Christmas

This Christmas was our first one celebrating with no family. We missed family but enjoyed being with each other. The first two fuzzy pictures are of Hazel and Sam following their strings. Santa always leaves a string from our stockings to a gift. Christmas morning is always filled with strings all over the house.

 Hazel got an accordian at the end of her string. Emma a Kindle, Mattie an iPod shuffle and Sam a lego set.

 I think everyone's favorite though was the marble slide from Grandma. It took a long time to put together, but has provided hours of entertainment since then.

 We took a short trip up to Chinatown with some friends where we got kiss fish pedicures. It was enjoyed by all, especially Sam--I had to keep telling him to stop screaming. Sheesh! We are such loud Americans.

These two babies are Tom's Christmas presents to himself. One for me and one for him, too bad there is no place to ride them around here (or thank goodness.) Don't worry there are many plans for future use when we get back to the states. And for anyone curious, they are Honda 110's made in 2012.

And, I just love this picture of Hazel getting a ride home from church on Tom's bike.  

France..just Tom and Keriann!

So the first thing I need to say, is we pretty much ate our way through France, well, I did. Tom just learned a lot of French dermatology terms. We ended up staying in the three different military hotels in Paris. The second one (and longest stay) had a free breakfast. It was so amazing I can't even call it "continental." They had panne au chocolat, brioche, baugette, jams, butters, and of course croissants on the first quarter of the buffet table. Real hot chocolate, cheeses, yogurt, eggs, meats (good meats), and more deliciousness. Out in town there was even more. I could not get enough of the French boulangeries and pattisseries. Oh man, so good. Anyway, we ate very well.

And we saw the Eiffel tower.

And ate chocolate to our hearts content.

We saw Versailles.....

and the Louvre...

 and St. Chapelle....

 and the Seine.

While Tom was in his conference I went to the chocolate factory. Yum! and interesting.

 We also were able to go underground and see the catacombs. Though shocking at first, I was surprised at how quickly bones become pretty common and unremarkable after 20 min.

During our stay in Paris, Tom found out that his life long friend and mentor Farren Hunsaker passed away. It was very say and frustrating b/c it was almost impossible to get there. Not only do we live in Japan, but we were visitng France. But, he did have his good friend Seour Palacio whom he met on his mission. She was only a short flight away, so we hopped a plane to Biarritz--the San Diego of France. It was beautiful! We stayed in a chateau and spent time on the ocean.

 We even spent a lovely afternoon/evening walking around the city of Bayonne. Beautiful!

Thank you Tom for taking me to France. I love love loved it! Lets do it again in twenty.

First December

Getting our tree in November, before Christmas.

Tokyo Disnelyand...

...with great friends...

...with three girls exactly Hazel's age...

...and a place to try on Cinderella's slipper...

..and right before Christmas.