December 30 2013 Goodbye 2013!

Well Christmas has come and gone for another year. Really with all the travel and things going on in the family, December kind of flew by in a blur. None the less, Gary and I managed to have a nice if slightly subdued Christmas this year full of chocolates and tasty treats! We didn't plan a chocolate Christmas but that's just how things worked out this year and I'm not complaining!
                                           

We were also surprised to receive a surprise gift from our friend Yasuyo.                             

I'm going to do my On To Food segment first this post:
We started Christmas morning with our "stockings" (actually lindt chocolate bags since we hadn't purchased stockings), some mikan (tangerines) and for breakfast, warm brie,crusty bread and strawberries!  A delicious latte on the side of course!

Later in the day I made us a few snacks. Some quiche, bbq wings, pumpkin/sage soup, more bread and grape juice!

 I was tired of cooking by then and we were full, so I made the rest of the planned goodies the next day.

Home made crab cakes, stuffed mushrooms and asparagus with cream cheese wrapped in prosciutto. It was my first ever attempt at crab cakes and they turned out good!

On Christmas eve we went and looked at a potential church building. It's the curved, mirrored building on the left, 3rd floor.

While we were inside Gary turns around and yells,"look!" I have to admit the view was great!

This was our actual first viewing of Mt. Fuji since we moved here, but the day was perfectly clear and the building in the right spot! We really liked the building and have put in an application to rent it, of course Japan has several steps in any rental procedure so it's too soon to tell if we'll get it or not, but either way, it was worth the view!

Now , all the Christmas decorations are down, everything comes down on the 26th here, and the New Years decorations are up!

 New Year's is a very big celebration here and many stores will be closed from Jan. 1st to the 3rd.  I'm definitely looking forward to what the new year has in store for us! Happy New Year to all of you as well!!!!

In some sad news, we received word that our old dog Luke died  suddenly. He was left in the States with some good friends who took good care of him.

RIP Luke