merry christmas, everybody

beautiful

Today while I was at home with Esme getting ready for a Christmas party, Jan took the boys out for a walk down the river. As they were coming home, he told them that I was going to be putting on a black and white and dress for the party and when they saw me in it they should tell me I looked beautiful. On the ride up in the elevator they asked questions about the party and just before they opened the door, Jolon looked up at Jan and in all seriousness said, "but what should we say if she doesn't look beautiful?"

esme

Mochi Making Festival

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Here is the video of Kellan and his class reacting to the dragon/lion.

Mochi Tsuki Festival

The annual Making mochi (sticky rice cakes) Festival and school fund-raiser was last Saturday at Nakayoshi. Jolon's class made and sold cookies as one of the fund-raising activities. They also got to go around and spend about $3.00 that we'd sent to Ibuki earlier in the week. Jolon got to buy some recycled toys and choose a treat or two: chocolate banana, popcorn, cotton candy, etc. Kellan's class did a small dance performance. Unfortunately just before it started, he fell down or somehow got hurt and so he cried (LOUDLY) throughout the whole thing. He got over it pretty quickly though and enjoyed walking around with his class to each stall. The highlight of the day was the taiko drum and lion-dragon performance. Legend has it that if the dragon bites your head, it will bring you good luck. The point is for the kids to be terrified, but be able to overcome the fear and stick their heads into the mouth of the scary dragon. With some help from the teachers, most kids did it. Despite them wailing, Kellan's teachers mostly picked their kids up individually and stuck the heads into the mouth. I held Esme up and Nobu gave Jolon a boost. Later both boys admitted they were scared but were very proud of themselves for having done it. I got some nice pictures, but my favorite of the day is the one of Nobu kissing Esme.

Procrastination

There are soooo many more things I need to be doing. But the boys had fun decorating them, and it was a lovely way to spend a cold, rainy day. Kellan still has a cold and as the cookies are a gift for the teachers, we tried hard to get them not to lick the icing off their hands. Although it did feel a bit cruel and anti-Christmas spirit to keep saying (yelling), "DON'T LICK THE ICING." Jolon was finally able to overcome the urge to lick his hands and got sorta creative with the icing. Kellan, however, couldn't help himself and after the 5th time having to get down and wash his hands, he was so frustrated he tripped himself running back to the table, and banged his cheek on a table leg....thus the bandage in the second picture.

5 months old

Love the 5 month old poses. These were taken last week, before the nasty cold and chicken pox. I stuffed her into my favorite summer suit one last time. I bought that suit at a flea market years ago, and kept it back for somebody. Very happy that Esme got such good use out of it this summer.