Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

How did you spend your Thanksgiving? We celebrated twice...once on actual Thanksgiving day and then the following Saturday with our community group from church. You would think one meal would be enough but even after being here for four thanksgivings, I have to eat turkey on actual Thanksgiving day. We had two friends from church over to help us celebrate on Thursday. They are both American and considerably younger than us, young single professionals living life large in Tokyo. And we had a fabulous evening with them of fellowship. One has started a coffee business and convinced the husband to order his fabulous coffee once a month as it is much better than our typical starbucks. He brought some for us to sample and he was right...it was delicious and so smoothe. Our second thanksgiving dinner was on Saturday with our community group. It was a lot of work to organize and I am often asking myself in the process "why did I agree to this," but after it was over I was glad we did it. We had an amazing time of fellowship and the food was tasty as well. We are really thankful for this group of people in our lives to share with and encourage one another. They have become some of our dearest friends here in Tokyo. Below is a picture of some of the ladies on a recent girls night out in Azabu Juban, enjoying the Christmas lights in Roppongi Hills. The meal always taste the same here in Japan as it does in America, but this year I was a bit more homesick than usual. A friend from high school passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving suddenly. We went to both high school and youth group together and I was missing being able to attend the funeral and reunite with our friends from long ago. We had such a special youth group so it was a bit hard to not be there. But this is life abroad - you cannot do everything or be back for everything. Another difference this year that we noticed is that we did not tape the Macy's Day parade or a NFL football game to watch. In years past we have always done this and I have shown the kids the parade and the husband and I have enjoyed a pro football game once we put the kids in bed. This year we did not do either of these. I remembered the parade and opted not to tape it simply because last year it seemed like I fast forwarded through 90 percent. My kids have no interest in current musical talents or broadway shows - they just want to see floats. And lately it seems like the parade is more music, entertainment and commentators than floats...much different than when I was growing up. But we both completely forgot about the football game which is quite a shock. I think it is a sign we have been in Tokyo for awhile when we forget about football games on Thanksgiving day. And I do not think it is necessarily a bad thing. I have yet to upload pictures from our community group dinner and I forgot to take pictures of our first meal, but I can leave you with pics of some pretty cute kids who I am so thankful for, one of whom has her first loose tooth and the other who got stuck in a bucket in the bath. CUTE!



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