Let me warn you, if you are not part of my family. These are mostly pictures of my two grandchildren, Tomone, a three year old girl, and Tsubasa, a two year old boy. They were taken yesterday, when we celebrated Christmas because Tsubasa will leave this afternoon, Christmas Day, so that his mother and father can be back in Tokyo in time for work tomorrow.
The first picture is our Christmas tree. We have a tradition in our family of making each Christmas tree. This started when we first moved to Japan and could not buy a tree. Each year we made something different. This tree is made from pieces of cloth hung in the window at the end of our dining room table. By the time that we started to open presents on the morning of Dec 24, the pile of pictures had grow substantially.
These are gingerbread cookies that Tomone and Tsubasa decorated.
For breakfast we had coffee, juice and pie, apple and pumpkin. The kids understood that something special was happening but, since it was their first
Christmas morning, they were not as excited as they will be next year when they have memories of this year.
Tsubasa opening a present.
Tsubasa with his new hat opening another present
Tomone looking at a book she got
Tomone with a new game
Tsubasa showing off his new Shinkansen shoes
Here is a better look at the shoes. They are designed to look like the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train. Tsubasa is crazy about trains, so most of his presents are somehow related to trains.
Tomone showing off a tiara that she got
Tsubasa and his grandmother looking at a present
For Christmas Dinner, we all went to our local Chinese restaurant. Not exactly traditional, but it was excellent as always. This is Tsubasa looking at his chopsticks.
We order six different meals and there was quite a bit of sharing
On the way home we stopped in the park across from the 7/11 to let the kids play. Tsubasa liked the swings.
So did Tomone
She also liked running around
My wife and I stayed home, but the rest of them went downtown to see the Christmas lights. (I will eventually show the pictures that I took of them.) While they were out, they bought a Christmas Cake. This is a cake with lots of whipped cream and strawberries. Also there is something that will say Christmas, made from plastic or maybe candy.
My first Christmas in Japan was many years ago, but I remember walking down the street in the little town that we lived in. We walked passed a shop and the man inside came running out insisting that I buy a Christmas Cake. He thought that all foreigners ate Christmas Cake. I, of course, had never seen one. They are nothing at all like the traditional Christmas log and in any case pie or plum pudding was traditional in my part of the country.
Here is Tomone eating her piece of the the cake
Here is Tsubasa being fed his piece
Tsubasa playing with his new train
Tomone using her new huge set of crayons.
I hope that you, the reader, have as wonderful a Christmas as I had this year!
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