KyleYates.com

Nothing can keep us away from viewing cherry blossoms! Not even snow, wind and rain…or even sleet…all of which we experienced today while picnicking under the cherry blossom trees today in Kyoto.

The weather was extreme!

However, it was a lot of fun braving the elements. We didn’t quite finish our lunches because a huge cloud dumped snow and sleet on our picnic. After being pelted with and ingesting so much frozen moisture, we finally called it quits and decided to move the party/picnic to our house, which was only a few minutes away.

I hope everyone else attending the hanami celebration had as much fun as we did!

Mia and Noah played catch, wrestled, played soccer and rolled down the hill just under the cherry blossom trees…and no one got hurt today! Praise God!

It was a beautiful day!

Today is the Yawata city jumprope festival. Mia and many other kids from her school formed teams to compete in the event.

The first jumprope challenge was to jump as a team as many times in two minutes. Mia’s team had a hard time because the rope turners didn’t do a good job. They didn’t advance.

The next challenge was to jump rope as a team but they had to one at a time run through the jumprope and do it as many times as they could in two minutes. They did well the first time and perfect the second.

Unfortunately, I do not know the rules so I have no idea how they did in the competition even though they did well.

Now the kids are playing with their friends while Denise and I sit in the car eating our lunch bentos Denise made this morning.

I feel like I am camping!

Christmas has come and gone, but the meaning behind the special day will never fade away. Hope you had a very blessed Christmas Day wherever you were.

We had a nice little Christmas party at church last Saturday, and then on this past Wednesday night we went to the Underwoods’ house for another one. That will be the last time we will have a Christmas party at their house! I can’t believe it!

It sounds bad, but it wasn’t. It was a great little party. But unfortunately they will be moving away to another country next summer, so Christmas at their house next year will be out of the question.

On another note, Grandma Joyce is here with us this Christmas. She was here last year for two months, but could only come for one month this time. Her friend, Eileen, is also here with us staying for two weeks. They and Denise have been going out and about around Kyoto and Osaka seeing the sites and eating.

Having them here for Christmas and New Year’s is such a blessing for us. The kids are enjoying their time with Grandma and so are we…although, Denise gets to spend more time with Joyce than I do, mostly because I have been working.

However you are spending Christmas and New Year’s Day, we hope you have a fun, safe time. Praise God, we have gotten through another year in one piece and now are about to go into 2010. Pray we continue to do God’s will in Japan and grow closer to Him on a daily basis. We hope and pray you do, too. God Bless!

In Him in 2010!