Christmas Teen Pizza Party

This game one member of the team had a ping pong ball and blew it with a straw around a course on the table.  Not as easy as it may look. 

Two teams.  One member was wrapped in toilet paper.  Then he had to walk a few feet and touch the table and return.  The TP kept breaking.  It was funny.

Balloon Popping.  Two pins were inserted into a baseball cap.  One guy was blindfolded. The other told him where to move to stand under a balloon.  He then jumped trying to pop it.  The noise was very loud!  They got to jumping so vigorously, the floor shook!  

In this game 30 pieces of M&M type candy were on a plate.  They had to suck up one at a time with a straw and place into a bowl.  The first one done won.

In this game several soft candies were put on a plate and whipped cream sprayed on top to cover them.  The guys had to find each candy with their mouth and spit it into the bowl.  

The Spoon card game.  Each is dealt four cards.  Sara picked the top card from the pile and if she needed it, she kept it and passed one of her cards to the next person.  The first one to get a matching set of four cards grabbed a chopstick in the middle of the table. The last one lost. 

We made three pizzas and each team put their own toppings on.  We then feasted.  

Christmas Events 2015

December 19th we had five people come to the Christmas Cookie Party, all boys and two moms.  We made cut-out cookies, then Henry told the Christmas story while they baked in the oven.  We had passed out about 500 flyers at three local elementary schools and the family on the left above were the ones that came.  They had a good time.  

 

On Sunday the 20th we had the annual Christmas turkey dinner --there were 19 in the morning service.  Above I'm holding little Aito dressed in his bear cape.  He is so cute!

The cyclamen plant was a gift; the painting on the wall Teresa did in about 2008.  

Christmas Wreath Making 2015

 There was a group of eight ladies that came to the annual Wreath Making Party.  This time we simply tied cut fabric around a wire frame.  The ladies were creative in color choices and ribbons and every one turned out really pretty.  It took about 70 minutes for everyone to finish their wreath.  Afterwards we had a delicious corn-flavored soup for lunch.

                Little Aito will be a year old on Christmas Day.

Pray we will be able to follow-up with the new ladies and present the gospel to them.

Christmas Concert

 We had passed out 20,000 flyers for a Christmas Concert on Dec. 8th.  Micah Gillespie, 16, and Peter Holloway, 17, and missionary Ron White  played violins and piano.  There were 19 in attendance with seven first-time visitors to the church.

Micah plays a medley at the end of the program.  It was wonderful watching his fingers jump across the keys making beautiful Christmas music.

November 2015

 We decorated for Christmas after the morning service on 11/29. Church folks helped decorate the tree while I later put up decor around the room.

                   The front door sports two pine cone wreaths.

                   These bushes got trimmed about mid-November.

 The front entrance to the building with wreaths and ribbons on the poles.

This Emperor Dahlia finally bloomed December 1st--rather late this year.  Shortly after there was a hard frost so they are not going to last long. 

 This is little Aito at nearly a year old, playing with us.  He would not give up his candy.  :-)

Catch-up Post

This is Riku-kun and his very tall clown puzzle two weeks ago. He comes with his family to church on Sundays. 

There are some 40 bushes lining the parking lot area.  Henry took the hedge trimmers to them last Monday and finished the group right in front of the building.  These are now about half the size and have mostly dead stuff exposed now.  Lots of needles for winter mulching around the property now.  

This is the same group as below directly opposite the ones trimmed. 

On Culture Day 11/3 here in Japan we participated in a Swap Meet--aka Flea Market.  Sara made several thread bracelets and sold some (see bottom left of photo below).  Mainly tried to sell things that we did not use.  We did go home with much less stuff than when we came and made some extra yen in the process.  

Garden Update--A tour around the house

For the past few weeks when the weather has been fine, it was time to clean up the flower beds for the winter.  Since we were gone two months, they were in sad shape and full of weeds.  So one by one I dug out everything in the separate beds and replanted what I did not toss out.  Here's some before and after photos of the effort.  Around our big building there are fourteen separate places for flowers and plants.  They are narrow, some long and a lot of work.  May have to rethink how many to have what with my joints not cooperating as well.  :-(

These above two are outside the front of the building facing South and West.  There's mostly columbine, lamb's ear and ice plant in front of the tree. Next photos go around the building to the left and facing South and East.

 This one is opposite the top one next to the ramp.

This is the corner of the building facing South.  Those circles used to be for the septic tank, but now the tank holds rainwater.

Before photo on the Southeast side under the church windows, and after cleanup below.

These are out the Southeast side of the church sliding door. Top left photo iris and other flowers were crowded, so I dug it all up and replanted just the iris and a rose bush. Then I lined the beds with rock so the plants won't get accidentally cut.  :-)  In front is part of the blackberry bushes.

Next on the East side between the church and kitchen decks is red basil and overgrown iris and pink columbine.

 Now cut and cleaned up.

This is the East corner at the back of the house.  Replanted iris hope to do well.  This year was not good for my favorite flower for some reason.

Facing East is another blackberry bush planted about 5 years ago.  The ground got dug up, grasses removed and ajuba ground cover planted, plus the rock border to save future plants from accidental cutting. The building is Henry's shed loaded with man stuff.  

This bed is facing Northwest in front of the parking lot on the left side of the building. It has a big holly bush, some iris, tulip and other bulbs.  Large buckets at the back act as a border as well as the bricks on the side and large rocks and pots in front.

This is the door to our part of the house facing Northwest.  We get beautiful sunsets here :-)  The bed in front has a fall blooming flower I found on a path years ago, plus a red rose bush and small maple tree plus flowers around to the right.

This is the longest flower bed facing West.  The tall plant is an Emperor Dahlia which hopefully will bloom in November before it freezes.  This bed contains iris, dahlia to the left, tulips, lamb's ear, seashells and some other things.  These next photos are closeups of the long bed.

Notice two landscaping elements in all these pictures?

This brings us completely around the building to the front church entrance.  In front of the deck are azalea bushes and to the right there is a tall juniper tree about 10 years old; it is taller than the building now.  That completes the tour of the Inochi no Pan Baptist Church in Kobe and also completes the clean up for this year. Yeah, my knees are rejoicing!