas ornament using all of it. My friend Mary was sitting next to me and just returned from spending Thanksgiving at Tokyo Disneyland, so we made a Mickey Mouse-inspired ornament.

After that we did a gift exchange with the Japanese ladies at our table. I ended up with one of the gifts they brought and was excited to see that she had packaged up several decorations commemorating the Japanese new year. I guess this next year is the year of the rabbit so there were several rabbit figurines, as well as a beautiful, miniature gold screen with kanji symbols on it. The red and gold will match my Christmas decor very nicely.

I mostly spent the day taking pictures with another lady's camera. She's the official MOSC "historian" and it's her job to take pictures of events like this. But she had some other duties to perform during the party so she asked me to take pictures for her. I had fun doing that, but realized at the last minute that I wasn't going to get to keep any of the pictures I was taking! So I made sure to get a couple with my little point-and-shoot before the party was over. It's always fun getting dressed up and celebrating with friends!

What now?

November 20, 2010

I feel a bit adrift now that my journey to New Zealand is finally complete. What do you do after the #1 thing on your bucket list is checked off? For years, whenever I got into a conversation with friends about things we want to do with our lives and they asked the typical question: "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" I always had my answer. New Zealand - to see the land where my favorite epic movies were made. But now this massive goal is in the been-there-done-that bin, and I find myself asking: what now?

In a very practical and immediate sense I suppose I can answer that question. In terms of international travel, my next stop will most likely be in Guam. Then hopefully Hawaii and/or Italy to visit friends who feel a lot more like family and will make the long flights well worth my time. I'm excited to see these beautiful places, but I don't think that either of them capture my heart or imagination quite the way that New Zealand did. So I'm still searching for a new dream destination.

It's laughable that I'm even having this problem. I've always been one to shy away from the uncomfortable or the unknown. So until about a year ago when it hit me that I would truly be moving to Japan, I never actually dreamed that I'd get up the guts to leave the country. But now I've caught the travel bug and am itching for the next adventure.

Anyone have any suggestions? Any dreams or stories to tell that might spark my imagination again and keep me looking forward rather than wishing I could go back to New Zealand and holiday there forever?

Changing Tastes

November 19, 2010

I am so sick of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches its not even funny. I'm currently staring one down as my only option for dinner on the train ride back to Misawa and although I'm starving and it's either this or dried squid from the Japanese snack cart, I just can't do it.

Seven months ago when I was recovering from having my gall bladder removed and there was very little I could eat, I developed a new taste for PB&J paired with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup. I don't know why but crave it and have it for lunch all the time. Cheap, easy and low in fat - it was perfect during the summer months when James was deployed. Even after he came home I'd have it pretty frequently - something he found highly amusing. He just couldn't understand why I'd be content to eat the same food a five year old would have for lunch. I suppose I found it comforting.

While we were in New Zealand, we decided to save some money on food by eating cereal for breakfast and making sandwiches for lunch. That way we were only eating out once a day. Since we spent so much time on the road, peanut butter sandwiches were the most logical choice because they don't spoil. At first it was great. But after two weeks of eating nothing but PB&J, I've lost my taste for them and it will be quite a while before that will sound good again.

I think it's funny how our tastes change over the years. People often talk about how the first time they take a sip of coffee or alcohol they think it's disgusting, but somehow they "acquire the taste" for it and now can't imagine life without Starbucks or a bottle of wine with dinner. Personally, I don't think I'll ever get over the horrible taste of either of those things, but my tastes are maturing a bit.

One of the things that has been a minor struggle for James and I since we got married is what to do about dinner. My mom is an excellent cook who learned from a couple of fabulous southern ladies, so we almost always ate dinner at home. Consequently, I grew up with a taste for her simple, flavorful home-cooking. If we went out it was usually for a special occasion, and often we'd end up at a chain restaurant with similar fare like The Black Eyed Pea. Or, if we were feeling adventurous, we might grab some Chinese take-out.

My parents probably would have branched out a lot more but my brother and I had a big fear of the unknown when it came to food. Somehow I never wanted to try anything different and couldn't see how anything could taste better than spaghetti or pizza. When we were traveling my parents would have to drag me and my brother into unfamiliar restaurants. But then as soon as we took the first bite our eyes would be opened to new and awesome possibilities. (I distinctly remember refusing point-blank to go into this strange place called Subway on one road trip until we literally had no other options. Now it's my go-to travel food. Can you imagine?)

James, on the other hand, grew up in Santa Barbara where they have lots of excellent, independent restaurants, and he had busy, hard-working parents who preferred to go out to eat. So his tastes were much more varied and sophisticated when we got married. I also feel like his expectations for what qualifies as a meal are still a problem when he's home for lunch. I'll often grab something quick like a sandwich or a bowl of ramen noodles. But for him that's not a complete or satisfying option. While learning to make us both happy has been an adjustment, it's great because he's always gently pushing me out of my comfort zone and helping me grow.

This summer as I've been learning a new and more healthy way to feed myself, I've developed a much greater passion for cooking. I have consistently been trying new recipes that I would never have attempted before - whether because they were too complicated or included ingredients I'd never worked with before. (Like garlic! Can you believe I've never cooked with fresh garlic until last spring?) It also doesn't hurt to have friends who are excellent cooks and show me new and exciting things to do with fresh ingredients.

This trip to New Zealand further pushed the envelope for me. We ate almost exclusively what I would once have written off as "fancy food" for dinner and it was awesome. In New Zealand they eat a lot of game and so I tried lamb and venison for the first time. They also had some incredible flavor combinations that I found both delicious and inspiring. So now I'm looking forward to going home and starting to expand our dinner repertoir. Obviously I'll still make the old favorites, especially when pressed for time. But new adventures await in the kitchen!

For now, anything sounds better than peanut butter and jelly... ugh.

P.s. - that sandwich I had with me on the train is still sitting on my top shelf of my fridge two weeks later. I can't bring myself to throw it away because that's so wasteful but I also can't bear to eat it!

Back to Japan

November 19, 2010

The day we've been dreading - we must rise early and catch a morning flight back to Japan. The sun rose over the city as we drove to the airport and returned our rental car. That car was a great investment since it gave us the freedom to do what we wanted to instead of being stuck in tour busses with strangers. We definitely took full advantage of its 4WD capabilities - driving through steep mountain passes and off-roading to the bottom of hiking trails. It was filthy inside and out because of the sand we tracked in from the beach. But we paid for insurance so they didn't charge us for it. Anyway, I think it adds character and shows that we had a lot of fun!

The check-in process took forever and we had to jump through some hurdles since we're military members and don't have a traditional Japanese visa. But it all worked out and we made it through customs and security with plenty of time to spare. We all bought some breakfast and/or coffee to help us wake up and spent some time looking around in the cool duty-free stores inside the terminal, collecting a few last-minute souvenirs.

We boarded the plane around 8:45 am and took off at 9:25. (That's 5:25 am Japan time, and we're not getting back until 10 pm tonight. Brutal!) We were able to get seats right next to Derick and Lisa, which is nice even if we don't end up talking much. The boys watched movies on the in-flight TV screens, Lisa slept a lot, and I've been working on updating my journal since I didn't have time yesterday. After I caught up, I also watched a couple of movies. Over all it was a pretty relaxing trip.

We landed early enough that - if we were lucky - we might just be able to catch an earlier train to Misawa. So as soon as we got off the plane we started scrambling through the crowds of Japanese people to get to customs before the line got too long. We were lucky indeed and made it on to the Narita Express just in time. We had a 50 minute train ride to rest before running through Tokyo Station to catch the next Shinkansen north. Turns out we were in time, but all they had left were standing-room only tickets so we ended up having to stand up in the small space between cars for about an hour until the train started to clear out. By that time I was so tired that I plopped down in the first empty seat we saw and fell asleep. The exchange in Hachinohe was also pretty close but thanks to some helpful guidance we made it back without a problem!

Lisa's co-worker Kim who was also dog-sitting for them picked us up at the train station around 9:30 and drove us home. We were definitely sorry to leave New Zealand, but the trip home was so long that it felt great walking through the front door and feeling right at home. Needless to say, we fell asleep pretty quickly after we got home and spent the weekend resting and recovering.

The jet lag was actually pretty difficult to get over. 4 hours is a big deal, especially when it gets dark so early here in Japan. Trying to make ourselves stay up late was really hard when the sun went down at 4:30 pm, and that felt like 8:30 pm. James was fine to go back to work on Monday since he was able to take advantage of the natural need to rise early. But I honestly think it took about a week and a half before I felt like I was back to normal. I'm sure staying up till 4 am to see the Harry Potter movie didn't help things either.

But now we're home and have gotten all kinds of compliments on our pictures and - hopefully - have inspired some more people to travel to New Zealand. I definitely plan on going back as soon as possible! Till then, we'll treasure the memories. =^)

New Zealand - Day 16

November 18, 2010

We were determined to make our final day in New Zealand extra awesome, and I think we succeeded. Our booking at the Tree Adventures high ropes course was at 11:00 am so we didn't get much sleep, but that's ok. Making memories was way more important at this point. We figured we could always sleep on the plane.

The ropes course was about 45 minutes northwest of the city, in the thick forest on that side of the "Northland." Apparently they rarely open on weekdays but there was a big group of young school kids there on a field trip so they agreed to work us in. Also, since the kids had free reign of the course and were running all over the place, they let us choose any 4 courses we wanted instead of restricting us to a pre-determined plan like they normally would have.

I was pretty upset when we first arrived and they were explaining how everything works because the others were happily chatting about how they couldn't wait to head right to the highest courses. But I wasn't very confident about my ability to keep up and didn't want to be left behind on the lower, easier courses. So, once again, I was having that internal battle between the sensible side of my brain that says it's better to be safe than sorry, and that part of myself that hates to be left out.

Thankfully I have a wonderfully patient husband who was willing to stay behind and do one of the easy courses with me. After we saw how I did, we could proceed from there. Surprisingly, I was actually pretty good at it. Once I got over the physical strain of climbing the ladder up to the first platform, the rest was fairly easy and a lot of fun. They gave me an extra padded harness for my back so it didn't hurt me at all, and with the way their pulley system works I knew I was safe and walked nimbly across the wires. We made sure the courses I went on wouldn't require me to bend or do anything that would hurt too much. And then I was free to enjoy myself. I even felt confident enough to go on 3 of the 4 high courses so I could hang out with my friends. I was also glad that Lisa brought her little camera up in the tress with us so we got some great shots of us all having a blast. My favorite part was taking the big zip lines back down to the ground after each course was done. It was so much fun that the 3 hours we paid for flew by.

You can see how high we were!

These 2 carabiners are all that kept us suspended up there!

You can see James and I over there through the trees.

All sorts of fun challenges!

After we were finished, we were starving so we stopped at a cute cafe for lunch. Then we drove to another one of the points of interest near Auckland - the Muriwai Gannet Colony. I had seen a picture of it in one of my photography magazines and figured it would provide some great photo ops for our final day. It was definitely interesting: tons of white sea birds nesting on these huge, jagged outcroppings of rock along this cliff on the west coast. There were dozens of them swooping in and out. It was fun to see them interacting with their mates and chicks.

By this time we were all exhausted due to lack of sleep so we decided to head back to the room for a nap before venturing back out into the city for dinner. On our way we stopped at one of the local produce stands and bought some fresh, locally grown strawberries as a snack. SO good. Our short nap turned out to be about 3 hours long. We woke up at 6:15 and were slightly upset for wasting so much time sleeping. But at the same time, we knew we'd have to wake up early the next day so we probably needed to rest.

Not wanting to let the evening pass without something fun to do, we drove to the Skydome Observatory and watched an hour long presentation about the constellations that can be seen in the sky in the Southern hemisphere. The guys know a lot about navigation due to their Air Force training, and have been confused and intrigued by the fact that they don't recognize the sky. I think they were slightly disappointed with what we saw since the narrator mostly pointed out constellations we're already familiar with but were just upside down instead of showing us new ones. But it was still very interesting and relaxing since the chairs laid back pretty far to give us a good view of the planetarium's dome. It was dark and the guide's voice was so soothing with his deep accent that I was really relaxed and had to fight to stay awake.

After the main presentation was over they took us into a separate room and told us a little about what's going on in the search for life on other planets. Again, it was very interesting but by this time it was 9:15 pm and we hadn't eaten dinner. Derick was starving and anxious to find a restaurant that was still open. We figured our best bet would be somewhere downtown and started driving in that way.

When we emerged from the parking garage beneath Sky Tower we were greeted with an odd scene. The road in front of us was completely blocked off to traffic and there were fire trucks, policemen and construction workers everywhere. Bright, portable lights were all aimed at an old building across the street. We asked around and found out that they were planning to demolish it that night. None of us had ever seen a building blow up before so we decided to stick around and watch. But the time dragged on and still not much was happening so we gave up and grabbed some food at a 24 hour restaurant across the street. It was called Char Grilled and served burgers, fire roasted pizzas, and kebabs. The whole restaurant had a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern flare and the food was so good! It was a fitting final meal, but definitely a bitter sweet one as we have all fallen in love with this country and will have a hard time returning to the cold temperatures of Japan tomorrow.