Our First Christmas in Okinawa

It has been far too long since I have last posted.  Not only do I think so, but my sister isn't shy about telling me so..

Well, Christmas here in Okinawa was bittersweet.  It has been SO nice having the week off from school.  I was able to get some things done around the house and just relax awhile!  I go back on January 6th so 1 week left of vacation with the Hodens!  (save that for another post)..  On Christmas Eve day, Tony and I did a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing.  And loved it.  We recently (I know, we're behind the times) ordered Netflix, which has been eye opening!  There is so much AFN (Armed Forces Network) that we or anyone can take.  I have memorized every commercial unwillingly.  It's painful.  As I hate to admit my ignorance to the great invention of Netflix, I originally thought that it meant we were able to "rent" 3 movies at a time and they would be sent to us in the mail.  Apparently that isn't the case anymore.  So Christmas Eve day we started two TV series "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead"… hooked.

Anways, back to Christmas.  We had an enjoyable evening.  We loaded up on the veggies and protein and made a pretty good chicken stir fry.  After about an hour of chopping and preparing the vegetables, we decided to open presents.  One of the presents was a vegetable chopper - boy that would have been nice about an hour ago!!!  We played Christmas music with a candle lit dinner and felt very blessed.  Of course, we missed being home - but reminded ourselves all the good things happening right now and how blessed we are to have such amazing family and friends.

Christmas 2014?  See you in Decorah :)

This was our "lame" tree.  But hey - it was a tree RIGHT???!!!  

The worst part .. ;)

YUM

As much as I don't want to - I have to give some GINGERBREAD HOUSE credit to Tony.  This is a pretty good one.  Don't expect to ever see mine on this blog.  Sad, sad, sad.  And to think I teach Kindergarten….

Olivia and Grace made this for us.  So we had 2 Christmas trees in this house!! :)

Thanksgiving Mile Run.

As many of you know, we have quite the Huinker Thanksgiving tradition.  As much as we complain about it year round - we do have a lot of fun with it.  Typically, the 1st place runner has to write an article after the race… but since Tony will probably win every year (until Max catches up, at least) - we decided to let others have a turn at writing it!  Here is what my sister wrote this year…. 


Turkey Trot 2013

As most of you know, the turkey trot has not been one of my favorite traditions.  Every year I start thinking about it mid-October and every year I do nothing other than think about it!  Other than year 1 (2001) when Brian was still recovering from his broken leg, arm, foot, etc. and the year that Amanda was 7 months pregnant with Grace (2009), I have gotten last place. So basically, I have never beaten a legitimate competitor. Until now. Thus...I am doing the recap this year. I told myself years ago that if I ever beat someone, I will write it! So here goes...


The tradition we all love to hate continues for a 13th consecutive year. Rules remain the same. You run it no matter where you are in the world. Never did we think this would actually mean someone would be running it on another continent!

Unbelievable weather in Decorah on race day (Saturday NOvember 30) It was a bit windy on the straight away, but overall we couldn't have asked for a nicer day to run!

Runners started the race at 10:30 AM...just in time for us to recover slightly from the night before, for Grady to be up from his nap,  to allow the kids to eat lunch and be at the free movie matinee with Grandpa Rog by noon!

Kiddos were fabulous this year. All 4 of the big kids (Max, Mya, Olivia and Grace) gave it their best shot. To see those little legs moving around the track was awesome. At the 3/4 point of the first lap, Chris was yelling at Max to slow down. He was keeping up with him step for step. Olivia, Mya and Max all finished the race and got a recorded time! Looking forward to watching these guys grow up together and continuing the tradition.

Everyone really enjoyed not being lapped this year. Spirits were much higher at the end of the race, even if times were down a bit:)

Yellow shirts were in full effect. It took some digging, but we found our old "Go Tara" shirts from 2007 and made some homemade "Go Tony" shirts. It was sad that they weren't there to run with us, but we wanted them to be with us in spirit!

Twenty two days after giving birth, Amanda was out jogging around the track while pushing the stroller and finishing with a respectable time all things considered.

Rog and Pat were on kid patrol and timing duty. I fully expect Rog will be back in action next year. A certain 2 year old was a handful this year:) She wanted to continue the tradition that one kid has to start bawling as soon as everyone takes off. Next year my bet is on Grady.

Overseas runners didn't quite get the trot in on time even though they are 15 hours ahead of us. Tony had to leave for mainland Japan so they were a little late on the run. Don't worry though...we did not reveal our times until after they ran. I didn't want them having an unfair advantage! (like they need it, but hey..)

Times for 2013 are as follows:
#1: Anthony Brown: 5:54
#2: Chris Hoden 7:48
#3: Tara Brown 8:20
#4: Max Hoden 9:02
#5: Beth Hoden 9:04
#6: Brian Huinker 10:35
#7: Mya Hoden & Olivia Huinker: 12:55
#8: Amanda Huinker: 13:35

                                                      proof that Tara ran one mile:)

It's been awhile…

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've last posted.  Time has been going by pretty fast lately!! I will post pictures for this post soon!

To be very honest with the blogging world/readers, we have had somewhat of a tough month.  I think it really hit us (especially over the holidays) that we are truly living in Japan and we'll be here for quite awhile yet.  As there are times I think it will go by fast and things will be great, there are those times where it weighs pretty heavy on me.  I want to be honest of where we're at now so we can look back and remember all these times!

I remember my brother telling me back in the day (I'll actually never forget it..where I was, what I was doing, how I was feeling - even what I was wearing) that "before things get better, they'll probably get worse".   And the reason for the 3 week "pause" for blog writing?  You can probably guess…

So I'm not writing this to ask for any sort of sympathy or attention, but I am writing this because this has truly been an experience of a lifetime and we are just 4 months in.  It's been a roller-coaster of feelings since we have gotten here.  And since I hate roller-coasters, it's time for our life here in Japan to start feeling more like the "Lazy River" ride :)!!!

I have come to realize that not everything comes easy in life.  In the states, there are many things at your fingertips that can make you happy.  In my case, shopping for clothes or groceries was one of "happy" places.  Or having a handful of friends to go out for happy hour and then to meet up with a bunch of people later on was awesome.  I haven't found that here, YET.  And if I don't, It's definitely ok.  There are some really neat places in Yomitan, but it takes work to figure out what is actually inside.  I, of course, can't read anything here.  I can usually tell if it's a restaurant - but that's about it.  So in order to know, you have to simply walk in and figure it out yourself.

I often tell Tony how much LESS we would see of each other if we lived in a place, such as Minneapolis.  I would have more plans on the week nights and weekends, as would he.  What better time of our lives - as newlyweds - to have ALL this time together.  I do often complain of his long hours at work, but the second he is home, I am there. (poor guy ;)  We are blessed.  And we appreciate it.

So all this being said - I had SUCH a great day today.  Tony went golfing with a couple of buddies, which was great for him!  And I went for a coffee date with my good friend, Natalie.  On my way home I decided to venture off on the side roads and came across an awesome Thai place called Sirojuma.  I had some amazing curry soup :) ... and then to fulfill my love for shopping, I found this amazing warehouse with TONS of stuff that is very reasonably priced.  And the greatest thing about this place is that they accept any credit card, Yen, OR Dollar.  You don't get that in Yomitan.  Places rarely take our USAA credit card and accept only Yen.

I think I'm going to enjoy this "Lazy River" ride here in Okinawa :)


"Be brave enough to live creatively. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can only get there by hard work, by risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself."
Alan Alda