Saturday, December 17, 2011 -- They had a fun Christmas party at the elementary school for all the younger children on base. We took Helen, Jane, and Alice (in the pouch on Amber's front) and made ornaments, candy cane reindeer, colored, waited patiently in line for a balloon animal, threw snowballs in Santa's mouth, ate pizza and treats, and generally had a good time. The base has all kinds of fun activities for everyone of every age.

Sunday, December 18, 2011 -- We went to church again and though the floor was cold again, the spirit there was very warm. Amber got to play the piano for Relief Society. Jane wasn't feeling very well and we kept her with us the whole meeting.

We also went to a Buddahist temple. They were just ready to close for the evening when we got there. They did let us in, and we promptly took off our shoes and walked around and took some interesting pictures. The smell of incense hung in the air -- lots of prayers went up to heaven that day!



Monday, December 19, 2011 -- The 9th day market -- An outdoor market that is held on the days of the month with a 9 -- 9th, 19th, and 29th. We were told we could find a shop with used kimonos. We found some obi fabric (12 inches wide and yards and yards long) that we can use for some various craft projects -- possibly curtain toppers or Christmas tree skirts? The rest of the market was fruit/vegetable stands, fish stands, flower/garden stands. It was snowing so hard when we were there we couldn't even see across the walkway! This would be a really fun market in the summer with more venders and better weather!

Monday evening we went to a Japanese restaurant - Aburi an. We went in, took our shoes off, put them in lockers, then sat down at our table which was on the floor level, because we are wimpy Americans, we put our feet in a pit where the grill was sitting. It looked like we were eating real Japanese style, but we were just faking it. There were heating coils down on the floor that kept our feet nice and toasty. We ordered lots of different meats, vegetables, rice, salads, onion rings, cheese sticks, and just gobbled it up because it was so good! We cooked our own meats and vegetables on our own little grill.

Yesterday there was much more snow that we've had the whole time we've been here. Michelle says she feels like she lives in a snow globe with it snowing nearly all the time. The kids in the neighborhood all came out to play and sled yesterday afternoon (I suspect that their mothers kicked them out of the house to have a good time). Michelle and Ryan have a great sledding hill in their backyard, so they don't have to go far. Unfortunately, they don't have a sled yet! Helen had fun on the neighbor girl's sled.

We only have a couple of days left on this wild adventure and we're beginning to feel bad about leaving, but excited to come home and party with a new group of party animals.