First Two Days of Christmas

Day 1

Hot Chocolate & Marshmallows

Day 2

Write a letter to Santa & Make ornaments

We made these out of an old t-shirt & fabric markers.  I'm going to cut them out, and make them pretty.
I'll show you when they are done.

Asking Santa for things he wants is pretty interesting as he has no commercials to guide his wants nor does he have the Sears Catalog and newspaper inserts we had as kids.  He knows he got lego, because we caught him shaking a box, and really, nothing else sounds like lego.

A Quick Visit Back in Time

Happy Thanksgiving!

It may seem like we missed Thanksgiving, but we squeezed it in the day after the actual holiday (which is a Japanese holiday we had off).  We didn't have the energy to put together a nice homey Thanksgiving at our house, but luckily, some great teachers at our school hosted a pot luck Thanksgiving - complete with a play, great food, company and a Christmas video for the kids.

Here are some photos:

Little Pilgrims

Dessert!

Turkey and Trimmings

Yum!

On the Eve of the Christmas Countdown

Lola playing "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, Penguin Style"

We've just finished filling the Christmas Countdown that will start tomorrow morning.  We have a shortened countdown since we'll be traveling on December 17th, so we have 14 days until our Lemley Christmas.

Maximo topping the tree

We've already put up the tree,  started wearing our Christmas pajamas and have already made batches of Christmas cookies, but the countdown is the most fun.  We've tried to balance food, craft and educational activities, also considering which activities we decided to do on week nights, as we're often exhausted after a long day of work/school.

Playing with the Little People Christmas Village, together.

Here is our countdown:


I probably shouldn't publish this with all the uncited photos, but this is what I made for the calendar pockets:
 

We hope to share pictures each day.  Let's have HOPE this holiday season!

(Here is the 2010 post.  We did it last year as well, but I must not have published our countdown activities.)

A beautiful Sunday

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Koyochonaka 1-Chōme,Kobe,Japan

A Quick Trip To Paris

In Maximo's dreams:

/

And then he said, "And then tomorrow, I want to go to the rainforest."

 Travel Much?

China

I just wrote a epically long post about our wonderful trip to China.  For the first time ever, I seem to somehow deleted the whole post and cannot recover it.  I don't know when I'll have the time write about our experience again.  Hopefully, after a good night sleep, I'll write it all out again.

ERGGGGGGGGG.

Here's a link to our photo album:

A Beautiful Fall Day in Arashiyama

Maple Leaves on Bamboo

Today, we decided to go to Arashiyama, which is about an hour and a half northeast of us, just outside of Kyoto.  The kids and I went in late May last year, but we knew we wanted to head back in fall with John to see the leaves.  It's a great place to visit, it has a good amount of things for the kids to do, that also interest us.

We went to the Bamboo Garden, the Monkey Park and John and Maximo took a canoe up the river.  It was a nice fall day, but we wish it was a bit cooler.  Arashiyama was packed with people (but not too bad by Japanese standards).  There was a huge parade snaking through town too which jammed the roads a bit.  In a few weeks, when all the Japanese maple trees turn red, it'll be even busier!

Monkey Rules

The slide leaving the Monkey Park

"Nooooo!"

 

 

A maiko (geisha apprentice) in the parade

Beijing - Take One

Last weekend, I went to Beijing for the Learning 2.012 Conference.  It was amazing.  Western Academy of Beijing, a large international school was the host - and it had amazing facilities.  It felt like one big Starbucks, and I mean that in a good way.  There were so many nooks and crannies for teachers and students to meet, collaborate and work.  If you are ever looking for a Technology conference for teachers, this is the best one out there, hands down.

Although Liz, my colleague, and I stayed busy at the conference on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we managed to get out and see friends Saturday night and jammed in a morning of sightseeing (Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City) and shopping (at Ya Show Market - pretty much a "gray" market full of knock-offs) before we left.

I missed the kids and John heaps, but they survived without me.  I'm not even quite sure if Maximo missed me.

China was a lot better than I expected, although I didn't know what exactly to expect.  I was worried about the pollution and the lack of staying connected to my Google Accounts and dear old Facebook, but the weather was gorgeous and I survived without being 100% connected all the time - although I still was Tweeting and chatting on my iPhone with John easily the whole time I was there.

I'm excited that we return in two weeks as a family to visit friends in Shanghai and then go back to Beijing and go to the Great Wall!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Sports Day 2012

Maximo in the Noodle Race with Big Buddy Ben

Sports Day is one of my favorite days of the whole year!  Our school does a "take" on Sports Day.  It's has a lot less of the pomp and circumstance of a Sports Day at a Japanese School, but I love it!  My favorite time is the morning sessions when older kids and little kids get partnered up as buddies and they work together at different stations.  Maximo got an 8th grade boy, Ben, who did a great job!

Here's some video and pictures from the day:

Sunday Shots

We took the local bus to Shin Kobe Train Station, then we worked our way south and playground hopped along the way.  We walked back to Sannomiya Station and hopped on the bus back to Rokko Island, all before lunch time.

It was a great way to spend a sunny, fall morning.

Here are some (iPhone - excuse quality) photos of our morning: