B Family Travels: Kurisumasu

Ku-li-su-ma-su: Japanese pronunciation of Christmas.

We had a nice, quiet first Christmas in Tokyo. Despite all the lights, trees and decorations around the city, Christmas is not an observed holiday for Japanese people. Christmas Eve has become an informal romantic holiday for young couples, and many go out for nice dinners. We were warned not to eat out at any fancy restaurants that night with our kids (ha!). Christmas Day is a normal working day, although many people celebrate by ordering a special dinner of fried chicken from KFC. Really.

Christmas trees, while not hard to come by, are extremely expensive. I used to think $80 sounded like a lot for a real tree, but we would have gladly paid that this year. A small live tree cost well over double that in Tokyo. They sell reasonably priced live trees at Ikea, but when Joe's assistant called to order one for us, they insisted that we come choose a specific tree. They couldn't fathom us not personally choosing a tree, a very Japanese sentiment. In the end we just got a small fake tree from a local store. Annie really wanted a big one but once we had ours lit up and decorated she seemed OK with it. Next year we have promised ourselves to make it up to her!

One thing we particularly enjoyed during the month of December were all the phenomenal lights (they call them Illuminations here) put up in our neighborhood. At least a few nights when Joe was either working late or out town the girls and I went to Starbucks for a treat then took a walk to see the lights.

Right out our back door!

Starbucks

Christmas magic!

Joe took some time off around Christmas and we had a nice time just lazing around. On Christmas Eve we signed up to have Santa pay us a visit to our apartment, arranged by the building management company. The girls acted completely nonchalant when the bell rang and they saw Santa standing at our front door, like it was just a normal occurrence.

Knock knock... it's Santa!

Showing Santa their ornaments

Santa gave each of the girls a small gift that I had dropped off at the front desk he and took a few pictures with them. When Joe asked the girls to tell Santa one thing they might like for Christmas, Santa looked worried that he didn't them in his bag. We explained to Santa that maybe he could bring those gifts when he came back that night.

After the (non) excitement of Santa's visit, we did some cookie decorating and Joe took the girls up to the roof to burn off some energy. It was a beautiful day!

Getting some fresh air on the roof garden

We attended 4pm mass at the Franciscan Chapel Center which is about a 10 or 15 minute walk from our apartment. Lizzy fell asleep almost immediately and slept through the entire mass, and Annie fell asleep on the bike ride home. We had planned on seeing some lights and maybe grabbing dinner somewhere easy after mass but seeing how tired Annie was we decided to order pizza which Joe picked up on the way home. After dinner the girls exchanged "sister gifts" because Annie couldn't wait one second longer to give Lizzy the present she had gotten for her, a wooden bead necklace. She was even nice enough to open it for her and offered to wear it so Lizzy could see how it worked. :) It was so sweet seeing the girls exchange gifts and I think I would like to make this a Christmas Eve tradition in our family.

Annie opening Lizzy's present for her, so thoughtful

Sweet sisters hugging

Annie started asking at that point if it was time to go to bed, because she knew she had to get to sleep so Santa could come! We spent Christmas morning watching the girls open their gifts - they didn't get too many and seemed very happy and grateful for what they received. Joe and I had so much fun watching them open the gifts and seeing their reactions. We actually kind of wished we would have gotten them more things, despite making a real effort to keep it low key. They recieved matching scooters, a Melissa and Doug cupcake set, a doctor kit, a Brio train set, and some little odds and ends like art supplies and coloring books. Surprisingly they did ok with the shared gifts. When Annie opened the cupcake set (which she did not ask for and has never seen anywhere), she said "A cupcake set! I've wanted this for my entire life!!"

Annie came out fully dressed, Lizzy came out naked

Doctor kit was a big hit!

Making some cupcakes

"A train set! We didn't even ask for this!"

New train set in action!

Lizzy + Marker = Trouble

Christmas dinner, yum!

We then had a nice morning/afternoon playing with all our new toys and watching some Christmas movies. Our niegbors invited us over for Christmas dinner where we enjoyed a honeybaked ham and some traditional sides. All in all it was a laid back and relaxing day. I know people always talk about how fun the holidays are with kids, and it's really true. Annie really enjoyed all the little things we did during the month building up to Christmas: crafts, paper chain, cookie decorating, gingerbread house making etc. I can only imagine that next year will be even better because Lizzy will really "get it" by then. Can't wait!!