Japan 1.0

We had the greatest time in Japan.  It was seriously 2 weeks of heaven and we were so happy to be with every one!  My mom took over 400 pictures and I only took 50 and most of them were taken by Todd.  My bad, good thing my mom is the best.  This trip will have to be broken up into a few posts because I don't want to leave too much out.

We left December 22nd.  Our flight left at 8:30 in the morning so we had to get to the airport bright and early.  We thought the girls would sleep in the car on the way there since we had to wake them up so early but they most certainly did not do that, which ended up being a good thing anyway.  Let me tell you how terrified I was of flying for 14 hours with a 1 and 2 year old.  It made me sweat when I thought about it.  The girls were both amazing and my only complaint for the flight on the way over was that I got bored.  We spent alot of our time on the flight doing this though, which is always nice.

We got to Japan at 4:00 in the afternoon of the 23rd in Japan.  Emma was happy to see Papa but a little concerned that Gam wasn't there.  Don't worry, all was right with the world when we got to my parent's apartment.  My mom and Emma are the best of friends, it is so great to watch them together.  We did our best to stay up as late as possible that night so as to try and fight some of the jetlag (which, for the record, I never got all the way over and the girls actually never had any problems with it) and then went to bed.

The morning of Christmas Eve we woke up and went to a local church to help make "rice balls" for the homeless.  Of course my wonderful mother would help us find ways to serve when we are all together. 

When we finished at the church we headed home, decorated gingerbread cookies and houses, headed to a nearby park, and then went to see Les Miserables.  My mom was nice to let Todd and I both go to the movie and she stayed home with the girls.  Emma would always choose her over us anyway.

After the movie, we had our traditional Christmas Eve fondue dinner and other Christmas Eve activities and went to bed. (probably the earliest I have ever gone to bed on a Christmas Eve.)

I guess I was the only one cool enough to wear the crown from our poppers.

Todd was not doing a very good job trying to fight through the jet lag.

Christmas morning was fun.  Emma was excited to have Christmas twice and very happy to find out that Santa knows how to get to Japan too.

This was our Christmas gift to my parents.  Glover baby #3 due July 3rd.  We are nervous and so excited to add another beautiful baby to our family!

After we hung out around the house we went across the street to another park before we headed over to my Dad's office to have Christmas dinner with one of his counselors and his family.  It was a great Christmas!

Emma we too busy going down the slide to be in the family picture.

Katelyn made a new friend at dinner.