Merry Christmas from JST

Merry Christmas everyone!  

To start off our morning we gave the kids their gifts first.  Bailey took right away to her new little sanctuary:

We even saw a little bit of a playful spark emerge:

Then she hunkered down for a nap .... while Piglet felt left out:

Alas, Piggy didn't feel bad for too long as we bought her the softest blanky in the world from the little kiosk in the concessionary:

the only thing that got Bailey to emerge for a nanosecond was the toy her Aunt Mandy and family sent - what could be better than feathers and a bell on a stick!?

and Mandy came through in the clutch with the perfect gift for Piggy ... a weiner dog dressed like a snowman.  Absolutely Perfect.  It has already been dubbed "Leon" (from Elf), and she loves it:

Michael was insanely surprised that I had gotten him his Wustof Classic Ikon knives.  I got the best wife ever award for this purchase:

Bailey hung out for a little bit while we opened presents:

Piggy and me amidst the Christmas goodness (see what's in my lap!?): 

A new camera!!  Michael came through with the new Nikon camera.  Here are some of the first shots I took with it ... hopefully I'll get better :)

Piggy all sleepy on her new blanky with Leon and a chewy:

Bailey - absolutely exhausted after playing for a full 3 minutes:

the Ryukan glassware that Michael bought me :)

okay ... Merry Christmas (still a little early for all of you in the states), but now its time to go play Little Big Planet (before Michael monopolizes the PS3 with Prince of Persia).

We miss everyone - have a great holiday season!

Random December Pictures ... and some ranting.

We're trying to prepare for another Christmas with just the two of us (still no takers for family to fly halfway around the world to visit us on a holiday ... I digress) but I made a trial run on some Cinnabon scones yesterday morning.  One word - DIVINE.  Wow, my mouth starts to water thinking about them.  So here is Michael with a cup of coffee getting ready to dippy-dip his scones with a smile (sidenote - "dippy-dip" was stolen and adopted from my niece Olivia when she was really little eating breadsticks and red sauce ... not that it matters, just thought I'd share a little insight into our crazy minds).  

A rant if I may:

The month of December is generally the only time I will allow myself to spend a fortune on the Coffee at Starbucks.  However, on the first of only two trips we went there I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the miser Starbucks has decided that Okinawan customers do not need Peppermint Mochas!  This is the only coffee I'll step foot into Starbucks for (unless its a desperate need for some caffeine and no SBC or Tully's is around)!  No wonder the economy is in the toilet - j/j.  I did find a decent alternative - and Michael has made the claim that he actually likes it better (of which I promptly told him to bite his tongue) ... the Gingerbread Latte.  Whatever Starbucks ... whatever.  

So on to more pictures from my camera that I'm hoping I don't ever have to use again after Christmas because I'll be getting a new one:

Here is little Pigdog all sleepy on the ottoman:

and that's all she wrote.  I was just trying to get the last of the pictures off my memory stick so come Christmas morning I am ready to go with uploading off a new camera.  I am going to be SO disappointed if Michael doesn't come through on this one, aren't I!?

Christmas Toes

I know ya'll have missed seeing my toes :)  Only in Okinawa would they have an extensive selection of Christmas toe artwork to choose from.  I was moments away from having Santas, reindeer, and snowmen all over my feet ... looking back I'm having some regrets ... but I went a little classier with some poinsettia-ish flowers and the ever so classic red, green and gold.

... and it IS warm enough to wear open-toed shoes (and catch 18 holes in a short-sleeved shirt).  Up for a visit anyone!??

Attention Hogs

The kids try to act real cool - as though they really don't care what we do when we're actually in the house.  So here I am wrapping Michael's Christmas presents ...

and Bailey decides to just take a quick gander at what I'm up to:

Piglet is trying to play it cool as well...

...curiosity definitely got the better of Bailey so she decided to investigate why I wasn't focusing solely on her:

She's making sure I change my attention from the present-wrapping to her:

Piglet couldn't stand being left out so she came over to make sure I hadn't forgotten about her (they are both sitting in-between my legs now):

Michael tried to surf the net and ended up getting swamped by the attention whores we call our bebes:

We wouldn't trade it for the world though!

Officially Retired

My parent's finally bought something for themselves and we couldn't be happier!  We can't wait to visit and take the new truck and fifth wheel on a road trip :)  

This is nicer than our house...and bigger.  How sad. (insert sad Charlie Brown music here)

Congrats on the big purchase!!

Merry Christmas ... shitter's full.

It's about as Christmas as its going to get...

Michael and I busted out the Christmas decorations on Friday after stuffing ourselves full of delicious turkey.  It is still getting into the mid 70's during the day with little humidity, but we have to try and get into the Christmas spirit!

Me decorating the tree:

Michael decorating the tree:

Bailey continued to be her Diva self and slept through all the festivities:

...and Piglet thought we put everything up so she had a new backdrop to pose in front of:

Santa was supposed to bring Bailey this little scratching post/house ... but "someone" found it up on the table before we had a chance to hide it.  Michael was away doing something when I found her hiding so I took some pics for him ... and you:

She usually gets severely disciplined when she gets on the counters/tables so we decided to not re-enforce the bad behavior and put her toy on the ground.  This was right before we distracted the tubby little girl with some more food so we could take her toy away :)

Muh ha ha ha ha...

and yes, we know we have issues.