Christmas

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve at the Shupe's home with all of the families in the Bishopric. Mike has been so blessed to have such great counselors working with him in our church. We had a non traditional Christmas Eve style dinner of Ribs and Corn Casserole and some fun traditional side dishes prepared by Katherine.  I made the rolls and the apple pie which are usually big hits in our house for holiday dinners.  Mike was happy to relax on Christmas Eve while still recovering from his big surgery the week prior.  The kids acted out the nativity and then the kids performed Christmas songs on the piano. Afterwards we were visited by the Shupe's secret little Elf who brought a big bag of silly toys for everyone. There were a variety of fun things like crazy Japanese socks, food shaped erasers, super long and super short screwdrivers, a back scratcher...etc. It was a lot of fun to be with some great families on Christmas Eve. When we got home the kids got to open up their Christmas pajamas present. This year the kids decided that they all wanted to sleep in the same room so we pushed the girl's beds together and made one big bed. I think this might be a new tradition in our family!

Christmas Morning

I absolutely LOVE Christmas morning.  I never sleep well the night before and it's not usually because I am up wrapping presents but because of the anticipation of the following morning. This year both the boys asked for the Nintendo 3DS and some 3DS games. The girls both asked for American Girl Doll items. Emma wanted the white dreamy daybed and Abby wanted Kit's kitchen. They must have all been on the Nice list because everyone was happy to see that Santa got them what they asked for. The stocking stuffers were a huge hit this year. There were things in there such as Nutella on the Go packs, Sigg Waterbottles, Ear Muffs, Clip on Bed Lights, Mini Simon Games, Polly Pockets, and our favorite chocolates like Kit Kats and Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Trees. It wasn't too long before they were asking to open up the rest of the gifts under the tree. It didn't take long for an explosion of goodies to unfold on our living room floor. There were Minecraft T-shirts, new pajamas, legos of all sorts, American Girl Doll clothes and pajamas to match, BOSE noise canceling headphones, new sleeping bags for the boys, a vintage fender lunch box for Mike, new reading books, and fun gift cards. The coolest gift, though, was the pink violin that Abby asked for 2 weeks before Christmas. With literally no time to find something and order it online I got really lucky and found her pink violin lying on the middle of a shelf at a second hand shop for 300 yen ($4). I couldn't believe my luck. It didn't play any music even with new batteries but she was still happy to get her beloved pink violin.

 

I was really excited to exchange gifts with Mike this year. He always gives me the most thoughtful gifts and I really wanted to step it up this year to do the same for him. Aside from getting him things on his list I tried to think of something else that he would not know about but would love. So, I enlisted the help of a friend in our church who knows a lot about guitars. He found me a great used guitar and helped me by putting new steel strings on it, putting in a bone bridge to enhance the sound, and filed down the sides of the frets that were a bit sharp. This Fender Acoustic guitar was built by the Morris Guitar Company in Japan and sold only in the US back in the 70s. Somehow this guitar found its way back to Japan. Apparently most steel string acoustic dreadnought guitars are copies of either a Martin D28 or Martin D18. This Fender F65 is a very good copy of the Martin D28. The sides and the back of this guitar are made of Solid East Indian Rosewood and the soundboard is made of Solid Spruce. Most good quality guitars are made with soundboards of either Solid Spruce or Cedar as those soft woods vibrate easier. Soundboards that are solid tend to get better with age which makes this guitar even better that it is almost 30 years old. There are some other great features to this guitar such as the beautiful abalone binding all the way around it and also around the rosette surrounding the sound hole. There are also abalone snowflakes along the fret board as position markers and a solid mahogany neck. I knew this would be a great guitar for Mike. As for me, it was a bit big for me to play and the steel strings were really hard on my fingers so I started with a Classical Guitar with nylon strings that I borrowed from a friend and then I praticed on both Mike's electric and this new guitar. He was shocked that I had learned how to play the guitar and that I kept it hidden from him. It was a great surprise!

 

As for Mike, he never ceases to amaze me with something unexpected. The only things I really asked for this year were photography equipment and a new pair of grey UGG slippers since mine from last year were badly beaten. Alongside the kid's Santa gifts were two camera backpacks for me. One was for shorter excursions and the other bigger one was for longer trips. I absolutely LOVED them. As I sat on the couch admiring the bags Mike told me to open up the smaller one. As I did I found the body of the new Nikon D800 inside. I couldn't believe it. I didn't even ask for it. I just started to cry (caught on video but no photos). It wasn't that I really needed the camera at this point but it was something I talked about upgrading to in the future. I really do have a thoughtful husband. I guess that is what gift giving is all about. It isn't really about the expensive gifts, although his gift to me ended up being expensive, but it was the pure thought that went into the gifts. It is fun to give gifts to each other, especially when we have spent time thinking of what the other person would absolutely love.