Christmas, and dinner with an alien!

It's very plain to me that although I take my camera with me lots of places, I really don't do a very good job of actually using it.

Take this holiday season, and our short visit to Seattle to see Kenji's folks. I started off right - got a nice shot of Kenji at the airport in Newark, with the check-in sign displaying the date just above his head.

Anyway we arrived in Seattle late on Christmas Eve, just in time to go to sleep actually. On Christmas morning we enjoyed a lovely family breakfast at home of Kenji's aunt and uncle and cousins. There were biscuits and gravy, egg and sausage casserole, and my most favorite - French toast casserole! It was so yummy! We also met Spammy and Musubi's two kitty cat cousins, Mr. Cuddles and Lily Cuddles. They share Spam and Musubi's love of Christmas trees, and the ornaments they contain. It was very entertaining to watch Kenji's cousins open their Christmas gifts.

Later on in the day, Kenji's folks had a good-size get-together of friends and family at their house. Again, the food was delicious. Many photos were taken of various family members, though unfortunately none using my camera. Of course it might have helped if I remembered to take it out of my coat pocket! Photos or not, it really was nice to spend Christmas with family for a change. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was probably the first time in six years for both Kenji and me.

On the day after Christmas, Kenji and I went with Kenji's brother and girlfriend to the Uwajimaya store in Seattle. It was fun because it reminded me of Hawaii, sort of like a cross between Shirokiya and Daiei. My camera magically found its way out of my pocket at Uwajimaya to take this picture of Spam Musubi. I show this to the kitties to remind them that they better behave... or else!

Later in the evening, Kenji's mom treated everyone to dinner at Cucina! Cucina! Italian Cafe. Again it was Mom & Dad, Kenji's brother and his girlfriend, "our house" Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie, Uncle and cousins. "Soapy" Grandma should have been there also, but she refused to let us abduct her
from her home earlier in the day. She protested some silliness about it being too cold to go outside. Perhaps the problem was that our abduction skills are simply not up to par. Ironically, as it turns out, we did meet an alien at Cucina! Cucina! I bet he has excellent abduction skills - I'm sure we could have learned a thing or two from him, or maybe even have brought him along with us when we stopped in to visit "Soapy" Grandma. Oh well.