A simple Christmas is the best Christmas, as I said. Casey and I decided to just do small gifts this year (like planners, journals, ties, and socks!) We got our Christmas shopping done within a couple of hours. It was incredible. We also learned that getting presents for Bridger is way more fun than for ourselves. We learned from his birthday that he doesn't really unwrap presents. He just stares at them. So we stuck his gifts in two large paper bags and let him just pull stuff out. He loved it. He got an instrument set (with a toy drum, trumpet, etc.) He also got a walking/barking dog that scares the pants off of him. He likes to try and beat it up (aka knock it over) before it can attack him. Not sure we're teaching him the best way to be animal-friendly, but we get a kick out of it all the same. He also got two super cute stuffed Mickey Mouses. One for 100 yen and the other for 200. As in $1.00 and $2.00. Thank you, Recycle Shop. There are tons of recycle shops in Japan, or at least here in Miyazaki, which are second-hand stores. They are nice and cheap. A total upgrade from D.I.
We also ended up getting an inexpensive keyboard (piano) from the recycle shop, which we will just sell back when we go home. I'm so happy to play the piano again! And bonus: it has a feature where you can make the keys light up as you play, so Bridger loves it too. Great way to introduce him to my favorite instrument!
Sadly, Casey had to work on Christmas, since it's not a huge holiday like in America. But luckily, the emperor's birthday was on Monday (the 23rd) so we celebrated then. We opened gifts and dressed Bridger up in a Santa outfit for a picture. We're nerdy like that. But he was the cutest Santa ever.
Later that day, we went to our church Christmas party. There was a program, where we performed in the Nativity Scene as Mary and Joseph. I think we did all right. Casey's ASL background makes him an animated, awesome actor. I'm...well...a little less awesome, but it went great! Funny things from the play: First, Mary had two lines. I can barely say "Thank you" or "Hello" correctly, so they didn't make me say the lines, thank heavens. So I just faced backwards during my lines, and another person spoke my lines. Second, the baby they gave us for the Nativity Scene started fussing the moment he was put into my arms. Pretty sure he was like "Wait a minute, what's wrong with this human? It's all white and stuff!" So at the last minute, the missionary who was directing the play took off her sweater, bundled it up, and said "Here you go!" It was a bright red sweater, and Casey kept trying to make me laugh while we were onstage by saying "Do you think something is wrong with our baby? Maybe he has a fever. He looks a bit red to me." I had quite the difficult time not laughing, but I succeeded!
And after that, we ate lots of food. It was fantastic.
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| Our foot-high Christmas tree and our adorable (I'm bringing these back home!) boots. |
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| Told ya we're nerds. Look how grown up our baby boy is getting! |
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| Casey looking...fabulous. |
Bridger is so big and so stinkin cute
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