Santa

We popped into the city yesterday to meet some friends for dinner, and decided to head over to the big Macys near Penn Station to check out the fabled Santaland. Incidentally, it already seemed like Santaland outisde as we had a foot or more of snow in the last two days. Snow makes New York seem like a farytale. Except for the people - they really know how to use the parts of the English language that don't make it into most dictionaries if you don't follow the driving culture. Christmas shopping stress really seems to bring that out, but it's kinda fun since it is NY culture - feels like being on safari. Just smile back and take a photo.

We joined the long line for about half an hour and enjoyed people dressed as elves yelling at patrons to keep moving while trying to make it friendly by interdispersing "Merry Christmas" at appropriate intervals, and various parents not letting their children look at 

anything other than their strobing blackberry camera phone. It reminded us of that classic scene from A Christmas Story. The display was amazing though.

Anyway, we eventually made it to Santa, and he was surprisingly friendly. I was just expecting to walk past and see him with all the kids, but we actually got to take a photo with him! It was pretty cool.

So, we have our Christmas tree up and lots of presents under it. We also decided to use some of the money we normally give to church to shop for people in poverty who really need stuff this year and help put some presents under other trees. It was a great experience and gave us both a sense of what Christmas probably should be more like - giving anonymously to people who have real needs. But it's still fun to share with people you know too, so I think we're finding a happy balance. We are a few hours away from the best present we will get this year, which is a visit from my brother who is flying over from England as I type. I hope we can show him a great time in the USA again, and we are looking forward also to driving to Indiana with him to have fun times with the family.

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Card to You!

Merry Christmas from New York, everyone!!! We’d like to send our love and thoughts to you during this holiday season, wherever you may be! Thankfully, this year has been blessedly boring compared to the last few. I guess you could say this year we officially transitioned from wide-eyed, stressed to a crisp, livin’la-vida-loca jetsetters to feeling much more stable and at home in our little cabin in the woods. To be feeling more at home in a time when we look around and are reminded that nothing is permanent and how fragile the daily living we take for granted truly is, has been a great gift to us. When we feel we might be getting too comfortable, we try to think back to those hard days of looking longingly with job-envy into the windows of telemarketing firms on our way to the grocery store where we would argue about if we could afford a 32 pence packet of hot chocolate for a treat!

We started off this year with Ian getting a job! In February, he started working for the Mental Health Association as a case manager for clients with schizophrenia. He’s also busy volunteering for a local counseling service and working on his Masters in Social Work. Busy! Kristy-news includes finally getting properly certified to teach in the State of New York four four-hour state exams later and surviving her first year of teaching middle school Japanese! We both are learning so much from our jobs and have enjoyed getting to know our respective clients and students.

We are starting to feel like real New Yorkers now, complete with an appreciation for good restaurants, a tendency to speed and/or road rage, and the ability to walk around NYC without a guidebook. We’ve made some good friends in the area and found a good church to be a part of. This summer we joined an Okinawan sanshin (instrument) group that practiced in Central Park every week. It was fun to have the tourists come and gawk at us! We also raised our first garden this summer, Ian-and-Kristy-style (which means, don’t actually know what you are doing before you try it!)

If you ever get a chance to come to New York, please let us know! Our house is always open to welcome you. Have a wonderful holiday season, and we wish you all the best in the coming new year!

Much love, Ian and Kristy

Snow Day

Well, it's December 18th, and we are geared up for what is supposed to be the first major winter storm (and snow day) of the year tomorrow. So far we've barely gotten any snow or freezing temps - I think it was actually 60 degrees earlier in the week. So anyway, I learned today that according to my students (ages 10-13), if you really want a snow day, you have to do the following:

1. Sleep with your pajamas inside out

2. Do a snow dance around wearing your inside out pajamas

3. Sleep with a spoon under your pillow

4. Pray

We'll see if they still say it works tomorrow!