Christmas tree, take 2

Well we are getting ready for the next two weeks that are filled with Christmas parties and other activities. Last night I had a PWOC event, and when I got home I saw a lovely little tree all decorated. We never did find a tree stand, and our real tree is looking sad. Steven has gotten this tree at the thrift shop on base. He also got a desk too tree for Emma. He told her she could have it when her room was clean. So they cleaned her room and she got her tree. 

It was weird for Emma to help with a fake tree. I don’t think she knew they existed. She told me they had to put it together. And told her friend she had a fake Christmas tree....I don’t think he understood. Most people have fake ones here, so not sure he knew what a real one was. 

Here is the front of her from the last post. 

New schedule

Today Steven started his new schedule. He is on 8 hours, which means he will be home every night. I don’t think he has been home every night for dinner for at least 3 years, maybe more. We are all excited. He woke up early this morning, so he went in early...and came home early. He did homework with Emma, and I made pfeffernusse while Emma did some crafting. Then we all ate dinner together. I think this will be a good change. 

We had a good earthquake this morning. Neither Steven nor Emma felt it, but I did. More things wiggled than normal, too. Probably because we were so close to the epicenter.

I have been making pfeffernusse for like 12 years. I have never had so much trouble with it as I have had this year. First my dough was too dry and crumbled, I couldn’t even pick up the cookies to move them without them crumbling. So we added water and chilled it again. Well, I added too much water and now they are sticky and spread when baked. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ if you get pfeffernusse this year, I’m sorry it’s weird.

I am still working on my French braiding skills. Aunt Grace game me some tips, but I think I’m still making some mistakes. For starters I think I’m puking I’m too much hair each time? I will keep trying. And I should have taken a picture of the front of her! We got this cute nightgown at the thrift shop! 

Last days of Fall

I have been trying for days to upload another post, but I still can’t get it to work. I will try something different tomorrow. But for now..

I have some pictures from Friday. We had planned on going down to Yokosuka overnight, but then Steven had to work on Saturday. And he didn’t sleep well Friday night, so instead of a one-day trip down there, we looked up where else we could get a real tree: IKEA. It’s only 20-30 minutes away, instead of 2 hours. We left early, and arrived before they opened, so we headed to Showa Park, which is only a block away. Apparently it was a Japanese holiday, so it was packed...everything was. But we still enjoyed seeing the last changing leaves. And someone got her wiggles out. We did get a tree at IKEA. It is about the size of last years....everything is smaller here. But it is real. We did come home to discover that I put the tree stand in storage...or else we just can’t find it. I had no idea there would be real trees here! It is currently sitting in a cup of water propped up in the living room. We will probably have to order a stand, I can’t find any here so far. So there has been no actual decorating yet. But when we do there will be pictures!

Emma’s Charlie Brown Christmas tree that Connie sent Steven last year. 

I’m a terrible photographer. 

There were so many photographers taking pictures!

She wanted to run through the grass.

She was full of giggles!

Jumping on the bouncy thing. A lot more kids this time!

They had lots of vendors there for the Fall Leaves Featival. And fireworks at night. I was impressed with the ketchup and mustard in the same packet!

It was a long walk back to the car, so we got her a Churro to eat on the way.

She fell asleep on the way home, so we stopped by the wood shop for Steven to sign up for a class. She woke up while he was in there. I tried to get a picture of her sleeping, but got one of her waking up instead. 

DDdy took a nap and we watched Mary Poppins on tv. She really is magic: She got Emma to sit still (no cartwheels for 2 hours)! 

Emma and I went to Joyful Honda by ourselves today while Daddy worked. We also made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, but I have no pictures of that. Corn is a side dish here (at McDonalds). And she loved her toy! She did not love shopping at Joyful Honda the Saturday after a Friday Japanese holiday. 🤷‍♀️ I never seem to mind shopping. 

Busy week

This has been a busy week! The kids had no school on Monday for Veterans Day, so we did some Christmas shopping. The Vice President came Monday night and left on Tuesday. They had to cancel the last half of school because of the flight line shutting down...so they just had their Walk/Jog-a-thon that morning. Tuesday night we baked like maniacs. And Wednesday was PWOC...and we were exhausted. Today was more baking and tomorrow is the memorial for an airman who died on base. I am helping at chapel for that...which was part of the baking. 

We really liked her hair on Sunday!

I’m thinking she may have some sort of allergy. This is from the bandaid from her flu shot. Bandaids have tended to do this to her....which is unfortunate because she loves them.

We stopped at McDonalds for lunch in the middle of our shopping on Monday. Honestly it is so much more stressful to do anything here (foreign country and all) and I just haven’t been doing much since my surgery, we should have just come home after lunch. We were tired. From now on we will just do one store at a time.

They posted this on the base FB page. Some of my friends got to meet them! 

Johnny is one of four fire fighters that San Angelo sent up to CA to fight the fires. They are really bad right now. 

This is from my friends FB page. This is Beale. It is so bad they cancelled school for the rest of the week.

walking at the walk/jog a thon. This was before she saw me.

Making pfeffernusse. She was in charge of dumping the flour in the mixer. 

She wanted to make something. She got out sour cream, lime juice and something else. I told her no. I said that from now on if she wants to cook something she has to have a recipe. I even showed her how to get on Pinterest to look up recipes. Well, while I was making dinner she found one...cookies. And I did tell her she had to have a recipe, which she did.  So we made cookies. We must not make cookies very often, because when they came out of the oven she said, “they look like cookies!” So we had milk and cookies for a bed time snack.

Oh, Polly. She was throwing up tonight. 

She is currently sleeping on Emma’s couch in the living room. She has 2 blankets and some “tea” right beside her. Hopefully she feels better in the morning.

Silly 6 year old saying

I have lots of pictures to upload, but it will have to wait for tomorrow as it is already late. But I wanted to share a funny thing Emma has said lately. One day she told me, “I’m not feeling 100%. I’m feeling like 6%.” 😂😂😂 That girl cracks me up! She has not been sick, I think she was mostly saying something she heard someone else say. She has said this a couple times, different percentages each time. She is silly. 

This picture is from school. They had to pick what kind of community helper they want to be. Emma picked a librarian. I remember wanting to be a potter when I was in like 2nd grade. Emma’s is more realistic, and would actually be helpful.

Turkey project

Thanks to Pinterest, school projects tend to be very similar wherever you go. This year we again had to disguise our turkey so he wouldn’t be eaten. Emma decided she wanted to dress him up as a firefighter. So we went to Joyful Honda and found some materials, and today we dressed him up. I think he turned out great. 

Christmas shopping

We have tried to do some Christmas shopping with Emma lately. “Tried” being the key word. It is so hard to shop for other people when you are 6. Yesterday we went to Donquiote (sp?), and today we went to Joyful Honda. Tonight we mostly ended up getting stuff for her turkey project at school, that was all we could handle. We did get to see some awfully cute puppies though!

I forgot my phone when we went to Don Quixote’s yesterday. But Steven took a picture of thesefor me. They are sandals. If anyone needs a gag gift, please let me know! There are sooo many here! I think these are hilarious! 

This puppy was very friendly. She wanted to lick our fingers. Emma let the puppy lick/chew on green dolly. We love looking at the puppies and kittens at Joyful Honda.

She requested this picture for some reason. 

And this one. These are her 2 ‘sisters.’ Green Dolly and Amelia.

Flu shot

Apparently it is required for the kids at Emma’s school to get a flu shot. I didn’t realize this until a couple days ago, and they were having a flu shot time at the clinic for two hours the other day, so we went. The line was long, probably 50 kids before us. But it went fast and it was good for Emma to see all her friends doing it, too. She didn’t want it. But it went faster than last time, we didn’t have to hold her down and there was no crying! Success! But when we got home she walked around holding her arm as if it was broken. Daddy wasin a  generous mood, so he made her a sling. I would have just told her to get over it. 

November

For some reason, Emma is very excited that it is November. She does like changing the calendar. Here are a couple pictures from the last few days.

At her storybook parade at school. I do love that smile.

Her favorite part of baking. We made pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

And oh her imagination! She came out all bundled up and said she was going hunting with her children in winter. (Apparently her husband was 99 years old and he died.) I said maybe she should set traps instead so her kids wouldn’t have to be out in the cold. So she did. And she caught a moose! But it had clothes on. Apparently she put magic in the trap. She tried to invite me to her house. But I talked her into camping ‘by the fire’ (space heater) instead. I wish I could record these things. I just cannot remember all the strange things she comes up with!