Most of the time, living overseas is pretty much like living in the States. We live on base, so all our neighbors are American and our house has a dishwasher and oven. (Most Japanese homes don't.) We shop at the commissary so we're not stuck eating rice and fish three times a day.
Sometimes, though, being here is very frustrating and has me counting down the days until our RTD. (Bill thinks that stands for Rotation Tour Date...or maybe Rotation Transfer Date. Whatever it is, it's the day on his orders that tells us when we're supposed to leave Okinawa.) What occasionally frustrates me the most is my inability for me to get items that are usually relatively simple to find in the States, but unless you plan months ahead, order online at crazy prices, and pray really hard, you learn to do without. Things that quickly come to mind.....peaches, sweet potatoes, most small electronics, fabric and crafts of any variety. And then there are extreme shortages for seasonal items. If you don't buy your Christmas decorations in October, you're out of luck. Last week I was looking for ball ornaments...you know, the basic, no-frills, glass ball ornaments.....completely sold out. Today I was looking for scotch tape at the Exchange--no tape anywhere to be found. Luckily that's an easy one because even Japanese folks use tape so I should be able to find some at the 100 yen stores. But anything specifically American and it's too bad, so sad.
Which brings me to the real, very sad, reason for this blog post--our Christmas card. Sometime in mid-November (with plenty of time to spare, so I thought) I ordered our yearly photo Christmas card, making sure they were sent through priority mail. I'd ordered with this card company before, so I was pretty confident the cards would arrive without a problem. I won't be specific, but the company name rhymes with StinkFlash. Anyway, I received the cards on December 14....and they were of someone else's family. I tried to figure out a way to fix this mess and get the cards out to everyone, but I realized that by the time OUR cards got here and I mailed them out to everyone in the States, it'd probably be Valentine's Day. So the next day I woke up at 5:45am, called Stinkflash in Rhode Island, and explained the situation. They (sort of reluctantly) agreed to return my payment. Thanks for nothing, Stinkflash.
At any rate, since you won't be getting a Christmas card from us this year, I figured I'd use the magic of the blogosphere and send you the card from here.
I usually write something up on our Christmas cards letting people know what we've been up to in the past year, but you guys already know most of the interesting things that have happened to us (and we really aren't that exciting.) So, instead of the yearly recap, the kids put together this little number for your entertainment pleasure:
Not to be outdone, Bill and I put together this Latin ditty. You're in for a treat, because we normally don't see these moves without a little help from Captain Morgan.
We hope you have a wonderful Christmas. We miss you!
