Dreaming of a White (Sand) Christmas

I know everyone should be dreaming of a white Christmas during the holidays, snow, wool sweaters...the whole bit. But I certainly didn't grow up that way. I remember heading outside to play tennis with my Dad after we opened presents. But that cultural imagery is strong for a kid born and raised in the US even though I never experienced that myself first hand. Compound that with the fact that Shelley and I are sort of searching for our own family Christmas traditions. It's kind of silly to say, but we an ever-so0-slight tinge of guilt over our plans to spend Christmas in tropical Pattaya, Thailand.

Pattaya's beaches stretch for miles, and where we were staying were largely devoid of any tourists. This allowed us to have lots of fun at the beach - as you'll see in the photos.

Having the beach basically to ourselves allowed us to have some of the the best sunsets I've ever seen. And in doing so, I learned something about Shelley I hadn't known before. To me the sunset is the actual sun setting...the time before the sun actually dips below the horizon. Once it's gone...it's basically over for me. For Shelley, the sunset is the sun once it has set...the afterglow if you will. I never knew that before.

Anyway, these were probably the most tranquil parts of our days. We enjoyed the sunset, while our kids played in the mild surf, collected sea shells and climbed around rocks at the head of the beach. Quinton usually slept. Afterward, we would eat dinner at an open air restaurant - which usually had tables set up on the sidewalks overlooking the beach and surf below. Dessert was usually provided by a local cart which served up a banana and cream pastry-like dish. As hot and humid as the days got in Pattaya, the nights were perfect.

It was at these times when we were feeling pretty good about our white (sand) Christmas. The slight pangs of guilt we felt about turning our collective backs on the whole US centric Christmas tradition may in an of itself turned into a new family tradition of our own.

Holiday Recap...

I don't feel it's too late to make a quick holiday recap since at the Cannon household Anthon won't let us take down the stockings and Christmas tree. Luckily it's fake.

Christmas - great day, but did I really have to take a vacation day to celebrate Christmas? Yes. Doesn't quite seem fair until you remember that in Japan you basically get the entire week off the following week. More to the point, growing up Christian in the U.S. you really don't know what life is like as a religious minority - but while we're in Japan we're definitely the minority here. It was weird to see life carry on as usual on Christmas day when things basically shut down for the day in the U.S.

We were asked all the time if we were heading home for Christmas and while we would have liked to spend time with family, Shelley and I were excited to forge some of our traditions for our family. So what traditions did we create for ourselves? Well, food wise we ordered hamburgers via delivery...and that night we made shabu shabu at home for dinner. While it might seem more like what Ralphie's family would have done after the neighborhood dogs ate their dinner, but we're open minded people and the food was really good. Christmas was one of those all time great days where from top to bottom it was filled with happiness. Oh and yes, Santa (by way of the local FedEx) delivered our new plasma TV.

New Year's - Most of our activities can best be read on Shelley's blog. I don't have too much to add other than to say how gross my feet must be to have been the main attraction for the Turkish Dr. Fish. They literally attacked me and wouldn't leave my feet alone. I made sure to add that onto my list of things to accomplish this year.

Finally, it was a rarity to see Mt. Fuji with such clarity up so close. For someone who is a sucker for vistas and expansive views, it was really, really cool. If it hadn't been so cold I think I could have stayed up there all day. Anyway, read Shelley's blog and you can get all the low down on the day - here is a short video from Fuji and then the next day at Meiji Shrine. Also, click on any picture to go to the gallery of shots over the holidays.

Anthon's Christmas Concert

Anthon has been in school for a few months and to top off his very first semester at school, they had a brief Christmas concert. It was very cute. The kids had practiced "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for the better part of a month.

I'm toying with the idea of hosting these videos on Youtube. Let me know what you think.

A Special Visit from Santa Claus

Anthon had a big Christmas Eve - receiving not only a phone call from Santa en route to Japan from the North Pole, but also getting a chance to see Santa deliver his gifts.

My Dad tried out his best "Santa" voice and waited up till midnight, his time, to call Anthon on our Christmas Eve. Anthon was surprised to hear Santa on the phone, but didn't hesitate to tell Santa that he wanted a Buzz Lightyear. He was so concerned that Santa might forget what he wanted, that he took the opportunity to tell Santa about three more times in the short conversation. So cute.

Then, our upstairs neighbor, Walt Ames, offered to dress up as Santa and deliver Anthon's presents. After Anthon went to bed, Santa snuck into our front room and began to lay down the gifts. Shelley ran to get Anthon, who was still awake and looking out the window for Santa's sleigh. Though Anthon was told to be so quiet and not make any noise, he couldn't keep his excitement in and said, "hi Santa!" Walt played it cool and pretended not to hear him. He laid out all of the gifts while Anthon watched and whispered his hopes for a Buzz Lightyear. Santa then took the cookies and carrots Anthon left for him and his reindeer.

Naturally, Anthon had to see what Santa left him. Luckily, the local toy store had one more English Buzz Lightyear or else I would have been the Christmas goat. Anthon played with Buzz for a few minutes before taking him to bed and eventually falling asleep. Of course, I have video.


Shelley and I felt so happy seeing the sheer joy and excitement coming from Anthon's face talking to and peeking in on Santa. Naturally, we feel so grateful that Anthon has a grandfather and a surrogate grandfather who sacrificed sleep and time with their own family to create a memory that I think Anthon will remember for the rest of his life. I still remember when I got to talk to Santa on the phone. So, thanks Dad and Walt. You guys are the best!

Santa Claus

The Santa Claus in the picture to the left is one lucky guy...kissing my wife like that.

I've dressed in a Santa suit one other time in my life, also in Japan. I was a missionary and as "service" to a local school, the missionaries had agreed to dress one of us up as Santa to address the children. It was very surreal coming out onto the stage with a dry ice fog, spot light, techno music and screaming children. I felt like I was at a rock concert.

I bring this up because this is the first year Anthon has really been able to grasp the concept of Santa Claus. Despite this, he seems to have developed an incredible ability to spot a fake. As skinny as I am, I'm sure it wasn't hard for those Japanese school children to spot me as a fake. But twice in the last week Anthon has seen "Santa" - once at a church function and once at his school Christmas concert - and he's outed them both as 1)his upstairs neighbor; and 2)a female teacher from school.

Nevertheless he's bought into the whole Santa thing, and he's excited about making him cookies and leaving carrots behind for his reindeer. He's even honed down his list of "wants" to a singular, easy to remember item: a Buzz Lightyear toy.

Click on any of the pictures to see a few more pictures with various Santas. Even Ella seemed to think Santa was a pretty interesting guy.

A hodge podge of updates

Yokohama Triennial 2008

The family spent the day in Yokohama a while back, and I reaffirmed my belief that me and modern art aren't really that good friends. Every three years the city hosts the Yokohama Triennial, where modern artists from around the world show off their creations. My personal "favorites" include a wall of print outs of emails and newspaper articles talking about "NoMo phobia" or the fear of having no mobile phone. Another had a saddle ridden by a Vietnamese Catholic bishop just lying in the corner with the rental agreement tacked to the wall. Are these artists really trying? Where's the art in all of that? I really don't get it, and at this point don't care if I do. And don't get me started on the short videos. What happened to the whimsical and fantastical side of modern art? Why does everything have to be so dark and cynical? Well, at least I took a cute shot of Ella.

Fall Colors at Shinjuku Gyoen Park

Growing up in Southern California, it's well understood that there are really only two seasons, spring and summer. Winter is really two weeks of Autumn, and anything cold or wet would be treated as massive newsworthy events, not seasons - like when it rains the news is always on "Weather Watch!" for hours. So while I'm not complaining, I am stating as fact that I never knew the simple joy of making a pile of fall leaves and jumping into them. We had a large liquid amber that dropped a lot of pretty leaves, but twice as many of those really prickly balls. If you jumped into a pile of that, you'd come out looking like you'd been a victim of really poorly done acupuncture. So, at a local park Anthon and I gathered up as many leaves as we could, and he had fun jumping into them, as well as picking up arm fulls and throwing them at me.

Setting up the Christmas Tree

And finally, here is the video of our setting up the Christmas tree in mid November. It's a bit long and the video size is a bit big. So have some patience with it while it downloads.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So, it's the middle of November and around Tokyo we're starting to see a lot of Christmas decorations. At least in the United States Thanksgiving is a significant enough holiday that people have to focus on it before they can start to digest Christmas. But not in Japan. As soon as Halloween was over the retail shops went into full Christmas mode. Christmas trees, lights, decorations...the works. And there's the unique Japanese spin to it all...I mean what do Godzilla and Christmas trees have in common? If you know, enlighten me.

It's a little disconcerting to see that a country whose population is 99% Buddhist/Shinto has been so taken in by the consumer aspects of the holiday and not the true meaning behind why Christians celebrate Christmas. Truly, this is a holiday that has been hijacked by retail marketers. The story goes that Kentucky Fried Chicken, back when they were new to the country, spent a load of money promoting fried chicken as THE Christmas meal. According to NPR this is one of its biggest money making months of the year. Et tu, Colonel?

So in that vein I'd like to say that the Cannons have joined the masses in starting to celebrate Christmas. Though we would like to retain our rights to make this a more meaningful holiday season. At Anthon's urging, we put the Christmas tree went up on Sunday. Since Halloween Anthon has been talking about it nonstop. Anthon has spent a lot of time staring at the tree and playing with his favorite ornaments that are at his eye level - a squishy santa and a tin nutcrakcer. He even discourages turning on other lights in the room so as to not take away from the tree's sparkly lights. Shelley and I can tell that this is going to be a very fun Christmas season with our extremely excited boy.