Christmas in Japan

As you all know, this was our first Christmas in Japan, and our first Christmas away from our families EVER. I feel like Matt and I made the most of the situation, but I'm not going to deny that it has been hard for both of us. We did get to go on our first Christmas Eve Jet-Ski ride ever! We also did a few things that were a little more "Christmas-y" - we ate Christmas dinner, went to a new church in Koza (a town a little north of us), and got together with one of our friends, Scott, who is a family friend from back home in Chicago. We also watched a few Christmas movies. My favorite being National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. What's Christmas without that movie??!? I've seen it dozens of times, but I still can't help but laugh out loud when I see Clark Grizwald running around the house with that squirrel on his back!!

Anyway, our families did an amazing job at making us feel special by shipping bunches of wonderful gifts to us. We had such a fun time opening them all - it was pretty much the highlight of the holiday for us! We are so very appreciative - and we know those gifts were not cheap to ship out here! I've realized that even though we weren't in Chicago where we wanted to be, you can still celebrate Christmas wherever you are in the world, AND there are so many people that are less fortunate than us that didn't get any gifts at all. We are truely blessed.

I hope all of our family and friends had an amazing Christmas! We miss you all!

-C