Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. This was also the first Christmas in our married life that we haven't either been with family or traveling. It went much better than I thought it would and I think we can call it a success!

First, a bit about Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve, we had invited two families to our house for dinner. The first family was the Liechty's. They are neighbors of ours that also go to church with us and have become fast friends. They have a son Brynn's age and another son that is 3. We love their family!

We also invited another family to our house. They are a Philipino family. He is here working with P&G for 6 months while his wife and 5 kids under the age of 10 were back in the Philippines. They came to Japan to visit him for Christmas but with all those kids and his wife, we didn't want them to have to spend Christmas Eve in a tiny apartment so we invited them to our house, as well. We had spoken to him several times leading up to mid-December but then he wasn't at church on the Sunday before so we didn't get to confirm. We also tried calling and emailing him several times but had no success. Even on Christmas Eve day, we still didn't get an answer as to whether they were coming or not. We assumed that he had changed his mind and headed home to spend Christmas with his family instead of them coming to Japan. We went ahead and cancelled the extra chairs we had rented, kept potato casseroles and rolls in the freezer, etc. to prepare just for our family and the Liechty's.

At 3pm (an hour before everyone was supposed to arrive) we get a call from the man saying that they are coming and will be to our house around 5pm. WHAT???!!!???!!?!?!? We madly go about getting the rest of the food out, defrosted and prepared. Called the other family to give them a heads up that there would be more coming. Re-rented the extra chairs and got out the table leaf for the dining room table. Madly washed the rest of the plates/dinnerware. IT WAS CRAZY!!!

5pm rolled around and still no Philipino family. Bryce called and he told him that they were on their way but running a bit late and would be to our house by 6:30pm. 6:30pm rolls around, still no family and we now have 5 hungry kids (and 4 hungry adults to be honest!). Bryce calls again and they still hadn't even left their apartment. They ended up not getting to our house until 7:30pm. We felt horrible but we went ahead and ate at 6:30pm because we couldn't wait any longer and didn't want the kids to ruin their dinner by eating a whole bunch of snacks.

They finally arrived and the kids weren't even hungry (in their defense, they had never eaten American food before). It was a crazy but fun evening. Also, in the Philipino culture, it is common to come late and stay late. Well, that is usually not the case in the Bowman culture especially when Santa is coming, there is church the next morning and Mommy is still getting up one or two times to nurse the baby every evening. The Philipino family left at 10pm though, so it wasn't too bad. Needless to say, Cade was hurting the next morning to get up so he missed most of Christmas morning. This is what he did instead:

While the kids did this:

And did this:

And ended the day after church with this:

These are straws that my brother and sis-in-law got them for Christmas. You can make all sorts of bendy, crazy straws. Really creative and a lot of fun but I can tell it is not a Mom that came up with this invention. Too much mess and too many dirty cups to clean up :0) The kids love them though. I will make sure to return the gift someday when they have children of their own!

Tanner's favorite gift was his remote control helicopter from Santa. Brynn's favorite gift was all of her arts and crafts activities (knitting loom, latch hook rug, cross stitch, etc.) and Isaac's favorite would have to be his crossbow from Santa. Cade, well let's just say that he was just happy to make it through the day and get back on a normal schedule the following week :0)

What a blessed Christmas!