DeeDee, Moe, Little Dude and Tater: 2008

Taylor woke up this morning and told me she heard Santa on the roof. With 2o days left until Santa will (actually) be on our roof I needed something to help her get a grasp on time. I decided to make an advent calendar. I bought a cute little calendar from Target for $20. Inside I will put a little candy and a daily activity idea.

1. Read Christmas story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
2. Have hot chocolate with all the fixings.
3. Make Christmas treats for friends.
4. Sing (or listen) to favorite Christmas songs.
5. Play a board game and eat popcorn (If there’s time, string some for the tree).
6. Give a present to someone in need.
7. Go out and see public light display.
8. Write letters to Father Christmas.
9. Use puppets to tell a Christmas story.
10. Write out ideas for presents we can give to Jesus this season.
11. Tell stories of childhood Christmas around the fire.
12. Have a camp out around the Christmas tree.
13. Talk about the symbols of Christmas.
14. Donate canned goods.
15. Wrap a toy and take it to a charity.
16. Make a Gingerbread house.
17. Do a Christmas coloring page or game.
18. Fold origami for the Christmas tree.
19. Dance like crazy to Christmas music.
20. Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn.
21. Perform a quick service as a family.
22. Go out to see the Christmas lights in the neighborhood.
23. Make decorative sugar cookies.
24. Special Christmas Eve treats TBA.

So I admit that I have been dreading blogging the Okinawa trip. The adventure was so action packed that I don't even know where to start. This one entry could turn into an entire blogspot on its own. Okay, so here I go. I will try to keep it concise.

We flew from Boise to Salt Lake to Georgia to Tokyo and finally Okinawa. We had four hour layover in Tokyo, so we ventured off on train to a beautiful Buddist temple. There were real munks chanting in the background and the rain was lightly falling. It was the perfect introduction to the country.

We stayed in a traditional Japanese guest house. Our bedroom was great, but the bathroom was so disgusting. We didn't have to use it much. We did our morning routine and bathed at an Onsen. I was out of my element at the Onsen (I was naked with a bunch of Japanese women), but it beat using the bathroom at the guest house.

Emmett had me taste a dish called Goya Chompudu. I have a pleasant look on my face, but that is because I knew I wasn't going to eat the bite that was approaching my mouth. I did taste it. It was extremely bitter. I could barely hold back the gag reflex. Okinawans believe that eating goya leads to longevity. I guess I'll die young.

Emmett and I went to a parade. The most memorable part for me included this cute little girl in the pink hat. She wasn't part of the parade, however, she did provide entertainment. I kept feeling a slight movement in my hair. I quickly realized this little girl was touching my hair. Emmett told me that she actually smelt it at one time. The island is pretty homogenous, so I was a novelty with my hair. I was amused.

Emmett had prepared himself for let down before we went to Okinawa. He said things like: everything has changed, no one will remember me, etc... On Sunday we went to the stake center. It was exactly the same, and many people remembered him. It was a good day.

Emmett did teach me a lot about the culture before we went to Okinawa. However, he failed to give me bathroom training. There were a variety of confusing bathroom situations, but the "Squatty Potty" was by far the most confusing for me. Once I figured it out it wasn't so bad, but the initially shock will always be memorable.

This is a photo of the biggest tug-o-war rope in the world. There were a lot of tourists at this event. I have a suspicion that I wasn't the only blonde having her hair petted that day.

This is the Shuri Castle. It has been blown up a couple times and rebuilt.

This is the King's thrown.

We saw a lot of traditional Okinawan dance. This was the first one and we really enjoyed it. However, by the end of the trip we weren't as thrilled with the slow, methodical ritual.

Zamami Island... What an adventure! The most relaxing and most stressful part of the vacation all in one. This is the ferry we took. The island is uninhabited except for a few resorts. Basically it is all jungle.

This is where we went snorkeling.

These are the scooters we rode all over the island. The scooter riding was my favorite part of the trip. The owner of the guest house we stayed in let us rent his scooters for $20 a day. This was a great deal considering the alternative of $75 a day. Rickety is the word that sums these scooters up. I did add to the overall adventurous ambiance.

This is the spider that almost killed me. You can't grasp the enormity in this picture. This spider was the size of my hand. Emmett wanted to hike down to a tide pool. Initially, I thought I saw a path, so I went along with it. The path soon disappeared and I wanted to turn back. Being the pushover that I am I continued down through the jungle. The overgrowth was so bad that the trail was barely visible. All of a sudden, Emmett and I realized these banana spiders hanging right in front of our eyes. The jungle noises and solitude were already freaking me out. The spiders almost pushed me over the edge. Somehow we made it to the tide pool and back. I have even found it in my heart to forgive my adventurous Emmett.

We decided to splurge on dessert. We hadn't had dessert yet because frankly, it is a little harder to come by in Japan. I was really craving icecream. We found a little parlor. The owner was excited to see Americans and told us she was going to give us extra. Sounded good to me. When she handed me the cone I almost laughed out loud. On the top of my sugar cone layed the smallest scoop of icecream I had ever seen. Smaller than a kid's cone in America. I was disappointed. Now I know why everyone is so thin in Japan. They don't know what a scoop of icecream should look like.

Emmett has a friend in Japan who took us to Kareoke. This was another highlight for me. Who knew that sitting in a room with friends and singing your brains out could be so fun. I loved it!

Mrs. Nakasone san bought us tickets to this aquarium, gave us spending money and made us a homemade lunch to bring with us on our trip to the aquarium. Emmett tried to refuse the spending money and was severly chastized. I will never quite understand the depth of generosity in the Japanese culture, so I'll just be grateful.

We went to the pineapple farm on our way back from the aquarium. It wasn't much of a farm, but it was fun.

This is Mrs. Nakasone taking Emmett and I out for a beautiful lunch. Following lunch she took us to a souvenir shop and literally would not let us leave until we chose something.

This grand adventure was also supported by Mrs. Nakasone. It was another one of my favorite things on the trip. We went to a photo studio where they dressed us in traditional Okinawan clothing and took our photos. We got a little goofy at the end of the photo shoot.

This is Emmett's shamisen sensei, Mr. Nakasone. The Japanese letters in the background say "Emmett and Michelle". The Nakasone's threw us a big party at a restaraunt that they rented in our honor (talk about overwhelming). I learned an Okinawan song that I sang with Emmett while he played the shamisen. There were other performers as well. We felt like celebrities.

It was time for me to go home. Bye Bye Mrs. Nakasone. Bye Bye Japan.

Emmett stayed behind. This is a family that he baptized 15 years ago. They had him over.

Emmett ventured off to Osaka to meet Curtis, a childhood friend, who lives there.

He visited another famous temple.

He met a supermodel coming out of a photo shoot. I'm sure everyone would like an explanation on this one, including me.

Most importantly, and finally the trip ended with raw ground beef mixed with raw egg. He didn't get sick, but watch out, if you look at the picture and think about it long enough you might.

Okinawa gave us the adventure of a lifetime. We did a lot, we learned a lot, we ate a lot, and played a lot,but we were glad to get back home to our babies and America.