On the 24th, Janice made Minestrone and salad; on the 25th, Kinya made Tonjiru (Japanese hearty pork stew). OK, so neither are the "traditional Christmas dinner". But we had a great time, doing crafts while wearing party goods we'd chosen and unwrapped (without knowing what was inside). I forgot to get pictures, but we had a small birthday cake on which we had "Happy Birthday Jesus" written by the person at the Cake Shop (All the other cakes there were Christmas Cakes with Santa Claus, and Janice didn't want them!)
Of course, we had to open Christmas presents. I realized all mine were bought at the 100 yen shop (dollar store) then personalized by adding drawings or adding stickers bought at the Christian bookstore.
The Jan. 2025 page of the calendar to my sister, for example, had a beach sunset, so I drew a bobbing jellyfish in the waves, a memory Janice and I shared at the Izena beach in Jan. 2024.
After Christmas things were done, my sister Joyce asked for help in assembling a small shelf, and it was a thrill for me to see father and son working together on it. Kinya took off his bright red necktie because he felt it would get in the way, but I guess Keima had gotten used to his glittering golden cap by then and worked from the beginning to the end with it on, looking to me like an industrious Christmas elf!
My sisters and I went to the church candlelight service after that, and Jaime, the church member who found a bicycle for the Saito menfolk, came over afterwards to introduce himself. Kinya and Keima aren't usually the sociable type, but I think my sisters got them in an amiable mood, because they came to the door to say hello. Jaime probably doesn't realize how even that short moment was like the star on top of the Christmas tree for me, blinking out hope for the future.
Thank you Jaime. And God, please bless Jaime in a special way.
Oh--my choice of craft was a snowman snow globe, with blue, red, and white paint, and supposedly 5-yr-olds were supposed to be able to do it. But I got carried away and wanted to make it look 3D, left some areas uncolored for highlighting, mixed colors, or even decided to have the sun in the background when my hand slipped and got red paint outside the lines. Let's say it's the sunlight to make snowflakes glisten, not to make snow melt.
