Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We celebrated our second Christmas in Okinawa and managed to have a wonderful, quiet holiday. We had various holiday parties to attend - one which Santa visited, so the kids got to have their personal visit with the big guy. On Christmas Eve, we went to church and then had Father King, two of his friends, and the Clancy Clan (Carrie, Steve, Ryan, Kyle, and Connor) over for a big dinner at our house. It was a lot of fun and an overall success - the prime rib turned out perfect!! Christmas day started out later than normal - almost 7:00AM!! We had a nice family day, then had five additional friends over for Christmas dinner! Needless to say, I took a much needed break from cooking after those two dinners!

We took our annual White Beach Cabin trip a few days after Christmas. The weather was not that great, but we love being up at the cabins and away from everything. We drove around the northern part of Okinawa, went on a hike up Hiji Falls, then drove around the tip to Hedo Point and back down to White Beach. For being such a small island, it sure takes a long time to drive around it!! This trip, we discovered a great family run coffee farm and we will add that to our favorite spots in Okinawa. The coffee was wonderful!! Sydney made a friend, Myu, who was also 6 years old! The chickens running around the farm were a big hit.

New Years was celebrated at our friends house - the Carsons - along with about 30 other people. It was a brisk night, but fun was had by all. We almost made it to midnight - maybe next year?!