Every year there is a little Christmas light display in our area. We went with some friends this year. It was a cute little event to start the Christmas season.
Oh! And my hat isn't strange. It's cute. Everyone says so. So there. >P
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We spent the holidays back in the states. It was the first time we'd been back in three years! (Well, actually, I'd gone back once when my Grandfather passed.)
We had to do some visa stuff before we caught our flight, so we were feeling a bit rushed. And it isn't easy to get to Narita from our house. I think it took like three hours just to get to the airport! The flight from Tokyo to San Francisco took 13 hours or so. We were greeted with a giant rainbow at the San Francisco International Airport.
We had to catch another flight to Atlanta after that. We had an awesome view of the Rocky Mountains on the way to Atlanta.
Rhett's parents picked us up in the middle of the night. We drove for a couple hours to get to Augusta, but not before stopping at a convenience store. Rhett and I went a little crazy and bought all the snacks we could hold. We really missed American snacks.
We spent some time with Rhett's friends and ate more food than we should have during our first few days back.
From Rhett: I took a picture of my first and only car. Little did I know it would be the last time I spent with it before its untimely death at the hands of the current owner. RIP (Rest In Pieces)
I tried to get some shopping done too, but there were about a million people in all of the malls. That's what I get for shopping around Christmas. This was in the dressing room at the mall. There are no words.
Angela had a beautiful Christmas tree set up at her place. It really helped us to feel like we were in the US.
After a few days in Augusta, we set off for Rhett's grandparents farm. I always love it there. Rhett decided to take some interesting night-time pictures.
In true Southern style, we spent Christmas morning shooting guns. I'd never even held a gun before, let alone shoot one. It was scary. REALLY scary.
We had Christmas with Angela's side of the family. It was nice, and very different than what I'm used to. We had a great time.
We had lunch at TGIF before setting off on our next adventure.
We spent the next few days in a cabin just outside Atlanta. It was right on top of a mountain practically. The cabin itself was beautiful. And HUGE. SUPER HUGE.
At the cabin, we hiked around a bit and relaxed a lot. It was nice to unwind a bit.
We also ate lots of food and overall just talked and played games.
We had Christmas, round 2, with Daniel's side of the family at the cabin. Instead of stockings, we all got Santa hats. We also played White Elephant.
Then, it was off to Vegas. We didn't get to spend that much time there, but it was nice to see everyone. We didn't sleep very much during this part of the trip, because we had soooooo much we had to do/so many people we had to see. I wanted to try to fit everything in.
We went shopping with my mom and got a lot of really nice clothes. Mom even surprised us and paid for most of what we bought! That was very sweet of her.
We went to Red Rock Station on New Year's Eve. I had to make sure that Rhett went to a proper buffet.
We met Mike and Amanda there after doing a little gambling. It was awesome to see them again. I missed them a lot.
But the most memorable part of the entire trip was Grandma's birthday. She didn't know we were coming home. She and mom were having breakfast when Rhett and I just walked in. The look on her face was priceless.
Doris was also there. Doris was our downstairs neighbor when I first got adopted. She's pretty much family to us.
We had Christmas, round three, in Vegas. That little Christmas tree hasn't really changed much in ten years, so it kinda brought me back.
My step-dad makes THE best food. He was kind enough to cook carnitas for us while we were there. They were soooo good!
I also got to see Kay. Kay is another person who is pretty much family to us. She's been cutting Mom and I's hair forever.
We had to go to The King and I, our family's favorite restaurant, at least once during the trip. It's right on the water, so it's really nice. I took more pictures of this little duck than I did of anything else during the trip. AND, the pictures of the duck were all clear and beautifully shot, unlike most of the other pictures I took. >_>
And that was that. We were flying back to Japan before we knew it. We really missed our family, old friends, and American food!
We flew back on the Dreamliner. When we got back to Japan, we were surprised to find out Dreamliners were being grounded left and right. We had an excellent flight. And the landing was so smooth unlike every other plane that rumbles to a stop.
We both got fevers as we were arriving. It made the trek home MUCH worse. Rhett was so sick that he forgot one of our bags on a train! I had to make a mini trip the next day to get it back. Luckily, nothing was missing. After a three hour trip through trains, dragging luggage around while sporting moderate, sweat-inducing fevers, we were finally home and passed out, hoping our fevers would go away. Our phones were dead, the doorbell turned off, and the place was locked up... only Rhett was supposed to have class in the morning. So he had to make it up to his student with some free classes.
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