For the sake of tradition

A few years ago we started making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers before Christmas. We really enjoy it (maybe it's all the candy...) and so it has become a family tradition. Graham crackers are hard to come by in Japan, but when we were in Sendai we knew of an import store where we could get them. This year we wanted to do it again, so we looked all over Yokohama for graham crackers. Shane finally found some and ended up paying about 8 dollars for a small box of nasty tasting no-name brand graham crackers, all for the sake of tradition. Why didn't I just make real gingerbread?? Because you can't get molasses here either. Anyway, we had a great time making them so I guess it was worth the 8 bucks.

Happy 4 weeks

Today is Isaac's four week birthday. These first weeks of life are counted by the days and weeks for me. Each week is like a milestone..."wow, I made it another week." The aftermath of this birth has been much better for me, but still, the lack of sleep and demands of a newborn are not easy. I have been on my own (without help from our wonderful families who came all the way to Japan to help me) now for over a week. The hardest part is the morning when I don't want to get out of bed but I have to because I need to get Cailey out the door to school and take care of Isaac and Bryant.

If this picture of Isaac looks like a mug shot, it's because it is. Since Isaac was born in Japan, there has been a long list of things that we have had to do so that we can take him back to America with us. He got his Japanese visa this week and now we have to take him to the US embassy to get a passport, birth certificate, etc. We took this picture of Isaac for his passport. They are very picky about the picture, and it is not easy to get a newborn to cooperate. Eyes open, looking forward, on a white background, head size between 1" to 1 3/8 ", etc.