Fall and Winter Holidays in Okinawa

First up, Halloween! We decided to go all out goofy and host a costume party! Our friends are super good sports and we had an amazing night with a total vegetarian Fall-themed feast and tons of games (which I'm pretty sure the girls won every time)! Don't you love the costume I was able to convince Joel to wear?! :-p

Next came the Marine Corps Ball! This was our fourth ball and it did not disappoint. We attended with the Figueroa's and Worthington's and had a blast celebrating the Marine Corps' 240th birthday!

I'm super sad I don't have any Thanksgiving pictures, what was I thinking?! We had a wonderful Turkey Day, though, and party hopped so we could spend time with a lot of dear friends. I made three green bean casseroles and shared one at each location. Sadly, they weren't that good, LOL.

I have to give a shout out to the Ricafrente's, who came to Okinawa for a visit! We had a super yummy pancake breakfast and stroll on the beach with their family and the Goering's. We miss you guys!

Around Christmas, our church small group was the (un)lucky one chosen to perform the singing portion of the Christmas ministry at a local special needs school (we were hoping for the task of package delivery, LOL) However, we practiced for a whole five minutes before performing "Angels we have Heard on High" in front of an auditorium full of Japanese children and their families. They were so gracious and clapped for us even though their performances outshined ours by a lot! We watched in awe at their skills singing, dancing, traditional Okinawa drumming and more. THEN they served us the most amazing variety of desserts and yogurt drinks. What a fantastic opportunity to meet this wonderful group of people and celebrate the holiday season!!

Jose was more than happy to sit Japanese fashion.  The toilet paper was there to wipe noses, I think?

A local elementary school also performed. They were SO precious!

Oh my gosh!The cuteness!

I cannot let this blog go by without mentioning the most historic Sci-fi event in our lifetime, the premier of Star Wars Episode VII!!! I bought tickets a month in advance with the help of one of my co-workers who is Japanese and could translate the website for me. I was able to reserve 9 seats so there was no concern about waiting in line for hours in advance to get good spots. It was one of my absolute favorite memories in Japan - not only did we have the total package of opening night jitters and anticipation, but we shared it with Americans and Japanese alike. There were Japanese subtitles on the screen so it could be enjoyed by all and the crowd was AMAZING. Watching movies in Japan in something special and that entire weekend (we saw it twice) was a memory that will absolutely go down in history for me!

Opening night!!! I could barely focus all day at work and you can't tell, but I'm actually wearing a Star Wars dress the Figueroa's bought me :)

Still opening weekend, watching Star Wars again with our ultimate Star Wars friends, the Worthington's! Brandon was pretty critical at first, but I think he came around to a four-star review overall after pondering it for a few days ;-)

Christmas morning at the Dillers... It's really tough not being "home" for the holidays, but we've had some hilarious moments with our families via Skype, LOL.

A Christmas tradition (we stole from my family) is to eat orange danishes and drink hot chocolate on Christmas morning!

Bruce KNEW there was something in his stocking and couldn't wait to rip whatever it was apart!

And of course, we HAD to host our now annual tradition of pasta making around the holidays. This was a special year because the Martin's were in town from Iwakuni and the Goering's were celebrating their first Christmas as Okinawans! We transformed our living/dining room space to accommodate our wonderful friends and their beautiful families.

Lastly, we were able to ring in the New Year at the Chauvin's by playing random Daiso ("dollar store") Japanese games and watching fireworks from their balcony over the water. It was the perfect close to a fantastic 2015.

 

Happy New Year!! (only 8 months behind on the blog, LOL)