Hiromi Usagi!

ok…part 3. I know it has been a while since I was on my vacation. I should write about it before my memory gets a little unclear..you know details and so. I went to Colorado to spend Christmas with Harper and his family. It is very nice of them to have me in every Christmas since a few years ago. I always have a great time with them and a lot of fun. When I lived in the States, I felt so left out, especially the holiday seasons because my family lives in Japan. Harper’s parents came to my graduation, and always invite me for family-get-together occasions. I really appreciate their kindness and sweetness.

When Harper and I arrived at Denver, here they were..with Dylan dressed up like a clown…he got so much attention from the crowd and I laughed a lot. He said to me earlier, “a funny person will pick you guys up at the airport” I see..a funny person, who is YOU!! I took a picture of him with my cellphone, of course. All of them were there to pick us up, and I felt like “family reunion” haha…

Harper brought Qee dolls (spell?) for us to paint them. I picked a puppy and paited in a pretty standard way. I needed to be more creative, but my puppy became so cute…it is a girl puppy. everyone was so into painting them and I had a great time doing that. a perfect Christmas project. As always, I ate a lot! Harper’s mom baked yummy vegan chocolate cakes!! I love them a lot. It is so moist and fluffy. We went to Sarah and Liz’s house. it was very nice to meet them because it had been a while since I saw them last time. Their grandparents told me about their trip to Japan, and I really enjoyed having a nice conversation with them. After that, we played a game called “taboo” which was so much fun!! Oh..we didn’t play Cranium this time…anyhow, it was a nice gathering.

OMG..I’ve got many nice gifts. many things…digital camera from Harper, a nice black jacket from Harper’s mom, a nice drawing set and a book about Colorado nature from Harper’s dad, a nice hand made felt bag from Sarah, and a cute card in Japanese!! from Dylan and Sarah, a doll from Granpa Jim…but I think I left a doll at their house…sad… many many gifts, thank you all very much!!

We hang out with Harper’s nephew, Kyle and niece, Cory. They had a lot of energy!! We played hide and seek for several times. I was exhausted, but had a good time! They are so cute and full of energy…We visited Dylan’s work. His office smelled like curry because the next door is an Indian restaurant. It smelled good, but maybe not for everyday… we had a nice lunch at the seafood restaurant by his office. It was good.

We flew back to Chicago and I had bacially one full day left. I hang out with Harper and did some shopping with him. Last year he gave me a gift certificate for ‘Sur La Table’, but I hadn’t used it yet…I was supposed to move to CA to start my doctoral program….but it didn’t happen…I deferred it again for this year. I will see if I can come up with something by this Fall… Anyhow, I bought this cooking pan which I had wanted for a long time…”le Cruset” I’ve got a soup pan and it works great. I cooked rice, Brussels sprouts, and pasta. oh so good..I love it!! Thanks, Harper. it was very heavy to bright it back to Japan. It was worth carrying this heavy pan which was on sale. I was so sad when I left Chicago. Right after I came back to Japan, next day, I went to my parents’ place for new year’s which I hadn’t done it for several years. I had a double vacation here in Japan and there in the States. I don’t have money, but I am glad that I did that. I needed to do both..yed I did..haha

ok…it is getting long again. I stop here now…one of my new year resolutions is to wrtie a lot…yea..I will