Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and to all. This year we don't have any real plans for Christmas other than remembering our Saviour's birth. Christmas Eve will be spent with Yoko's mom and one of Yoko's cousins. We will be cooking a stuffed chicken breast dish and not partaking in the traditional Japanese Christmas dinner of KFC. We will be getting together with other members of her family on the 29th. Cool yet sunny days have been with us for a while which allows us to get out and walk quite a bit. Yoko has been feeling well and enjoys getting in what exercise she can. Our two main priorities are finding a job and place to have the baby. The job search is going well and resumes are being sent. Finding a birthing clinic that we like is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Each one has some positives but also negatives that seem to outweigh the positives. One thing we are facing at some clinics is a "set in stone" system that does things one way and that way only. There is no room for how the mother might want things done. Other challenges come in the form of not being able to make an appointment; one must just go and wait to be seen by a doctor which may be up to 3 hours.
One thing that we are looking forward to is Erik's sister will be coming to visit us on the 27th. She will be with us for a week or until she gets tired of her brother. She is teaching English in Suwa, which is about 3.5 hours away by train. We don't know for sure what we will do with her, but we will enjoy osechi.

Leaving and Returning

Much to the delight of all involved, we made it safely to Japan. Our flights were fairly uneventful except for a little turbulence on the San Francisco-Tokyo leg which upset Yoko's stomach a bit. Upon our arrival we found it to be much the way we left it 3 and a half months ago. We have settled back into "our" room in Yoko's mom's apartment (our address is under "About Us", to see video and pictures of the apartment go to the Sept 17, 2008 post) and jumped back into life here by going to Costco to get stocked up on necessities: bagels, peanut butter, fruit, cheese, and cereal.
Our time in the U.S. went quickly which might have been due to our having 30-40 "get togethers" with friends and family. It was great to see so many of you. Erik enjoyed being back at Yavapai College with many of his former coworkers filling in wherever they needed him. We both also enjoyed doing some manual labor for a friend; it had been a while since we had gotten that dirty. We enjoyed staying with Erik's parents ; it gave us some quality time with them. Our time at our church, Calvary Chapel of Prescott, was sweet and encouraging. We are so thankful that we have wonderful churches in Arizona and Japan.
Yoko has been doing and feeling well since we have been back. She had a couple of very tough days right before we left, but she is feeling "genki" now. Today, Saturday, Yoko got in a 3 hour nap which should help make up for some of the lost sleep due to jet lag.
Next week will be spent deciding where to have our baby. We have a great friend here who did research on local places where Yoko can give birth. We will be sure to keep this blog updated on how the pregnancy proceeds.