Christmas

I got through Christmas.  I am not sure how but managed
The kids liked their presents.  I cooked the turkey and did the trimmings.  A good friend came and helped make the table seem less empty.
It wasn't the usual Christmas we have.  There is usually some disaster that ends up having everybody crying with laughter.  Hubby always said that the Japanese don't do Christmas but he loved it.  He spent ages looking for the perfect gifts for the kids and was willing to go out of his way to do things for them.  This year we bought an electronic darts set for David.  The boys took it upstairs and set it up.  I could hear them laughing.  I realised that this game was probably as much for hubby as for the kids, that's the kind of thing he would of loved.
I am still in shock and have spent far too much time the past couple of weeks sorting out all the official stuff, then I had flu, still down with that but need to tidy up and take down the Christmas tree.
I will write again.

Not the post I want to write

But I have too.
At 1am December 18th, Japan time, my beloved husband passed away.
He had a heart attack, according to the doctor he didn't suffer and went peacefuly.
Mikey came home from his part time job and found him sitting at the kotasu table.  Mikey thought that
he was asleep until he touched him and found him already cold.  We called the ambulance but I could see that it was too late.
Friends have rallied round and I have to get through the funeral and the next couple of days, after that I don't know.  I am taking things one hour at a time.
I am not sure when I will write again.

Very long time

I can't believe that so much time has passed since I wrote.  I have a load of excuses, basically very busy, very cold and kind of sick, just allergies but I get a lot of headaches because of it! 
So what has been happening.
Sometime in November a group of kids from the local junior high school came to interview me.  They were doing a study about businesses in the city.  As a small business I was chosen.  It was a rather fun time, I thought an English teacher would come but they came by themselves.  David helped out, I could understand their questions but couldn't answer!!  Guess I should study Japanese!!

1st year junior high kids, bit shy

Taking pictures of my classroom

Camera shy, he was hiding from his friends camera but I got him!!!!

The end of November we went to MIL's to pick up the Christmas tree and decorations, I go a bit crazy for Christmas.  I love having the tree up and lights outside the house.  At MIL's house there is a large storage area.  All the stuff we don't use is put there.  But that means that nothing is ever thrown out .  I found a box of clothes that I had when I lived in America, 30 years ago.  Why am I keeping this stuff?   So what should of been an one hour job became a 4 hour job.  We burnt a lot of stuff, I think every time we go we will burn stuff.  I really want to be able to get our stuff to a manageable amount!
One of my students gave us some tickets to the museum near here, so on December 1st Hisao took the kids to the museum.  I think they had a good time!

My students have been working very hard the past couple of months.  The girls that come with Hannah have been learning past tense.  I think they have it now, I hope so.

Above the girls notebooks, last picture is of the girls working hard!!

I am sure that there is more, but I just can't think at the moment. 
I will update more often, I promise.