Mochitsuki Day!

Today we went to Hibachan's house to make mochi (Japanese rice cakes). Ever since Hibachan was a young married woman, our family has gotten together to make mochi. We used to make them on December 28th, but as our crew got younger and tied to work schedules, we've moved it to the Saturday before Christmas. All total there were about 25 people who came to make mochi with us this year. We started at 9am and worked until 1ish, had a yummy pot luck lunch and had lots of fun chatting time. I'm happy we continue to get together to make mochi. It's great for our kids to learn a little about our Japanese culture.

Bailey working on a plain mochi

Three kiddies waiting for some mochi

See Gregory next to Grandma? He's eyeing the an. He spent most of his day playing with Grandpa outside.

Here's Bailey's FIRST AN MOCHI - she made it all by herself!! :)

My friend Megumi stopped by! I haven't seen her in about a year!! I miss her tons and it was great to catch up a bit.

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Our Holiday Newsletter

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Christmas Lights!

Tonight we took the kids to see the Christmas lights near our home. There's an area where most of the homes decorate their house - I actually think they are all supposed to do it, but there are some duds. Actually this year there were quite a few duds. Must be the economy... But, some people really go all out! We even saw a couple of houses that had their lights timed to the music on the radio! Fun, fun, fun!

We still have NO LIGHTS on our house. Bailey keeps asking Daddy, but still no lights. If she can't get him to put them up, I guess we're going to have a dark house this year. Boo hoo.

Oh, Daddy!

Yesterday, Daddy worked on trimming our tree out front.


Guess what happened next.


Yup, that big ole' log fell on our broom!


He said he fixed it, but I don't believe him!

Making of the teacher gifts

Today we worked on gifts for Bailey's teachers and Kevin (her physical therapist). She made heart ornaments - painted them red and decorated them with Christmas glitter and gems. Daddy helped her drill holes in the heart so we could attach the wire hanger. We actually made these last year for our tree and they turned out so nicely I thought they'd make perfect teacher gifts. I hope they love them as much as I do! :)

What do you think?