Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I drove home last night so I could spend Christmas with my family. It is a bit weird because the last two Christmases I was in Japan and spent it with my friends. But this Christmas is a little different. I get to experience a real Christmas tree that is bigger than 1 foot and can fit more than 4 ornaments. All of my presents did not come in a brown cardboard box. And I am talking and listening to only English. I do however miss my gift exchange with friends and our annual (2nd annual) Japanese dinner at my house. But wherever I spend this holiday and whoever I spend it with I am thankful that I can still celebrate the birth of Christ unashamedly.
"And He shall be called Emmanuel"

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are!

Blessed

Yesterday I got to hang out with my good friend Mika. Mika and I met about 3 years ago when she was at Mukogawa in Spokane. But we really became friends and started hanging out when I moved to Japan two years ago. Now I am back in Spokane and she is here at Eastern studying for a year. It was a little weird driving around together instead of taking the train. And we were speaking Japanese English which made us both laugh A LOT! And it was good talking with someone who knew me in Japan and here also. It was good to connect with her in a way I can't with people here who weren't with me in Japan. It was such a blessing! I just praise God that He has allowed me to see friends that I have made all over the world. すごくうれしだよ！

Pepe

Okay, I need to write a little bit about the El Camino. When I tell guys that I am driving an El Camino, or even when I go to get into it after church, I will hear praises with a tinge of jealousy. "El Camino." They say that. With a kind of spanish accent that makes it sound that much cooler. People who drive behind me and my El Camino a.k.a. "Pepe" probably think that I am 85 or have been drinking too much. I sometimes have problems staying between the dotted lines and the solid line. It isn't because I am a bad driver (though some may argue that). It is because the El Camino has a mind of its own and often decides to go one way or the other. And then at other times, I can't see the dotted and solid lines on the road because my side mirrors are about the size of a pine cone. I personally think they are just for looks. And of course there is my change in speed. I barely have to touch the gas peddle for Pepe to start going faster and faster. And, it's basically a metal boat, so going downhill is always fun. But, these days Pepe and I have been becoming closer. I no longer tell him how much I hate him. And I don't avoid telling other people that I, yes I, am a driver of an El Camino.