Santa came!

Remember when we were in Bali how we didn't really celebrate Commercial Christmas because we were waiting for "Santa's gifts" to arrive in the mail? Well they finally made it after a delay due to the busy holiday season, so we got to celebrate Christmas in January, hahaha. 

The day I picked up the gifts form the post office I told the kids that Santa was coming that night! They were beyond excited and we listened to Christmas music, made some cookies, and even read the Night Before Christmas. A portion of me did feel a little guilty lying to the kids, but at least they are getting the whole Christmas experience with Santa and presents, the whole shebang... even if it is coming a couple weeks later that it should. 

Kyle was at a squadron role call that night since it was Friday night, so I put the kids to bed by myself, and stayed up late being the little "Santa helper elf" by putting all the toys together. We got Abby a doll house, Connor a racing track, and Brayden a little ride along firetruck. All of the presents required some assembling, and that darn doll house took me almost two hours to put together. I finished and rewarded myself with some of Santa's cookies, naturally, and then Kyle walked in the door just a couple minutes before midnight. He was impressed that it was all set up, and then went off to bed. That's right, he better be impressed! This lady pulled off the biggest lie of the year by making her kids believe it was Christmas when it was the middle of January, AND I set up the whole Christmas scene as well. 

I think my pride of pulling everything off overshadowed my guilt of having a late Christmas. The next morning it literally felt like Christmas day. The kids all ran down the stairs to see what Santa brought them and they opened presents form both sets of grandparents. Thankfully it was a Saturday so Kyle didn't have to go into work, which just helped with pulling off the Christmas lie. We wore jammies for the most of the day playing with our Christmas presents, and the kids absolutely had a blast. I sure love my babies and would do anything for them, especially if it means keeping the Christmas magic alive by recreating Christmas day 3 weeks later. It was a merry late Christmas, and probably my last time I will ever be able to pull off a belated Christmas because something tells me my kids will pick up on it if I try it again.

A bunch of the ladies in our squadron threw me a farewell dinner this week. It was so much fun to visit with all my dear friends one last time before heading out of Misawa for good. I was overwhelmed with how many people showed up, and even more overwhelmed when during the dinner I sat back and looked around and realized what a wonderful group of ladies I have had the privilege of getting to know and live with these past three years.  I have seen many of my dear friends and their families move away, and now it was my turn to move and leave the squadron spouses. I just love our squadron and the group of ladies I get to call friends and family.

Afterwards they insisted that we all go out for karaoke. When they found out that I have never gone before  I was given no say or whether I wanted to go or not, they dragged me to the karaoke bar. They couldn't believe after 3 years of living in Japan that I never went karaoking which was invented in Japan by the Japanese! I was a little hesitant at first, but it turned out to be a super fun night! We all were in a room and a bunch of random songs came on with the words displayed on the big screen in front of us. We belted out and all sang together. Most of the songs made us cry from laughter because they were major 90's hits and the music videos on in the background were hilarious renditions of Japanese people trying to reenact the real music videos. Oh Japan, you do some weird things that for sure like karaoke, but I just love it! It was a fun night out with my fellow lady panthers. I never was part of a sorority during college, but my guess is having these squadron sisters is pretty similar.