Our First Christmas Day in Japan

We were so happy when the Murrays invited us over for Christmas Lunch! We'd figured out by that point that a meal at the Murrays was never just a meal but a feast with a full program after (sometimes before) too so not only would we not be alone on Christmas Day, we were also going to have lots of fun! :) Joining us were a few members of two other families. The grandmother and a niece from one of these families also joined us, who are both non-believers. We had a great time together!

The lunch was potluck style and so we had quiche, baked potato casserole(?), fruit salad, banana nut bread, ham, and our contribution was a spinach-green apple-candied walnuts salad. I even candied the walnuts myself! Peter and Juhee helped with the salad too. :) Susan let me use some of her roasted sesame seed dressing which is really yummy.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and the grandmother said that it was the first time she tried raw spinach. They don't seem to eat a lot of raw veg here. She's very traditionally Japanese and has high standards so I was honored (and surprised!) when she told me that she thought my spinach salad was delicious. Yay!!! :)


We prayed together before the meal and the grandmother and niece got to hear the Christmas story for the first time too thanks to Taylor's brave and very impressive reading in Japanese of Jesus' birth from the bilingual Japanese kids' Bible after lunch and presents (see pic of Juhee showing off the grass skirt she got from the Murrays - she loves dressing up & dresses!). Susan then read "Rinky Dinky Donkey", the Christmas story told from the viewpoint of the donkey that carried Mary on its back to Bethlehem, for Juhee. She loooooooved it!!! :) We then had dessert - pumpkin pie with (homemade) whipped cream! - and then played Bingo. :)

After the other guests had left, we discussed the Christmas Party that was to take place at the Murrays the next day involving some 30+ people. The Murrays are amazing at the way they pre-plan all of the details and really work together as a team to make sure their events are enjoyable for everyone and run as smoothly as possible. We have a lot to learn from them! We spent some time praying together for the event before going home for late naps, a late dinner, and another late night.

Anyone notice that this blog posting didn't start with something like "as soon as we woke up, we all rushed to open the presents underneath our Christmas tree..."? :) Well, we let the kids sleep for as long as possible 'cause they'd had another late night, I had to make the salad after breakfast, Sungjae chose this busy morning to spit up and then dunk his head in it for the first time ever, and then after his nap, as we were getting ready to go, we realized that he'd pooped so much it seeped through his diaper and clothes so he needed to be washed and all of his clothes changed. Sigh... So we're going to have an extended Christmas this year with our presents being opened sometime a few days after Christmas. We don't mind. Sungjae doesn't mind. And Juhee doesn't know yet. ;)