Christmas Ministry Highlights

Christmas is one of our favorite times of year here in Japan. It's fun to see all the Christmas lights and hear Christmas music and even more fun to experience Christmas in another culture. But that is only part of the reason why we love this time of the year. We love it because we get to share with our community the real meaning behind Christmas.


This year we once again participated in the Christmas program at the homeless ministry that Justin volunteers at with his students. Noah and I usually do not get to go for various reasons, but this time it worked out for us to join him. We also got to bring my family along and serve with them as well. It was a wonderful experience.


The homeless tend to be forgotten in Japan. It was a wonderful blessing to us to be apart of a church service that gave them hope and also gave them some physical needs as well too.


One of the homeless men at the service gave Noah a small red toy car. He had so much joy in his eyes watching our little man play with it at the small park we had the service at. He told me in broken English that it was nice to give something to someone and that he was happy to hear a child laughing. It brought tears to my eyes.

We were also able to participate in ICAN's musical this year. Justin had a part in one of the skits about the real meaning of Christmas and little Noah got to sing a Christmas carol on stage at the end of the presentation. It was so cute to watch him up there with a huge smile on his face. To say he was adorable would have been an understatement. I know, I am his mom and I'm a little biased, but hey when your kid is cute, he's cute! ;)

Another neat blessing that came our way was the chance to spend Christmas with my family. My mom and dad and one of my brothers came to Japan and spent Christmas with us. It was a Christmas with chicken instead of turkey or ham, Japanese candy and other new experiences. It was a very different Christmas, but one of the best I've had.


All and all it was a fantastic holiday season this year. I hope all of you have had a wonderful 2012 so far!

Valentine's Day- Japanese Style.

Warning: This post is filled with lots of cooking and lots of eating. But then again, since it's written by me, I bet you're not surprised.


I went late night grocery shopping the night before Valentine's Day at our local grocery store. And just like America there were aisles and aisles of chocolate and other candies in the famous red, pink and white boxes that come out every February. But the site I saw made me laugh because it is so different from America. When I looked down the aisles of chocolate I didn't see a bunch of guys scratching their heads, trying to figure out what kind of chocolate variety they should buy there significant other. No, actually I saw a bunch of woman shopping for the men in their life!!!

Japan has a different spin on Valentine's Day than America. Valentine's Day is all about the girls buying sweets and gifts for the guys. But ladies, don't you worry, your turn will come next month when White Day comes around and then you will be showered with gifts from your man.

So, since we are living in Japan, I thought it would be fun to spoil the two guys in my life, my husband and my Noah Boah. So here's a recap of our day (oh, and please excuse my blurry pictures. My camera is dying):


First I spent the day with my junior Valentine. We started off the day spending the early afternoon at our local Children's Center. Then we came home to a fun snack of graham crackers (his favorite) and oranges (his other favorite). We really enjoyed our mommy-son time during the day.


Now it was time to spoil my husband. First, I decided I was going to make dinner and his candy by scratch. There are three things I have always wanted to try to make from scratch- breadsticks, peanut butter cups and pasta. So I decided I would just make all three! So I did! I sent the peanut butter cups in Justin's lunch box to school (of course saving a few to snack on myself) and then I made a nice fancy dinner (table cloth, candles and all). We had Salmon with Spinach Alfredo(this is where the homemade pasta came into play), an Italian Salad, and "Almost Famous Bread Sticks" It was so good! We completed the night with chocolate covered strawberries.



How did you celebrate Valentine's Day this year?