Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we went to mass on base and after, hopped on the train to Tokyo with our friends Casey and Matt! We ate at the TY Harbor Brewing Co. and it was amazing! 

We opened one present a piece before we left for mass that night and this was Sam's...he is obsessed with his new dragon from my Dad!

 Christmas Day was a lovely, relaxing day. We had cinnamon rolls, coffee and pomegranate mimosas. We stayed in our PJs all day, opened presents, FaceTimed with our families, ate breakfast pizza and lounged around. It was really nice! We had our traditional prime rib feast for dinner (mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, Yorkshire pudding, prime rib and gravy) and I cooked it all in the toaster oven...it was perfect and I'm really proud of it!

 Sam's first stocking present (a cinnamon apple crunch bar from BarkBox) 

Alex's squadron poster!

New dart board! Thanks Santa!The aftermath

Making our small kitchen work!

 Yes, the prime rib is roasting in a cake pan. 

Yorkshire Pudding! YUM!

Super helpful hubs! Making potatoes like a boss!

Gravy

 The attempt at a family photo...

Christmas Decorations

A few people have asked about what the house looks like now that it's all decorated, but I was waiting to show until a. Alex was home and saw it himself and b. Christmas! A house always looks so lovely and festive decorated for the holidays!

This isn't the whole house; not pictured is the bathrooms, laundry room, hallways, guest room, office, and most of the living room.

 

We have a small table top tree in our room, on our dresser.

Garland up the stairs (that's our new Japan map!)

The tree!

 The tree is in our dining room; it was the best spot for now. We have a few spots we can put a tree in, so it may be someplace different next year.

He was so intrigued by what I was doing. He kept sitting and posing like I was giving away treats.

Small wooden "tree" (and our Mt. Fuji sticks behind that!)

This is a Kokeshi Nativity Scene! I've been wanting one for a long time and saw this one at the Bazaar a few weeks ago. I love it! It's all handmade and hand-carved wood.  

The little angel...she is so cute! The baby Jesus is obviously hidden away for now.

The white sign with kanji on it is a sign we had made at the Mochi pounding event a few weeks ago; it says "Alex & Kaiti Castillo"

 This year we have an Advent calender tree! I made the bags and painted numbers on burlap and sewed those on. They're filled with scripture readings and treats!

Christmas cards from friends and family--I think most of them are delayed at our Post Office (we haven't received mail in about a week...I'm quite certain theres a ton of packages waiting to be sorted for us!)

Hopefully I'll stay on track posting on time and there will be more posts soon! Hope everyone's having a wonderful week! 

Merry Early Christmas!