Christmas Eve

It's day two of my winter vacation and I started it off by lugging a very heavy, half-broaken suitcase, stuffed with a variety of presents for my siblings and, well,... bottles of alcoholic delight for me and Boris to share, to the Yoyogi JR bus station. At 10:20am, I found myself on a bus that would take me back up to Nasu and family for Christmas. It was a smooth and relaxing bus ride, thanks to the fact that there was no traffic, the weather was lovely, and no one was occupying the seat next to me. The only thing lacking was a can of beer which I was planning on picking up on a rest-station on the way. Upon arriving to the rest-stop though, I was horrified to find out that they didn't have beer or any alcohol for that matter!!  So wrong!

When i saw Boris, Yuya and Nonny waiting to pick me up at my bus stop, I was soooooooo excited and overwhelmed with happy emotions I almost didn't feel the biting cold air that hit me when the doors to the bus flung open! It's good to be back in Nasu! It's good to be at Mom and Dad's place. I missed it all--the pollution-free air, the peaceful atmosphere, and even the smell of cow!

I spent my day catching up and chilling with siblings, and, believe it or not, cooking dinner!! All that for not wanting to be in the kitchen during my stay here! Damn the camels nose!!

I cooked a chicken, eggplant pasta.

Then I spent the rest of the evening with my daaaaahling over cake, strawberries, sparklingi wine and chocolate! Best . Christmas . Eve . EVER!!

seriously...

I'm at a cozy Starbucks, enjoying my lunch break with a cup of hot coffee, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and a bit of blogging on the side.


It's a perfect December day: the piercing cold, heavy clouds, gray sky, and Christmas decorations and music everywhere! To be honest, I hate the cold. My body doesn't seem to know how to cope with crazy-low temperatures and has the tendency to shut down a bit during the winter. I've been trying to figure all this out for the many years I have had to suffer through the cold seasons, and I think I've finally figured out what's going on! My body is trying to go into hibernation, just like any other sensible mamel should! But since it's December, one of the bussiest months of the year, hibernation isn't anywhere close to being even an option to cope with cold. So I don't hibernate and struggle on. My body freaks out because it's not hibernating! My body starts shutting down certain functions as a result, and I start feeling and looking awful! I'm brilliant!!


Every year when winter rolls around, my neck and shoulders cramp up, my back starts hurting, my toes change from healthy pink to a dangerous grey-purple, my usually lucious lips crack and consequently are a bloody mess, the time that it takes to tumble out of bed is anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, and if you were to only look at my hands, you would think that they belonged to someone 30 years older! But despite all these symptoms of badness, if it weren't cold during December, something wouldn't seem right. To me, winter time is what it is because getting up in the morning and crawling out of bed is so difficult. Because I can see my breath. Because I get to wear my favorite winter boots. Because I have to sleep under layers of blankets to keep warm. Because when I come back from the bathroom around midnight, my bed is no longer warm, and finding sleep after that takes forever. Without these things, winter wouldn't be winter! It would be something entirely else, and I don't think I'll like it very much.


Speaking of winter, it's almost Christmas. Christmas is all about family, love and  the food!! Speaking of the food, I can't believe I'll be cooking Christmas dinner this year after I repeatedly let the family know that Boris and I would take little to no part in cooking for everybody this year! We were so determined not to, you should have heard us!


Over the phone with Boris:


Boris: Eiko, let's not cook Christmas dinner this year.


Me: Yeah, forget it! I'm not gunna be anywhere near that kitchen! Ugh! HATE my hair and clothes smelling like fried chicken! (HUGE pet-peeve) Hate my fingers smelling like garlic days after! Hate my finger nails being fucked up by my sloppy knife skills!


Boris: Let's just relax and let everybody else fuss and take care of stuff we do every year! I mean, I'll have work at Ikegami that day! I don't want to come back and cook dinner! I just want to spend time with you and relax! (Awww!) It's their turn anyway.


Me: Totally. I can't enjoy anything laid out on the table after slaving away in the kitchen, cutting, tasting, preparing, marinating and cooking all of it! I smell and look bad after a day in the kitchen, and I feel full. Can't even enjoy drinking when I'm like that! Dangerous sign! No ways, man! I'm not gunna cook! But who's gunna cook if we aren't?


Boris: Eiko, don't worry about that! If we won't, somebody will HAVE to! We're a smart family AND we're a big family. Somebody will figure something out eventually. I'd rather a whatever dinner, or even ordering pizza or eating out than cooking! Seriouslly, Eiko. This year, we're gunna be the ones enjoying the dinner while everybody else runs around fixing things up. I'm NOT.GOING.TO.COOK!!


Me: True. Why has it always been us anyway when there are so many of us?


Boris: I know, right? So many able-bodied Matsuokas! There's Yoko, there's Tom, there's the sisters-in-law minus, I guess, the pregnant one, there's Mom (Boris was very desperate), and there's well, ...Dad! (Desperate!) And Ai-chan and Akari-chan will whip up the deserts! Voilla!! Christmas dinner is served! Oh, and there's Yasu and Yuya! Oh, and there's Sam! Wow!


Me: OK, Boris, let's do this! We're going to retire! (for this year, anyway)


Boris: This is so awesome! We need to let the family know we've retired!


Me: OK! Let's post this on FB!


Boris: Seriously!


Me: I know, seriously!


Boris: OK, good.




And after all that and then some, where we are, planning and fussing over Christmas dinner. I'm going to need a box or two of fags!

holidays at Nasu

Eiko says...

Happy 2011, world!!
It's a brand new year, and I think I started it off right. I went back home to my parents' place and had a bunch of fun catching up on life with Mom and Dad, the younger siblings, BORIS, the relatives and the bunch. Mom and Dad's tiny cottage was packed and bustling with happy holiday spirit.

Along with celebrating a brand new year, we also had a belated Christmas party over lot's of food and drinks. Boris and I happened to be the cooks for these occasions, and spent all day in the kitchen baking, cooking, frying, and decorating. I cooked Christmas dinner last year as well, but only for 8 people. This year, with all the relatives present, (minus 4 = Yoko, Seiko, Rich, and Ryden) we had 21 Matsuoka's at this gathering, and cooking for everybody was quite exhausting.

Both me and Boris refused to cook anything traditional, and being that it's not even 'Christmas', we strayed far from turkey, pasta and gravy. Egg nog and wine were the happy exceptions. No need to eliminate those. We made pizza (boris made an amazing crust), some wraps, fried chicken, tiramisu, a cake, egg-nog, and appetizers. Cooking with next to zero counter space,...I think we did a good job.

To compliment the Christmas celebration, it snowed all day on the 30th, and everything outside was white! Check out the awesome pictures that I got from
Tom! She was our faithful camera-woman while Sam was suffering from a stomach ache/fever. There are some pictures from Sam later tough.

I'll post more pictures of the New Year's Party, the snow, and the family pictures of us all.












P.S

The following posts will center around this family get-together with lot's of pictures! AND! Yuya drew this totally amazing picture! Check it out at our art blog!

Christmas Dinner

Eiko says...

WHAT'S UP?!!!!

Do you remember the movie "Jesus" (starring Jeremy Sisto) where at the end of the film, Jesus walks down the street in modern clothes and welcomes a crowd of children that come running at him? Well, I just found out the other day while watching the movie with Boris, that what he's saying to the kids is, "What's up?" This disturbed me greatly. Don't ask me why. Anyway, that's completely irrevelant. Let's go on with the Christmas post!

It was the first time we were able to celebrate Christmas on the 25th, and also the first time we celebrated Christmas with no one else but our family. Christmas dinner was very laid back, relaxed, and enjoyable, not to mention yummy if I may say so myself! LOL!

I made Christmas dinner and had a hard time figuring out how much 8 people would eat on Christmas. I found out that we're not such big eaters, and although I thought I made barely enough, we had some left overs and everybody ate till every corner of their stomachs were packed and stuffed.

Menu:

*Fried Chicken
*Mashed Potatoes with gravy
*Pasta
*Cream Stew with biscuits
*Salad
*Apple Pie
*Punch

After dinner and the dishes, we watched "Enchanted" all together, and that includes Dad and Mom. I wasn't so sure how they'd like it esp. since Dad doesn't like comedies, and cringes when Owen Wilson, Jacky Chan, Mr. Bean and Jim Carey are on screen, but they both really enjoyed the film.

Me: Hey, Dad, how did you like the movie?
Dad: I like her.
Me: Gazelle?
Dad: Yes. I think she's cute.
Me: Ah! So, you're into stupid-princess-like-girls?
Dad: That's why I married your Mother!
Me: Ahhhhh, right...
Dad: Don't tell her I said that. Hahaha!
Me: No worries Dad. She won't find out!

I ended my Christmas with a hot bubble bath-- alcohole in one hand, and dark chocolate in the other-- with my favorite songs playing in the background. It's most relaxing. You should give it a try when you feeling like treating yourself to something extra special. Hot bathes are my most recent, new "thing"--perfect after a long day in the kitchen (which is every day, 'cuz I cook all the meals.)
Anyway, I had a good Christmas.
Check out the photos.

Christmas Morning

Akari says...

Our Christmas tree looked extra nice and inviting with all the wrapped presents underneath, especially so because today is Christmas and we can finally rip off the wrappings and enjoy the presents.
But before we opened the presents, we first ate the chocolate-chip scones that Eiko made for us, and we read a few Christmas stories on Mama Online. It made me forget about the presents for the time being but as soon as the stories ended, I felt like wiggling out of m y chair to get a hold of my presents, totally forgetting whose birthday it actually was.
Anyway, afer the prayer, we kids ventured slowly towards the mountain of presents.
When almost all of the presents were gone, I decided that this was the time to give Ai her present. Before we left TOM Home, Yuya and I decided to give a secret present to Ai. IT's a book called 'The Silmarillion'. She always wanted this book and I think my best present was seeing Ai's shocked expression when she opened thge present. This present was better than my new pair of boots and my ne MP3 put together!!
I will let Eiko post about the dinner because she made it and it's almost time to watch our movie.
I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

Our New Home Name is...

We were all sitting around the dinner table on Christmas Eve as we discussed what our new home's name should be and things were sounding desperate.

Dad: What about the Healing Cottage?

Me: I don't know which one is worse--"Healing Cottage" or "Little House on the Prairie" (Little House on the Prairie was a name Dad was originally insistent on, and one that I would cringe at)

Yuriko: I'm still voting for Porcas. You know how they stick the names of couples together, like Brangelina? Paul and Dorcas stuck together would be Porcas. Or the other way around would do just fine: Doal!! Being that Mom is the dominent one in the relationship, it would be more appropriate if her name came first. *snicker

Yuya: What about Nasu Home? It's simple, and ...well,...safe.

Me: I liked Blades home. That was a cool name for a home...

Akari: I like that name. Let's be Blades Home.

Mom: Or New Blades Home or something.

Yuriko: Or! What about BaJiNa? B stands for Banana and you know how Dad loves bananas. J stands for Jesus, and N stands for Nasu! We could so be the BaJiNa Home!! Or NaiJaBa. Same thing, same meaning, you know.

Nozomi: I like Yuriko's ideas best!!

And all this went on for quite a while, and can you guess which name our New Home ended up with?

None of the above, ( Thank Heavens!!)

The genius among us by the name of Ai, came up with "Ichthus". It was settled in a matter of seconds.

Doesn't it sound fantastic?

Not convinced about how cool our new home name is?

Well, read on!!!

Ichthys or Ichthus (Greek: ἰχθύς, capitalized ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) is the ancient and classical Greek word for "fish." In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, said to have been used by early Christians as a secret symbol and now known colloquially as the "sign of the fish" or the "Jesus fish"

Symbolic meaning

The use of the Ichthys symbol by early Christians. Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ, Greek for fish) can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words. It compiles to "Jesus Christ, God's son, savior," in ancient Greek "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υιός, Σωτήρ", Iēsous Christos, Theou Huios, Sōtēr. (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.

• Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.
• Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστóς), Greek for "Christ" or "anointed".
• Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), that means "God's", genitive case of Θεóς, Theos, "God".
• Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios ( ͑Υἱός), Greek for Son.
• Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for Savior.

So, everybody, we are NOT "The Healing Cottage", nor are we "Naijaba", "Paulcus", "Doal" or "Blades". We are not Nasu Home, or the "Paul and Dorcas Home", We are officially Ichthus!! Remember that, and don't forget it.

One thing I thought was so cool about this name was that it means "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior", and that we named our Home Ichthus on Christmas Eve when the world is celebrating Jesus' birth. It's very significant, if you'd ask me.

Some pictures of our Christmas Eve gathering, the Christmas tree, presents, etc.

Eiko is dead.

Eiko says...

I really, REALLY dislike Open House baking. I've been disliking Open House baking for quite a few years now, but I've continued to bake for our yearly Open House despite my negative feelings.

Just like with anything else, I like doing things when I'm inspired to do them, and this certainly applies to baking. I can bake fairly well when I'm inspired about what I'm about to bake. When I'm NOT inspired,...well, it's simply a disaster! That's why I do believe I witness a Christmas Miracle every year when our visitors go ranting and raving about how delicious the no-inspiration-cookies that I've baked are!

This year, like all the other years, I was asked to bake cookies. Unlike all the other years though, I was asked to make the cookies on the last day. This messed with my groove as baking is a big deal for me, and I like planning, and knowing what and when and how I bake whatever I bake. So I quickly looked up a recipe, and spent all day baking cookies and packaging them, going out for ingredient shopping as well as cooking lunch. I was originally on dinner cook as well, but the good Lord knows what I'm NOT capable of, and that would be staying in the kitchen ALL day, and He saved me from that form of torture. Cooking dinner in addition to all the kitchen work I've been doing would have K-I-L-L-E-D me!

Anyway, I was literally exhausted by the end of the day to say the least, and all I could think of after dinner was taking a shower and getting the cookie-smell out of my hair. (Pet Peeve: my hair and clothes smelling like whatever I cooked) So you could imagine how I reacted to my Dad hitting me over the head with a, "Sweetheart, do you think you could bake us a cake for tomorrow's party? I really don't think we could possibly have a Christmas party without a cake!" I'm afraid I let my jaw drop to the ground and left it hanging there while I tried to make sense of the request.

Huh? Bake a cake? Am I suppose to know what that means? How does one bake a cake? I don't know what an oven is. The words flour, sugar, Baking Powder, and even salt can't be found in my vocabulary right now.

etc. etc.

Of course, I did end up baking the cake. In fact, I just pulled out of the oven. It smells like a chocolate cake, so it must be one. After all, I did put cocoa in it.

Now I'm beyond exhausted.

I just found out that I'll be doing all the cooking tomorrow. Wow. Okay, I think I'll need another Christmas Miracle in addition to the visitors liking my baking...I need to somehow be alive tomorrow!

Finally! Christmas decorations...

Akari says...
Finally! Our Christmas decorations are up!
Yesterday, we decorated our christmas tree. It's simple and nice just the way I want it to be... but there's something that disturbes me greatly... the star is missing. I perfer a star rather than an angel, ... but I guess we just have to do without.

rabu rabu actually

Eiko says...

Okay, our Internet connection sucks BIG TIME!

I couldn't go to sleep (most likely because of the huge mug of green tea I drank down after dinner) and so instead of wasting time tossing and turning in bed, I decided to catch up on some blogging, but I ended up wasting 10 minutes loading and reloading this page!! It's driving me coo-coo! I'm seriously considering a Home change to that Home in Taiwan where Hiki used to live before going to Canada. Apparently, they can download a movie in less then 10 minutes! O.M.G! Kill me!

Anyway, that's not exactly what I had in mind to blog about.

What I was originally thinking of blogging about was, ...well, love!

Love is Actually all around us!

Don't you just LOVE that movie? Love Actually is my favorite Christmas movie, and the best part of the whole movie is without a doubt, Hugh Grant's irresistible hip thrusts! Being able to move your hips in such an attractive manner, and with such gusto and pride is not a talent just anyone has. Oh, and not to forget that song the skinny, perverted looking old man was singing with such enthusiasm and soul throughout the entire movie! I know it's your #1 favorite Christmas song! Don't worry. It's mine too. (Not...really... but wtv)

"I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my t-o-e-s
...."

Anyway, Dawn and Yasu, the teens, Yuriko and I watched Love Actually in a well cushioned 4th floor lounge (blankets, couches, cushions, the whole deal), over some thick, hot chocolate and marshmallows. We also recently got a new projector, so we didn't have to be crouched over any one's small lap top screen either. It was a first timer for all of the younger teens, and they loved it. Who wouldn't? That movie was a master piece. It shows human love in it's many forms. I think I liked the writer's story best. And also the little boy's love story with the little girl singer.

And all of a sudden I'm getting a neck cramp, and the depressing state of this Home's internet connection has gotten me tired. I think I'm ready for sleep now.
This post is so not finished, and is 100% stupid, but I'm gunna post it anyway, just to make this neck cramp worth it.

Will blog more laterz.

Merry Christmas.

ohmygaddo!! kurisumasu daisuki!

Ppls, it's the 12th of November.
This leaves you with only 43 days till Christmas season is OVER!!

Here's a to-do list for all of you who aren't sure how to make the most of these last 43 days.

*Start listening to your favorite Christmas music!

*Start sipping hot chocolate!

*Pull out the Christmas tree and give it life!

*Read some good 'ol Christmas in the Hearts!

*Bake cookies, or anything chocolaty.

*Make breakfast in bed for someone important to you with a Christmas card!

*Watch Love Actually, A White Christmas, Scrooged, --any of your favorite Christmas movies!

*Write Santa Clause a freakin' love letter!

*Make onigiris and pass them out to the homeless. (something I used to do with my Dad on the Holidays.)

*Go caroling!

*Share the love!

*SMILE more!

*LAUGH more!

*HUG more!

*And please, DON'T BE DEPRESSED!

I'm sure you have a pretty good reason or excuse as to why you're depressed, but for every reason/excuse you can come up for being depressed, there's a reason for you to be happy and joyful!!

Scrooge-like people are real wet blankets and no body likes them, esp. during Christmas.

Don't be a Scrooge-like-person! Just don't.

And have a very, Merry Christmas. :)