Kindergarten Christmas Program

Jack's class joined with another kindergarten class and sang Christmas carols in the food court on base. He was so excited for us to come and see it. It was a classic kindergarten performance.

I thought all the parents were so funny. Each one trying to capture every moment. 

Here is a little piece of his program. I love watching these videos, except for the lady in front of me who kept walking back and forth a million times! She was driving me crazy, and I had to move the camera every two seconds. Oh well. It was fun to see him!

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{long!} December wrap up

 As soon as Thanksgiving was over, we went into full Christmas mode. First thing we did was put up the tree. I'm not sure who was more excited....me, or the boys. Of course Justin gets excited too, but something about Christmas makes me so happy! I love Christmas music, seeing the lights glowing on our tree, and our basket full of Christmas books that the boys want us to read to them over and over. It's definitely my favorite time of the year.

 Our most requested book of the season has been Snowmen at Night. A close second, Snowmen at Christmas. We love the snowmen books!

 The boys wrote letters to Santa. 

 They held a little Christmas fair here on base. It would have been a lot more fun if it wasn't freezing cold and raining. It wasn't too bad when we first got there, but it progressively got worse.

 By the time they made it to their third ride it was so windy and rainy! We decided to head out and warm up with some hot chocolate at Starbucks. 

 We took lots of pictures in front of our tree. I can't get enough of these two in their handsome sweaters. My sister, Angie, has a slight sweater obsession, and we are lucky enough to inherit all of them! Not every day in Okinawa is cold enough to wear them, so when it is, we take full advantage. 

 We had an elf visit us this year, who we named Alex. This was such a fun thing for us! The boys would wake up every morning and instantly run to find him. Alex was pretty funny. He gave the boys mustaches, rolled down the stairs in a roll of toilet paper, and was being held hostage by army guys. I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year.

More sweaters :)

 I pulled out this picture from the Christmas boxes. Jack was 18 months old. We went to visit my family that Christmas and he ended up having the flu the whole time. It's hard to believe that little guy has turned into this boy who is growing out of his clothes by the minute. His brand new pants that I bought him for school are already too short. When did this happen?? 

 I saw that shirt online and HAD to buy it.

 I went to a Japanese cooking class at my friend Amy's house. Yukari (second from the left) taught us about the Japanese lunches which they call bento boxes. Their school lunches are crazy! Every single day, the Japanese moms get up early and make an elaborate lunch that is made into a character or an animal. One of the Japanese missionaries came to our house and told us that when he was an exchange student in the states, his host family gave him frozen burritos for lunch every day and he hated it. He was missing his bento box lunch!

 This was the one that we made. It was pretty simple compared to some of them. 

Here is an example I found online. They are so detailed!! And this is what they do every day. I was feeling pretty lame as I thought about the lunches I pack for Jack.

I added a bunch of music to our Christmas playlist this year, this one being my favorite. Joseph's Lullaby by MercyMe. If you haven't heard it, you should. It's really pretty.

 Gingerbread houses were a hit with the boys. I'm pretty sure more candy went into their mouths than on the houses.

 We drove down to the Itoman lights with some friends. We all felt a little underdressed. It ended up being cold and windy. The lights were pretty impressive, but we saw the whole thing in about 20 minutes. Which, I guess with the weather, ended up being an ok thing. 

 And here we are at Christmas Sunday! This is one of my favorite days. I actually love when Christmas falls on a Sunday, and almost wish it could be that way every year. It's such a good reminder of why we do all this holiday stuff in the first place. We did a scripture advent calendar with the kids this year and it was amazing how much they learned about the Savior. Every night they were so excited to see what our Christmas scripture would be about. It was definitely something to melt your heart a little. Our scripture advent has now secured itself as a Heaton family tradition.

Wow, that was a long post! Unfortunately with all the holiday hustle and bustle, my blog fell to the wayside. A couple more posts and I'll be caught up for the New Year!

Peace Prayer Park & Museum

 Thanksgiving weekend, we went down to the very southern tip of the island to the Peace Prayer Park and museum. It's a memorial for WWII and specifically the Battle of Okinawa. It's a very sobering place to be. The Battle of Okinawa was one of the worst in the Pacific side of WWII. Over 200,000 Japanese died (civilian and soldiers) and somewhere around 62,000 Americans casualties, with over 12,000 dead or missing. Being there was a very eye opening experience for us.

 The park itself is extremely beautiful, and despite the sadness that you feel, there is also a great sense of peace there. The whole experience is hard to describe. Just being there brings a lot of emotion.

 These strands of origami were one of my favorite things we saw. They were placed at different monuments with a tag on the end. I wish I could read Japanese so I could know what they said. This wasn't just a little pile of origami either. I can't even imagine how long it would take to fold enough papers for just one strand! It was amazing.

 There are a bunch of caves throughout these cliffs. The Japanese used to hide in them during the day and come out at night, hoping to find food and other shelter. The Japanese soldiers had brainwashed the Okinawans into believing that if they were captured, that the Americans would torture them in indescribable ways. They were urged by the Japanese soldiers to commit suicide in mass numbers. Some of the soldiers would give Okinawans grenades or convinced them to jump from these very cliffs.

Like I said, it was a very eye opening and sobering place to be.

 The boys were just having a great time playing and enjoying being outside. We tried to tell them a little of the story of the war, but they are still so little and unaware of the huge tragedy that it was. In some ways I envy their innocence, not knowing all of the terrible things that are in our world today. 

  

 There were rows and rows of all the names of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa.

Despite all of the sadness we felt, it was such a great day. Justin and I enjoy history so much and love learning as much as we can. Going there made us both grateful to be in Japan and having such memorable experiences. It was one that we won't soon forget.