Christmas Catch Up Post

I have lots of catch up to do.  I still need to do an update on our Hawaii trip from my perspective but first I should do a Christmas update.

Alana did a great job in blogging about Christmas on her blog .   I won't duplicate what she did but I may borrow some of her pictures.
    

Christmas Eve we went to the Nativity Pageant that the Church puts on at Heritage Park.

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Its kind of been a Christmas Eve tradition for us an many other families.   It was cold that night - around -20C so we bundled up.  (If you are wondering where mom was she stayed warm at home with Grandma Anderson)

It was worth bundling up and enduring the cold.  As grandpa T might say in this situation "You don't have to be crazy but it helps".   

     

On Christmas day we slept in till after 9am - I haven't done that for years.   When the kids were little they would wake up at 5 or earlier.  

  

We opened the presents

   

Grandma Anderson was with us.

   

Judy opening her present from Candi.  Its paintings of all the girls.  

     

Later in the day after Santa had visited Hawaii we used technology and did the virtual Christmas.   We had 2 computer on our end and 2 computers at Angie and Mikes.  So we had 2 camera angles as we watch Brylie and Tyken open their presents.  Reality TV at its best.   It was not the same as being there but it was pretty neat (and nerdy)

We had one camera angle on our big TV and the other one on the laptop on the blue table.  I don't think we have a picture of both screens.  Here they are watching Brylie.

    

Here's what we saw on the big TV.  

    

Watching real reality TV.    (Jenelle is looking concerned.)

   

In the evening we went to Kevin and Sherry's for Christmas dinner.   No pictures of the feast but here are some of the festivities after.

More posts to come.

   

    

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year!  

For New Years Eve we were at Grandma and Grandpa Takahashi's.    Kristi and Greg and Elliot came down earlier in the day.   So we had our own little party.

In Japan they like to make mochi at New Years.  I remember when I was a missionary in Japan and the branch got together and had a mochi making party and pounded it with a big wooden mallet in a big bowl made out of a tree trunk.

Pictures from the internet to give you an idea of the traditional mochi making party.
          

Grandma has an automatic mochi maker and we usually make mochi on New Years Eve if we are at her house but this year Auntie Helen Ikebuchi borrowed it so we had to think of something else.  Mom had a great idea.  She suggested I look on the internet to see if there were any recipes for mochi ice cream.  We found lots and decided to try this one .

this is the picture from the internet of what is supposed to look at.  

Mom made the mochi

   

Mochi Ice Cream Assembly line.  Mom rolled out the mochi and cut it out using a cookie cutter.  Grandma made the ice cream balls and Jenelle put them together.

   

Of course the entire operation was expertly supervised.

    

The final result.   

Unfortunately I don't have any close up pictures of the final results because I was too busy with my job doing the testing and quality control.

Verdict:  Pretty Good for our first shot.  We already have ideas for improvement.

We brought in the new year with a video chat with Hawaii.  It was only 9pm there but the celebrations had started.   They had fireworks and Brent even took the computer outside so we could see them.

the family gathering around the computer on a video conference with Hawaii.

      

Tyken and Brent on the computer screen.

       

You can find out more about the Hawaii side on Angie's blog .

      

Grandpa and Brent share a birthday on New Year's Day.  On the video call we sang Happy Birthday.  Sharon phoned while the the video conference was on.  Her boys at home sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa.  (You can see pictures of this side of the conversation on Sheila's blog )   Sharon had me relay birthday wishes to Brent as well.   Since the fire they don't have internet and since the big blackout in Hawaii Angie and Mike's phone doesn't work so I was the go between.

     

At first I thought grandma was giving grandpa a wet willie or something but she was holding the phone to his ear when Sharon and her boys sang "Happy Birthday"

     

Birthday boy with his presents (including the apron from Hawaii).

    

Hope everyone has a great 2009!