Winter Holiday 2012

Our first Christmas in St. Kitts was quiet but beautiful.

We've been enjoying receiving Christmas cards from our friends and families (this is in a present tense since we are still getting holiday cards!).  It definitely helped us get in the "Holiday Spirit".  Since there's not much Christmas shopping to do here, we saved up packages that were sent from our friends and families during the month of December to open on Christmas morning.  I can write a whole seperate post on the power of care packages...(which I may still do later :)  Care packages from our friends and family definitely made our first Christmas extra special!  Although they open up the box in front of you at customs when you go and pick up the package, I tried my best to not look too closely so that I could still be surprised on Christmas.  One time the custom officer even left the presents inside the box wrapped so that it would stay a "surprise".  I thought that was very sweet of him.  I've gotten to know many of the people at the customs office since I usually stop by after I drop Mike off at work.   They are all so helpful.  They often times help me figure out how to stuff the big boxes in my Trader Joe bags so that I can walk back to the car with my boxes while holding on to Megumi's hand.  Getting to know people throughout the town is definitely making St. Kitts feel more like my "home".    

Our Christmas day was spent eating yummy food we made, opening Christmas packages, watching Christmas movies, and of course, heading out to the beach in the afternoon!

Our first New Year's Eve-day was quite loud compared to our Christmas day!  We kept hearing about "Carnival" and we decided to check out the Children's parade on the 31st.  We were told it started at 2pm.  I was telling Mike that we were going to be late if we didn't leave home by 1:45 to which he replied, "Yuki, do you really think the parade will start on time at 2pm?"  Well, we got to the Independence Square around 2:30 and the streets were filled somewhat with people and vendors.  We walked around for a while and I even thought we had missed the parade.  Mike asked one of the children that was dressed up in a costume what time the parade was and he told Mike "probably around 4pm".  We should've known that nothing starts on time!    

Enjoying some local fruit flavored soft-serve

We actually went home for a little bit then came back for the parade.  The parade was very interesting with all the children dressed up as different historical and cultural objects/places/people on the island.    

The New Year's Eve was spent at our new friends' house.  The get together started at 8 and we weren't sure how long Megumi would last since her usual bed time is between 7 and 7:30.  It's hard to do anything social when you have a little one but we decided New Year's eve was a special occassion.  We had a great time hanging out, getting to know each other and Megumi even lasted until 9pm!   

  

It was so nice to have Mike off of work for few days so that we can all spend some quality time together.  After eating all the yummy treats for the holidays, we decided to go on our first bike ride as a family!  It was my first time getting back on my bike after being pregnant with Megumi.  I was quickly reminded of how out of shape I was but how much I've missed being on the bike!  I'm not a big fan of all the hills but the view was beautiful! 

We certinaly got stares from people driving by curious of the little bike seat for Meg.  For those of you who are interested, we have the "iBert safe-T-seat Child Carrier" bought from R.E.I.  We highly recommend it!  Megumi loves to ride with us and she usually falls asleep by the end of our bike ride as you can see in the picture.

Friends and family, as we start the new year, we just wanted to say "thank you" for being in our lives.    You are such a blessing to us!  We truly appreciate your support through prayers, phone calls, packages, letters, facebook, blog comments...etc.  We are excited to see how God will help us grow individually as well as a family in year 2013!  May we all grow closer to Him each and everyday sharing His love wherever we are!