Holidays with the fam
Spent the christmas/winter solstice season at my sister's place near Tokyo. Mona LOVED it. I LOVED it! I hope OScar and Irene LOVED it too.
On christmas day we went out to eat, in order to relieve pressure on my sister. We had big plans for a special restaurant that Tomoe had found online, but it turns out it was for a different place. We ended up at a probably better place randomly chosen from the shopping mall near her house. Best cheesy noodles I have had in a long time!
Oscar and Irene (my sister's twins, if you can't tell from the photo) loved the pumpkin pie (if you can't tell from the photo).
Mona had a great time and learned a lot! She walks so much better and has other skills improved after watching Oscar and Irene.
The only negative thing was that our new (used) van got keyed - very deeply - while it was parked at my sister's apartment. From this I make the broad generalization that people in Tokyo are not as nice as people in this area, where instead of keying the car, they have secret meetings about all the bad stuff you are doing.
Letting the chickens loose (even though everyone said OK) - No no.
Having a new van close to the road - No no.
letting a pieve of freshly chopped firewood fall into the path of the snow plow - No no. (this one I kinda understand)
Anyway, it was a wonderful trip to Kelly's, and Mona loved it, hopefully as much as Oscar and Irene and Johan seemed to have loved it.
Among the testivities were building a poorly planned gingerbread house (I am very disapointed in Young Hoon's engeneering skills), and playing with stickers that Mona stole from Oscar and Irene.
We also got lost when I let Irene guide me home after separating from her mum. That was fun. We found a hippo.
Shopping was kinda fun too. The eggs our Silkies are laying sell for 200 ($2)+ each. Good to make angry neighbors, who never told us they didn't want the chooks free, feel a little bit happier. I think Mona sells for more, but their bar-code reader didn't register her price.