Christmas Eve

I know - I'm late on this, but I'm having such fun editing some great pictures.


The Turner kids, Cole, Nat & Ella with Mia on the couch
John slicing the roast beast - I mean prime rib (YUM)
Mia & Natalie dressed for the Nutcracker performance. I wasn't aware there was lion, but hey - get creative.

All of them from the beautiful home of Kanoe & John can be found here.

Christmas day pictures later today!

Great great evening. More info soon, and a big surprise. Hint - someone got a new 'do! Gotta run!

And the Coincidences Continue

This island is small. "Ess Em Alllll..." (to quote the great Sammy Davis in Cannonball Run.) Not just that it's small (because it's also really densely populated) but the world of Americans or non-Japanese folks on this island is really really tiny. You need to be nice all the time (not that it's difficult) because the person you're talking about - well, her best buddy whose husband is deployed with hers - is sitting right behind you at the coffee shop. SMALL.

Casey called me the other day to tell me she was at an Okinawan/American women's society luncheon and sat next to and chatted with my buddy Elizabeth that we met on the plane ride here and stayed in touch with. These kinds of stories are no longer surprising because I'd venture to say I'm the only Aviva on the island, so if you say my name - someone who has met me will recall. Thus conversations about me happen without my knowledge; story of my life.

So about a month ago, Casey and I went to SomChai for lunch. Yes, I'm a regular there now, it's the freaking bomb. There are about 5 tables in the whole place, and as we sat at a 4-top to wait for our meal, a couple (she was black and he was very tall and white) walked in with a little boy, about 2 years old. Casey & I commented on how he looked a bit like her son, Brice. The couple was speaking to each other in a foreign language I didn't recognize, and after they ordered food they looked for a non-existent empty table. Casey and I motioned for them to sit next to us, and they pulled up one more chair for their son and sat down.

I asked where they were from, and they said Sweden. Wow! I've been to Europe once in my life, back when I was working doing customer/tech support for an email software program. The company was Swedish - so when they launched their big upgrade, they flew the few US staff members over there to party with the owners of the company. Pretty sweet deal for me! We spent a week in Stockholm, in a lovely hotel, and enjoyed lots of Absolut and Ikea furniture. And licorice. Those Swedes LOVE licorice.

So I actually had something to talk about; fica breaks (their name for coffee breaks at work). And after I told them the two words I remembered besides that (skojl - or however you spell it - which you say when toasting, and hej and hej du -hello & good bye), they asked where we were from. At this point the food had arrived, and their son - probably 2 years old - was the most well behaved child EVER and was eating Thai food like it was his favorite thing in the world. At that restaurant, my kid would look at me as if I'd just placed a pig brain and rabbit turds in front of her and sang, "Bon appetit!"

I told her I grew up in New Jersey, and the two of them launched into wide-eyed grinning stories about how much they LIVE for Bruce Springsteen. They have a house full of bootlegs, and they want more than anything to live in New York because it's so culturally diverse and wonderful - and by the way, WE LOVE SPRINGSTEEN! YAAAAAAY BRUCE!

I guess the guy is here in Okinawa finishing his PHD in some kind of robotic engineering mechanical scientific field I know nothing about at a local university. Not related to military or government in any way, so it's challenging to find stuff sometimes when you can't just go on base to get it. And the girl is pregnant with kid #2 and they're homesick and though they love it here they're excited to go back to the US after he's done.

So we all had a lovely chat for a good while, and Casey and I said, "See you around," and we smiled and spoke for a while about how nice they were and went on our merry way. When I told the story to Craig later, I said, "Wow - this couple at the Thai restaurant in Okinawa was from Sweden, where I've been before, and they LOVE Bruce Springsteen and couldn't get enough of me being from New Jersey. RAN-DOM!"

So a couple of weeks back, after soccer was overwith, I called our friend Kanoe (whose hubby is a Marine and whose 3 kids are adorable - the older two were on Mia's soccer team, which is how we met, and their two-year-old Ella is Craig's BFF). I wanted to see if she'd like to have a get-together on Christmas Eve. She mentioned that deep fried turkey to us, and never got to have one on Thanksgiving - so I said, "Why not do it for Christmas Eve with the families?" She agreed and we figured we'd work out the details later.

This morning (Sunday) she emails & calls me and we set up who was making what, all very yummy & good. Then she said, "Listen - I have these friends, they have no place to go for Christmas Eve, and I thought I'd invite them. They're super nice - they're actually Swedish; he's here finishing his PHD, she's pregnant, they have a little boy and they're so homesick and would it be ok with you guys? I'm sure you'd like them..."

"Kanoe. Is she black?" (AS IF I needed to clarify that this was them....)

"Yeah."

"I met them at SomChai about a month ago," I yelled - and laughed, and marveled at this weirdness.

THEN Kanoe proceeds to tell me that when she invited Myriam and her family for tomorrow night, she was telling them about us. Craig's from Ohio, Aviva's from New York (she didn't remember it was NJ and thought it was NY) and they have a daughter, and whatever else. And I guess Myriam brought UP meeting "a girl" at SomChai one day and she was from New Jersey and we talked for a while and they had such fun with her and wouldn't it be amazing if it was HER!?

Yes. Wouldn't it be.

So I floored Casey by calling her today and relaying that I'll be spending Christmas Eve with the Swedes we chatted with at Somchai a month ago. And as of yet I have no clue why Kanoe knows them - but I'm sure that'll be secondary.

Heard From the Living Room

I'm on the computer surfing around.

Craig (starting a game of Warhawk on the PS3 with his new rumble controller - that can only be bought in Japan right now): "Ok, Mia - it's not your favorite screen, but you like Archipelago. It's zones."
Mia: "No it's not. It's death match."
Craig: "No... it's zones."
Mia: (no hesitation) "Death match."
...pause...
Craig: "....you're right."
Mia: "I know."
Craig: "How did you know that?"
Mia: "See the little squares up top?"
Craig: "Dang - you're observant."
Mia: "Ok, Daddy - pay attention - you just passed a tow missile."

(WTF is a tow missile? I don't know - some kind of missile you can control - but cutely enough, Mia was calling this a "missile tow" after she learned the term - quite fitting for the season.)

Craig: "Ok - zones is next."
Mia: "Right, and after that is capture the flag...."

Upon finishing the game and getting rid of some enemy, they high five each other and Mia says, "See, Dad? Guns are better than knives." Quote of the year. This is what you get with the daughter of a Marine/Warhawk addict.

Only In Japan

First of all, I'll share the picture from our balcony this morning at 7:45. 10 minutes after Craig opened his eyes and realized he didn't set the alarm to get Mia up for school since he's on leave. So the mad dash to get Mia to the bus stop at 8:05 was.... let's just say interesting. But the sunrise was purty.

Mia has gotten very creative and swirly. This is her new way of writing her name.
I am thinking the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I love to do lettering. And she's seen it before, so I'm all for fostering her amazing creativity!


Now - in the "Only in Japan" category... cell phone charms. Cell phones out here will NOT sell if there isn't a little space to attach a charm. I'm told the reason the iPhone was delayed here was because they had to make them with a place to loop the charm into. I believe it - EVERYONE here has jingly charms hanging from their phone! Well, I am not one to conform, but at the local photo/camera shop in town, they make charms where you can put a picture of your own on the face. There's a kid with a karate outfit, a panda bear - and this. A kimono-clad girl. Perfect for Mia's mug:
She's decked out with a bun, kimono, even little thongs. And you can't tell from the picture, but the face is contoured - the nose actually protrudes out a little bit. (If I had a macro lens, I'd show you - maybe one day soon). Here's the back:
Yeah, I sprang for it - and you know you want one now.

Lastly, Craig summoned me to try a demo driving game he downloaded on the PS3 this morning. It comes out for PS3 in January. I like driving games, and this one is really great. So I sat down and he told me what button did what - and as I began to drive - FAST - he was chuckling.

"What?"

"Well, I asked you to come try it because I wanted to see if you'd do the same thing," he says, as I swerve into a head-on collision with another car.

"What?!?"

"Drive on the left side."

"Oh. Shut up." And try as I might, I was huggin' that left. But I got lots of points for near misses.

OK, OK...

Wow - "Anonymous" is anxious for a new post, and who am I to deprive you, A?

Let's see - much happenings in the Oki hood. Chronologically:

Last Thursday afternoon, the kindergarten classes were to go caroling at the BX (base exchange). Well, it rained. Hard. And so the powers that be changed the morning caroling session to be held at the cafeteria.


Yup, adorable. And the crew left to carol at the classrooms after the performance. The above shot is only Mia's class - there are 8 classes of give or take 25 kids each. Yes - 200 kindergarteners, just at her school! The movie of the songs (very cute) can be found here.

Thursday evening, I had dinner with the most of the amazing ladies of Okinawa Hai!
Such fun - left to right it's Julia, Julie, Kaho, Kelly, Meredith (YAY! My photography sister in arms), Joelle and Kim.
We ate at Mintana, great Italian place. YUM.

Friday evening there was a bingo night benefiting PIE (Partners in Education) at Mia's school. Mia quickly learned how to play bingo, and we all had fun even though we didn't win any prizes.
Here are the kids that were there posing with Santa who made a quick appearance.

Saturday afternoon the 7th Comm Battalion's holiday party was held up at the Palms near Craig's work (where we had our ball). I sure didn't expect pony rides...

As well as 2 bouncies.

Mia's old buddy (and one of a few crushes) Nicholas was there to keep us company (and help her to finish her broccoli so that she could eat one of those treats!).

Again - one busy dude, Santa showed up. Nicholas got back to the table and announced he would never wash his butt again.

Mia had a nice visit.
It was a blast, great food too!

Sunday I attended a cookie exchange party at Erin's house. (Lovely Erin - our photography assistant and party thrower extraordinaire - she was sick as a dog all week and still did it all!) I had to make 150 cookies. Yes. 12 1/2 DOZEN cookies, as did everyone else. Here's the result of 20+ women making 150 cookies: (oh yeah, there are more under the table & in the kitchen...)
My chocolate almond cookies:
Amazing hand-decorated wreaths:

At the end of the party, 4 winners were announced; most festive, tastiest, prettiest, and most adventurous. Though my batch wasn't elected for any of those, we went home with a huge box that looked something like this:since we had to take home at least 8 of each type of cookie! DANG. Yes - my counter looks like a holiday cookie buffet.

This week has been pretty relaxed so far; the Neathery family left for southern Cali on Wednesday morning, so I enjoyed a great last couple of days with Anne and Mia said a goodbye for now to her two local buds. We're feeding their turtles for them and they'll be in LA & San Diego, so we helped with the SD part! Not much going on this weekend besides prepping for Santa & the haps on Tuesday and enjoying time together while Craig's on leave. More soon!

Something I Love About Okinawa

No pennies. At the on-base places, if you buy something for $19.93, they give you a nickel back. I no longer have ANY pennies in my purse! Not only a good thing because pennies annoy me - but a good thing because I have to carry 2 different types of money around, and yen coins are big.

Now if we could just find a way to get rid of one-yen pieces I would be content. Oh well, one coin at a time.

Araha Beach

I know I posted about this back when we first arrived, but we went again this past weekend and it's just so neat. Mia loves this park at Araha Beach (aka "Pirate Ship Beach" for obvious reasons) - and this time when we went, she was up there with a crew of kids she had never met, leading the siege on the enemy; the moms & dads!