Satisfying Traditions

The loft in our holiday apartment. The boys enjoyed playing
Risk, Lego and other games up there. I even retreated
there to read one evening.

We've found our boys enjoying and wanting to experience familiar memories these last six months.
I think it's because we've been away for a year and possibly because that year away was devoid of familiar traditions. 

Some small things, others larger. Things like:

• Convenience store lunches
• Familiar Japanese foods
• Thanksgiving camping trip
• Thrift Shop
• Melon soda
• ¥100 shopping
• ¥100 Christmas shopping
• Udon and ramen for Sunday lunch at home
• Cross country season
• Wrestling season
• Concessions stand dinners (temporary kiosk with food at inter school sports games at school)



The skating rink. The building I stood in to take the photo
was new, and a delightful change for those of us who didn't
skate: we could wait inside where it was warm.

• Christmas video (Colin Buchanan)

My blog has been silent because last week we went away on holidays to a place we've been to almost yearly since we first came to Tokyo in 2005. The list of "traditions" the boys wanted to do included:

• All-you-can eat restaurant 
• Christmas lights and giant cookie (at a Christian conference centre coffee shop)
• Ice skating
• Playing Risk
• Making chocolate balls
• Visiting the Lego shop

There's also been plenty of stories told. One about the all-you-can eat restaurant that got dredged up was the time one of our boys enthusiastically made his own fairy floss (yes there is such a machine there) and fairy-flossed his arm as well as the stick. He didn't think it was funny at the time but we sure laughed. And the legend about the boy who sat on a campfire was, ironically, started here despite us not camping at the time.

Admittedly David and I've enjoyed doing these things too! But the boys seem to have clung to them more. Maybe because there's been so much change in their lives?