The First Christmas Eve Away

The cute little tree I found on bookoo!

 I have to admit - I felt like a grinch yesterday. Everything seemed to be going wrong with my preparations for Christmas! I had not had time to find any stockings to hang since the exchange had already sold out. Due to the increased volume of packages arriving on the island, we had exactly zero presents under the tree. No presents from friends or family or even Matt's gifts to me ordered from the internet. I went grocery shopping to pick up a few last minute essentials for baking cookies. The store was packed and every single packet of sugar cookie mix was gone. Just gone. I could feel my stress level rising...and then I just started grinning like a maniac in the middle of a packed store. I realized that I was missing the entire point of Christmas!

To quote from How the Grinch Stole Christmas: "But this... this sound wasn't sad. Why... this sound sounded glad. Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing, without any presents at all! He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming, it came! Somehow or other... it came just the same."

Christmas is not about stockings or sugar cookies or presents under the tree. It's about remembering the birth of Jesus and spending time with loved ones. I get to spend Christmas with my Marine husband, something not every military wife can say. I have so much to be grateful for! 

Today I finished my preparations for the big day completely stress-free. I baked peanut butter cookies instead of sugar, had two packages arrive in the mail, and wrapped my gift to Matt. There are presents under the tree after all! 

Why all this emphasis on cookies? Well, Matt had a wonderful idea to bring homemade goodies to his single marines that could not go home for Christmas. We made plans to deliver them Christmas morning. I asked how many Marines I was baking for, and he responded "around thirty." Thirty!? That's a whole bunch of cookies! I baked three batches of three dozen each. Whew!

3 x 36 = 108 That is 108 peanut butter blossoms right there!

Tonight we attended a candlelight church service at our chapel on base, and afterwards we drove to American village to meet up with some friends for ice cream! We rode the big ferris wheel! It was high and slow. It took fifteen minutes to go around once. On our way from the ferris wheel to ice cream we noticed a pattern: Japanese girls wear Santa costumes on Christmas Eve. Sexy Santa costumes. Dressed in jeans and a sweater I felt completely left out! I guess I have time to get prepared for next year. I just need: stockings, sugar cookies mix, and a santa costume. 

I'm not making this up! Sexy Santas were everywhere!

The "American" Village

South of where we live is a collection of restaurants and shops known collectively as American Village. Locals and Americans both love to visit. Matt and I have made the drive for the past three weekends! They have American staples such as Starbucks and Red Lobster as well as hotdog stands, burger joints, and frozen yogurt. There are also the Okinawan classics of taco rice and sushi available. Matt and I were tickled to shop in one of the American-themed stores. It was filled with denim, cowboy boots and hats, leather jackets, and "vintage" sweatshirts (really old sweatshirts from American universities). And patches from random uniforms. Bins and bins of patches that they will sew onto whatever denim clothing you decide to purchase.

Our favorite place to visit is the Sega store. It is an arcade with claw machines and games. Matt and I have a favorite game that we affectionally call the drum game. It is similar to Rock Band, but you have to play the Japanese drum (the taiko) on beat to the song. There are little animated taikos that cheer you on as your play! Matt tried a higher difficulty setting once, and his animated drum just left the screen when it wasn't going well.

Matt won me a milk tea-flavored lollipop! It was..bleh. 

Me and my friend showing off our drumming skills!

During this season there are Christmas lights all over American Village. Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here they came out the day after Halloween. Particularly the American-themed stores go all out with Santa and reindeer all over the place.

Whoever comes to visit us will definitely be treated to dinner and a challenge on the drum game at one of our new hang out spots - American Village!

The Quarter of a Century

"You know I'm gonna be 25 in June. That's a quarter of a century. Makes a girl think."

An appropriate quote from Marilyn Monroe's character Sugar Kane in one of the best movies of all time: Some Like It Hot. While I am not currently being wooed by a phony millionaire who also happens to be part of a duo of musicians hiding from the mob by dressing as women (as exciting and confusing as that would be), I managed to have a nice birthday all the same. The wonderful location of our home in Okinawa certainly did not hurt.

Perfection!

The night before my friend and neighbor Kema brought me over red velvet cheesecake cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes were coupled with a "Happy Birthday" rendition by her son.  I am so grateful I had a friend bake me a birthday dessert and another friend sing to me!

Blue glass is my favorite!

 Matt and I started the day by combing the nearby beach for sea glass which was wildly successful. Then we ate lunch at a 50's cafe with picnic tables overlooking the ocean. The cafe was American-style with license plates from different states (we saw Georgia!) and Christmas music playing. It was an interesting juxtaposition to the owners who did not speak any English!

Lunch was followed by pedicures with my girlfriend in the afternoon. This was my first time getting designs on my toes, and I was afraid to breathe in case I disrupted their artwork. My toes are now winter-themed with little snowflakes!

Matt and I ended the night with California-style sushi at American village. The sushi rolls had avocado and cream cheese (yum) and were so huge Matt did not finish his either. It was a shocking amount of food. All in all I had a wonderful day. Even if I am a quarter of a century I am not thinking too much about where my life is going. I like exactly where it is. 

The Tea Room

 Every time a pass the grocery store I see a tower not too far off that says "Coffee" in big letters. You might assume it is a coffee shop (as I did), but you would be very wrong. It is actually a Victorian themed tea room that my girlfriend and I finally discovered for ourselves. When we drove up to the parking lot that could only fit three cars, we were greeted by an archway and stone lions. Through the archway was a path with statues on either side. There were statues of women and a horse and the ever-present shisa dogs. There were also Christmas decorations everywhere! We saw disney characters and reindeer, and a man was busy hanging christmas lights over another archway. We thought the outside was busy, but when we walked inside we were astonished. There was stuff EVERYWHERE! The theme was Victorian with angel statues, chandeliers, and porcelain dolls in cabinets. However, Christmas decorations had taken over. There were multiple trees and themed tablecloths and strings of lights over all the windows.

We were the only two in the entire restaurant, so we were able to pick a place to sit. There were mismatched couches pulled up to tables all over the place. We were handed a menu in Kanji, but the waiter/chef must have noticed our faces because he immediately retrieved a menu in English for us. There were selections of coffee, tea, and toast as well as several entree options. One of the choices was sea urchin, but neither of us was feeling adventurous enough. We both ordered fried chicken that came with soup, salad, rice, and what appeared to be a hotdog with ketchup. Anyway, the food was delicious. 

We also ordered Earl Grey tea. We were brought two different styles of cups and saucers. Mine was in the shape of a heart with blue and purple flowers, but my friend's cup was covered with pink roses and gold trim. We both felt very refined drinking our afternoon tea in real china, and we want to experience such refinement again when we return!