So the big excitement of today is that Christmas has come to Oyama-cho! We decided that today was the day to put up Santa Claus, which is already garnering some excited attention from the neighbours as they drive, walk, scooter, and bike past...sugoi!


Before we could start this important task, we needed sustenance, so I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast which was pretty yummy - I managed to not turn the bacon into charcoal this time!

So anyway, I knew there was a reason why I brought my vaulting shoes! They are the perfect shoes for climbing around on the roof! We tied me in with a big rope brought home from Orbitune, and attached me to the banister, with Venus playing a massive game of tug of war with the other end.
(Tied in, and wearing vaulting shoes, which were prefect for the job - flexible, light, and non slip! I'm headed out to the little roof over the front door, just about 10-12 feet up. It was actually pretty fun to be crawling around up/out there!)

Squeezing out the window, we decided where to put Santa, and the with him still un inflated, I drilled his back two feet into the roof. Then we inflated him and tied his guy-wires to a drain pipe and a newly drilled screw on the side of the building.
(pre inflated Santa - he's blown up with a continuous air fan at his base. It has four legs, and we screwed two of them into the roof, before inflating him. He is approx. 8 feet tall)
(with my drill... Unfortunately, the roof is made of tough stuff and it was a bit of a challenge to get the screws in, especially since I couldn't get that much leverage while trying to keep myself on the roof)
(inflated but not repositioned)

Thus secured, a rather lengthy re positioning process ensued, a we tried to get him leaning over the street a little bit better. We ended up cutting an unused telephone cable to use as extra positioning security...

(this whole process required jumping in and out of the window several times. Key to fitting was going through exactly square... In this photo, I've accidentally twisted, and gotten just a little bit stuck!)

With Santa finally positioned s we wanted him to be, we put up the rest of the decorations - little fairy lights on the front bushes, and a small, cute, fiber optic snowman perched on the mailbox. We're the first ones out with our Christmas decorations, but it looks pretty festive! Hopefully the neighbours will follow suit soon :)

We felt that the successful house decorating called for a snack, so we ate some of our domestic donuts (which have nothing on Tim Horton's but are still OK), this is only mentioned because like father, like son - Pete bought a sugar donut and added his own jam to it. However, instead of slicing it carefully in half, and spreading the jam to every edge a la Grampy, he went for the squeezable jam in a tube method.

I've just spent some time working on the back log of hardcover scrapbooking I have to get through - I just managed to do the Glitterball and Edo Museum (I'm still not into November, anyway!). I've also been watching TEDtalks video podcasts which are pretty interesting. I'm enjoying this random selection of education I've been podcasting myself... I really should have homeschooled/unschooled! Too bad I was a brat in kindergarten and messed up that chance :)

Now we're just waiting for our turkey loaf (yea, I'm not sure about that either!) to bake, and we're watching the original Casino Royale/first filming of any James Bond... I'm not going to lie, the movie is pretty lame, but maybe this one hour television special of the first, American, TV show will be better (keep in mind I'm not a Bond fan). Anyway, as we watch, I'm blogging this, and then will probably continue to work on that scrapbook. I've already forgotten stuff in it, so I'm glad I've been putting all this time into this ridiculous project!

Tomorrow is Hawaii night, and we might go check out a new dog field/park our neighbour told us about....

D