Christmas in Okinawa

This was our first Christmas away from family and Grace's first Christmas ever. We had a really great day full of presents and a big dinner. We woke up to find that Santa had been here and then we opened all of the presents. Then it was off to getting things ready for lunch. A couple soldiers from Dustin's battery came over for Christmas lunch. We made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, sweet potato cassarole, and the biggest hit of all, dinner rolls. We even had some pumpkin pie for dessert!

As for the presents, Grace got some really cool toys and she loves to play with them. We all thought she would be to little to enjoy any of it but she will actually cry if we take a toy away. Some of her favorites are the pink rocking horse from Santa, the cool mirror from Uncle Andrew, and her ball from Grandma and Grandpa. We were playing with her ball yesterday and she actually rolled over!

Looks like Santa made a stop at our house!

Grace loves her pink rocking horse

Dustin opening the card from Grace

Opening Grace's presents

Grace in her Christmas PJ's

Bathtime!

Grace got her first real bath today (up until now we were only able to give her sponge baths). She loved it! She even cried when we made her get out and dry off.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus

We took Grace to see Santa Claus yesterday!

Grace's Pictures

I thought that everyone would probably want to see all the pictures they can of our beautiful little angel so instead of uploading the pictures to blogger I am going to be putting links on the sidebar. So far we have the slideshow and the pictures that were taken at 3 days old. Yesterday we took her 1 week photos so those should be there sometime soon! If I can figure out how to put a link to facebook or myspace I will put that up too. We will still post our favorite pictures on here but by doing it this way you can see 100 pictures instead of 10!

Grace's first big outing

Yesterday we took Mom and Grace to the Nago Pineapple park. Grace was the center of attention there! All of the ladies that work at the park wanted to see her and would say "kawai" (kaw-wah-ee) which means "CUTE" in Japanese.

Slideshow of Grace

She's Here!!!

Grace Elizabeth McGriff

Born on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 6:05 am

She weighed 8lb 1oz and is 20.5" long

We are home and doing great!

Just 1 day old

about an hour after she was born

Army/Navy Game

Every year they have an Army v. Navy Flag Football game here on Okinawa. We were excited about going and sat out in the cold and rain for the entire game. It was a really great game and Army WON! Everything came down to the last play but Army held it together and came out ahead 40 - 35. Here are a couple pictures... we didn't take many because it kept raining off and on so we were trying to keep things dry.

Grandma's Butter Crunch

Today we carried on Grandma Darlene's tradition of making Butter Crunch for Christmas. We will be shipping it all the way from Okinawa to Oklahoma so the whole family can enjoy!

We still need to add the chocolate

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Last night we decorated the Christmas tree. We did drive by and look at the live trees at the BX and they looked a little old already and we heard that after just a week or so they will be very dry. Plus, we heard that sometimes the trees get bugs in them on the boat over here, so we just decided to stick with our fake tree this year. It will be nice not having to remember to water it and not having to vacuum up needles everyday with a newborn baby. Anyway, we never thought the day would come when we would have a fake tree, but we really like the tree and it is very pretty! We played some Christmas music, drank hot cocoa, and had some Christmas cookies too!

Black Friday

So the ONLY thing we were wanting was a live Christmas tree. Dustin got up and left the house before 3am and waited in line until the store opened. He wasn't even one of the first 100! And the live trees are still not in. We opted for a fake tree just in case we can't get one though. Later, we found out treees will be in tomorrow if they pass the inspection. Then we found out several hours later that one of the shipments of trees has to be fumigated so they won't be here until Tuesday but another store should have some tomorrow!! It looks like Dustin might have another night of camping out tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Psalms 92:1
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High

Congrats 1LT!

Yesterday was Dustin's promotion ceremony. It is official, he is now a 1LT! We went out to eat at Macaroni Grill afterwards to celebrate.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like CHRISTmas!!

Or at least at the McGriff house!

Since baby Grace will be making her much anticipated arrival soon we decided to get a start a little early this year. Normally, you will not see anything red and green in the house until after Thanksgiving except for any gifts that need to be wrapped and mailed out so they get to their destination before Christmas.

Dustin pulled out the Christmas boxes last weekend and we started going through them and decorating the house. We found our Christmas CD's and were listening to Christmas music and drinking hot cocoa (we had to turn the AC down a little cooler for that!) This weekend Dustin pulled out the lights and put them up all over the outside of the house. All we are waiting on now is a live tree and we have heard rumors those will be showing up at the BX on Black Friday. The plan is for Dustin to camp out for one and then I can join him to pick it out right before they open, which is of course super early. He actually came up with the plan himself and this is after he laughed at the crazy person who has been known to camp out for Beanie Babies and Furbies... at least I was making money for my efforts!

Here are some of the pictures of the house... look back after Thanksgiving for our tree!

I just realized we don't have any pictures of the house all lit up. I guess we have to wait until dark for that!

Pepsi White?

So the other day I went on a little afternoon drive with a friend. In Okinawa they don't have the gas station/convenience stores like they do in the states. They have gas stations and then they have convenience stores. If you are ever out and about and need a bathroom break you just simply pull into a Family Mart or Lawson's, which are all over the place. Well... we made our first stop and we both decided to get something to drink. Most of the labels are 100% in Japanese but some have a few English words on them. We found some water and then went to look for something carbonated. Pepsi and Coke is really easy to find because the labels look pretty much the same as they do in America so we were looking at those and this is what we found:

Yes, that does say Pepsi & Yogurt Flavor. Dustin drank it and said it was pretty good. I tried a little and thought it was OK. Not something I would want to drink everyday though. And it really didn't taste like yogurt, it was more of a sweet fruit-like taste. Now this is what I want to know....

Do you have this in the USA???

Pearl Harbor and more!

Today we started out by visiting Pearl Harbor. We started out a little late and heard that there could be long lines so we weren't counting on getting on a boat. But, as soon as we walked up we got a ticket to start the program! We watched a documentary on the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was very interesting and very educational. Then we boarded the boat for the Memorial. The entire program lasts about 1 hour and 15 minutes and I would guess we were there for about 1 hour and 30 minutes total so we still had the entire afternoon left!

After we left Pearl Harbor it was time for lunch so we drove over to the NEX (Naval Exchange) on Pearl Harbor. It was HUGE! Think of a big 2-story department store with Wal-Mart inside. There was a food court and they also put the commissary in the same building. Talk about one-stop shopping! We looked around but ended up only buying the Hawaiian Host candies that we absolutely love.

Then we decided to take a nice drive through the mountains and then down the coastline. The view absolutely breath taking when we left the tunnel on the other side of the island. We found Bellows Air Force Station which has a nice little campground, cabins, and a really nice beach. It was not very crowded at all and absolutely beautiful. We walked around on the soft sand and got our feet wet. I think we are actually going to go to a beach tomorrow because it would be pretty sad if we left Hawaii without ever really experiencing the beach.

(Some of these pictures were taken out the window of a moving car so they aren't that great)

After we left Bellows, we continued driving the coastline and stopped at some lookouts to take pictures. We stopped at the Blow Hole and actually got a video of the water blowing out of the rocks! We were both ready to call it a day after that so we headed back to the hotel to do some laundry and eat dinner.

Pictures!!

Here are some of the pictures we took yesterday and today.

Yesterday afternoon was cloudy and rainy but we got to see a rainbow from our balcony!

You can see the ocean from our room!

Waikiki

That building that is going up is a Trump Tower. Evidentally, it will be 1 of the 2 tallest buildings in Waikiki - 42 stories!

This is one of my favorite pictures from our drive around the North Shore

This is at the same place as the picture above, just a little different.

The beaches are so beautiful!