Merry Christmas from Shizuoka!

Tomorrow morning is Christmas Day and Elbert, Aileen and I will travel by train to a cabin in the mountains for a Christmas retreat with several other American Nav staff like ourselves. I'm excited to relax, play games, watch movies and hang out with these super fun friends!

I took this shot of Fuji while biking for last minute gifts on Christmas Eve.

Transferring a Balcom tradition to Japan, Aileen, Elbert & I enjoyed Chili for our Christmas Eve dinner.

We enjoyed a Christmas dinner last night at Ginger's. The turkey was delicious (Thank you Ginger.. and Jo & Mary for shipping it from Tokyo!)...but the crab was HUGE! Look at that thing! If you know me at all, you know seafood makes me cringe- needless to say my anxiety level skyrocketed for a moment when I sat down facing this beast at the table. But, I tried a bit and it wasn't bad, and it seemed kind of humorous- why wouldn't there be a GINORMOUS crab facing me at Christmas dinner, really?

I enjoyed the challenge of carving a turkey for the first time in my life. It was quite fun, really! Look at the size of that knife! Abunai!

I watered the VanZantes flowers today as they're in the U.S. for Christmas. Can you believe flowers are in full bloom on Christmas?!! Is this really Christmas?