Christmas on Okinawa was everything we expected this year. On the one hand it was great for the kids to wake up in their own home for one of their first times ever, but on the other hand we missed all the hub-bub with being with our families. We had a quiet Christmas Eve dinner followed by church, then we had a relaxing Christmas morning opening gifts. For Christmas dinner, we got together with several families and had a huge feast. It was great time together. The kids were happy that Santa was able to find them on the tiny island of Okinawa and were happy with their surprises. They laughed at some of the Japanese trinkets that were in their stockings! I think everyone was pleased with their gifts! The weather was absoutely beautiful on Christmas and all of the neighborhood kids played outside in shorts most of the day. Dan had to work the days following Christmas, but has the week of New Year's off. We headed to one of our little get-away places for New Year's. Unfortunately, the weather turned cold and we actually had to come home to get warmer clothing!! We ventured to the furthest point on the northern end of the island - Cape Hedo and were able to weather the wind and rain for about 30 seconds - enough time to snap a few pictures. We were geo-caching along the way, but only found one of the three treasures. We will try again when the weather warms up. We spent about an hour looking for a restaurant - Pizza in the Sky - that has been recommended to us, finally found it only to find the place closed for the month. Oh well, we will try again. Japan has pretty much shut down for the next few days. Their big holiday is New Years and so it is like a ghost town around the area. We sure missed seeing everyone during the Christmas holiday, but everyone was in our thoughts over the last few weeks. Till next time . . .
