Karate-do

 So when I said I was dedicating the first week of June to "Japan Week", what I really meant was the third week of June. Ha! I am finally ready to jump right in though, and am kicking Japan Week off with our once in a lifetime experience of taking Karate in Japan!

I feel like I was barely able to keep up over the last two years with all of the big going's on for the family, but didn't get a chance to blog about some of our favorite Japanese experiences and places over the long run. This is what I hope to accomplish now.

While we were in Tokyo, we were very excited to jump on the opportunity to have Porter take Karate- instructed by several fantastic Sensei who also just happened to be highly decorated and pretty much amazing, winning competitions the world over! These guys were no regular Joe down at the Community Center (no offense to Joe at the Community Center). I'm just making a point that these guys were literally championship teachers. It was an amazing and authentic opportunity that we had to take!

I had also been looking for something special that Porter and I could do together, to have be "our thing"; so with the encouragement of a good friend I decided to do it along with Porter! I couldn't ask him to try new things if I wasn't willing to try them too, huh?!

It was a fantastic workout, and excellent for our brains as well with trying to concentrate on remembering the steps, the details of doing them correctly, and trying to function in the class that largely conducted in Japanese! The language aspect was actually one of my favorites as it definitely helped us feel the uniqueness of the experience. They did speak to us in English when trying to give us individual instruction etc, but all of the Do-Jo etiquette, counting, names of the Katas, etc. was done in Japanese and we were expected to learn most of this language. Full disclosure, aside from  my basic set of Good Morning, Good Night, Thank you, Excuse Me, Sorry, - all of the rest of Japanese I knew was Karate Japanese. At least that's something, huh? 

 Overall, it was quite the experience, and if I'm being honest- kind of stressful but in a "proud of your accomplishment" kind of way. For the testing we had to go clear across Tokyo to some huge Martial Arts/ Athletic Center where we tested with all of the local Japanese Karate Students in front of a bunch of Masters (our Sensei being one of them), all the way up to the Tokyo Grand Master! (I think anyway, as once again it was all in Japanese:) Talk about intimidating!! For a bit there it was definitely a case of "what did we get ourselves into"!  

After our testing, they would do  a separate belting ceremony at our Do-Jo where we were awarded by the Grand Master. It was a bit of an intense experience, and I was very proud of Porter for hanging in there! Unfortunately we only were able to do it for the first year that we lived in Japan, as Porter broke his arm twice during the next year, so we had to quit. Those are the breaks though sometimes! (Literally:) We will always remember this experience though!

Drumroll Please

As we ventured into our first "mid-level" bidding season, we had a rollercoaster of an experience. Thankfully, at the end of our ride this time though, we ended up with an AMAZING onward assignment!!! We had multiple factors that played into our situation this time, making it very unique comparitively; but that is a story for another day. 

It took longer than we had expected, and then even longer for me to get around to posting it on the actual blog ( officially found out March 18th). I then spent the last few weeks hammering out details for the move.
 Now, I'm back in the saddle, and finally ready to blog it.

DRUMROLL PLEASE......

we are THRILLED to announce that our family will be moving to 

 the homeland of Legos

the Vikings

the Little Mermaid

Bicycles

Canals

and the Happiest People on Earth voted multiple years running....

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK!!!!!!

Arriving in May, and taking reservations for Visitors!

In all seriousness though, getting assigned to Copenhagen was an incredible feeling, and it will be so perfect for our family in many, many ways that most people are not even aware of.  At this specific time in our lives,  it will be such a wonderful gift for experiences that each of our children need. The Lord knew exactly what we needed, before we did- as always. We know that receiving this news was a direct answer to Prayer, and we will be forever grateful for this amazing opportunity. 

Watch out Denmark, here we come!!

A couple trips to the ER

Lest you think we had a boring start to our year, 

we have started out with a bang!

M kicked it off right by flying over the front of his scooter to split his chin on New Years. Poor guy ended up with 7 stitches, but we realized he is incredible under pressure! He was so good at the hospital, (even fell asleep while they were stitching him up)! Then, he was once again calm and collected when they had to take the stitches out. He wins the award for being a good boy at the doctor in our house! Beats R and P hands down!

All fixed up. Girls dig scars right?

But P could not let his brother have all of the fun. Oh no. 

Just a couple of weeks later, we got a call from school that he had slipped at school, (it was pretty slick outside as it has snowed the night before and the track was really wet). In any case, his arm was still "weak" for up to a year from the last break, and it had only been 7 months. If you do the math, that equals another doozy of a broken arm, and another nap under anesthesia! He was really brave again, and came out with a sweet blue full arm cast this time! 

Things have healed really well this time around.

 He just must be a professional by now. Ha!

So at his appointment this week, he got to get his new short cast even earlier than we were anticipating! He chose a fantastic red one, and he was thrilled!

Looking good buddy! Now, let's be done with your broken arms Ok?

For life. 

We will cross all of our fingers and toes!

Tis the Season (or Twas the Season, I should say)

We celebrated a wonderful holiday season this past year at home here in Tokyo, just with our little family and good friends.  We had a nice and cozy Turkey day- where Noah made an incredible spread as usual! I cook the rest of the year, but he has Thanksgiving down to a science! Love this about him! It was all delicious!!

Although, he did make most of the meal, I was very proud of myself for making my Grandmother's Monkey Bread recipe all by myself for the very first time ever! This was my major contribution to dinner, and I was very proud. 

Then to kick of the Christmas season, we of course headed to the Embassy Christmas party at the Ambassador's Residence! We got a three way shot of the boys with Santa this year. This is the best we could do, and I would love to point out- that the only person in this entire picture who is looking at the camera and smiling is Mrs. Clause! Too funny! We tried hard, but R was mesmerized by Santa, and couldn't take his eyes off him!

The Family Shot by the grand staircase

Christmas Eve Cookies for Santa

Opening our beloved PJs!

This year I was also SO excited about these darling little Sumo Wrestler ornaments I found for the boys! They were awesome. 

Hanging their awesome ornaments...

All of their pjs were cute, but I think this pair of
P's might be my all time favorites!! 

They were so cute and vintage style,
I was in love instantly with them. 

Santa found us again in Tokyo, thankfully!

Noah is excited to take P golfing now.

Just starting in on the chaos. Let the games begin!

We had a great night on New Year's Eve as well, and rolled sushi with our friends for the first time. It was so fun to learn how to do it. We were thrilled to ring in the Year of the Sheep! 

Hope you are as good to us as the last year! 

We will leave you with the 2014 and 2015 shots of the Tokyo Tower! 

(to round out all three -they go with the 2013 shot of last year, although the 2013 was the best photograph. At least we started out strong!)

Gingerbread Night 2014- Tokyo Edition

Finally blogging about the holidays!

To kick it off we will start with our annual Gingerbread night!

We of course did graham cracker houses for the kids....

And we adults had a grand time doing the
 "real" gingerbread creations!

(we let the kids help a little of course) 

We decided that we were going to go authentic Tokyo for this year's theme. There aren't so many iconic landmarks per-say here that everyone thinks of when they think of Tokyo. What most people do think of though, is just the city itself! 

It is quite a wonder to behold, and it definitely has a "vibe" 

that we have been privileged to call home for the
 last couple of years. 

We tried to capture that essence I guess you could say! 

So we call this year Urban Tokyo

Going straight up concrete jungle gingerbreading

Noah, always a pro at the construction

Our awesome friend Miss J wins the top award though this year for completing Kinkaku-ji,

the "Golden Pavillion", which is perhaps the most famous temple in Japan, and is in Kyoto. 

It is stunning in real life, and she brought the heat this year even with real gold-leaf edible paper and paint that she brought back from the States! It was awesome! It also goes without saying, that Japanese Temple gingerbread pieces are not easy to bake. She is a rockstar!

Our other fabulous friends did a fantastic Santa's sleigh and Reindeer as well-

works in progress....

My turn to decorate!

Finished Product!!

(it's all in the details though)

Rooftop gardens, electric grids, and air conditioning units

Of course all the fire escapes...

And my favorite teeny weeny so called "balconies",  that are just big enough for probably one person.  And we simply could not forget the Futon hanging out the window!

Last, but definitely my favorite detail is all of the poles IN the road and the tons of electricity wires hanging everywhere! I really wanted to put even more licorice wires, to match the real effect, but my cookie wafer "poles" just weren't strong enough for more. I definitely think we captured the "feel" of it though. You can imagine yourself walking down a street in Tokyo, and the feel is just as chaotic as this! ha! Nailed it! Well, if we had added 5 whole packages of sour patch kids to equal the number of people. ...

We put the finished products side by side to give the whole essence. Tokyo is all about a mega-city that is modern and chaotic with all of these quiet, traditional, gorgeous temples stuck smack in the middle. They pop out of nowhere, and it is really fun to see as we have explored. 

Honorable mention to the sweet igloo too. 

Great work guys!

And Miss J with her masterpiece! 

Incredible

P also really wanted to do his own "real" one, so he designed his own Karate Dojo Billboard all by himself! It says Konichiwa down the side, and he loved the sparring ninjabread men. He worked so hard and it was terrific!

And of course, R and M did their own darling houses too! 

It was a super fun night, and another successful creation in the books. 

Now to think about next year....