Happy Thanksgiving

Cesario and I decided that this year we were going to be the guests and not the hosts. Although we love entertaining we felt like we wanted a break from buying food, cooking and cleaning plus it would be fun to do something different. Different it was this year as we also chose to volunteer a portion of our morning and afternoon to serving Thanksgiving dinner at the USO.

Our friend Liz works for the USO and we decided to assist her at the camp she was going too. Liz, Cesario and I left around 1130am to get to Camp Hansen by noon. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive. Camp Hansen is Marine camp in the northern area of Okinawa and is primarily comprised of single marines. Once in the USO, Marines began to trickle in and the next thing you know we had lines of people. We ended up serving 576 single Marines. All of them were nice and courteous, thanking us for what we were doing. Most were extremely young and it took everything I had to hold back the tears. Such young men and women so far from home and yet so content with what was being provided. We went ahead and finished up and headed out.

We spent the evening with our friends and were greatful to Andrew and Cindy Ramos for allowing us to be guests at their home for Thanksgiving. I was more thankful for the scrumptious lumpia, chicken wings and traditional Thanksgiving hotdogs they had. Granted they had the typical turkey spread but loved that they had other stuff too. They even provided us with leftover turkey for Kenzie and Maggie.

We started our turkey consumption on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgving) and continued until Saturday night. We ended up having Thanksgiving at 4 different locations over 4 days. We are so greatful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Cesario's Birthday

We had a great time celebrating Cesario's birthday. We had to make up for the year before as he was away for his "BIG 40!" To avoid prepping food and cleaning we decided to have his party at Jan Jan's. This is the best place ever invented as it is ALL YOU CAN DRINK and EAT!! Who doesn't love that? We had a great turn out and had a wonderful time with everyone. We were fortunate enough to have great weather as we all sat on the patio.

After a evening of eating and drinking we decided karaoke would finish off the night. We talked about catching cabs to a place a ways down from where we were at. I wasn't keen on that idea as there were several places in the area we could go too. Luckily our friend Mineko was with us and so nicely mentioned that the place right out the door and to the left was a karaoke place. Best thing we could have asked for!! We sang for about 2 hours and when people started to fall asleep aka pass out we knew it was time to go.

It is so nice to be able to count on all of friends to come through to help is us in celebrating special occassions in our lives!

Our favorite thing to do and I am so glad they came out with this earlier this year.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Cool Item

The first time we were in Okinawa in 2003 we belonged to 505th QMBN. We had a very high spirited, greatest attitude Chaplain by the last name of Morales. He and his wife invited us over for the first Thanksgiving we spent in Okinawa. When we arrived at the Morales' house there was one thing that really stood out and I have never forgotten. It was this cool, little house that said, "Home is where the Army Sends Us." Below the house where little hearts that indicated the place and dates this family has gone. I have been on a mission since looking for one. Granted I probably could have made one myself but I am really not that crafty. My mission has been accomplished as we have a very talented individual that makes these houses and sells them at our Army Gift Shop.

I picked it up, hung it and waited for Cesario to check it out. He absolutely love it. I bought some extra hearts for our additional duty stations and will add them as we go.