The festival is at the ground level. There were tons of treats from Germany. Some, like mulled wine and gingerbread, were holiday favorites of mine - others (several German-style doughnuts, for example) were new to me. We basically ate everything we could get our hands on - or rather, I did and shared around so as to save room for more. We all had a lot of fun. You will note my co-worker Janet (who introduced us to the Osaka swing group) wearing a seasonal Santa cotton candy (aka fairy floss) beard. Most of the group also enjoyed the rickety Carousel.
On Tuesday before Christmas, we had our school Christmas Party. There were a number of really good performances put on by students and some awesome hand made treats. These pictures are of the food (homemade chinese potstickers and madeleine cakes) and some of my students singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." They did a great job. One felt a little more fearless when well concealed by a Santa beard. She was quick to point out that she was a VERY cute Santa. 
On Wednesday, we head a Christmas Swing party. Everyone wore Santa costumes. Unfortunately, my phone can't take pictures in the dim lighting, so I have nothing to show. If I can get a copy from someone else. I'll post it later. It was a lot of fun.
Thursday was a national holiday here - I think it was the emperor's birthday? In any case, we had no school. Russell and I had planned to have a Christmas party, but in the end all but one friend cancelled or couldn't make it, so we changed to a low-key nabe-party. We spent most of the day Christmas shopping and cleaning after a nice sleep-in. Unfortunately, our last friend also had to cancel due to a dental emergency - so there was no nabe after all.
Christmas eve I had to work. We had another Christmas party planned for some other friends, so I raced home from work to help Russell with cooking and cleaning. He had almost everything covered, though, so I had time to put up this highly questionable Christmas tree and wrap gift exchange gifts. 
Almost everyone cancelled or decided against this party also (there seriously must be something wrong with Russell and I). The one couple that didn't cancel were late due to work delays, but they did come and we had a lovely dinner. I bought a roast chicken on my way home from work and russell made dressing, mashed yams and Waldorf salad. He also made the annual favorite: eggnog. We have our technique down this year - no floating cream blobs. This nog was smooth and delicious - especially when one chooses to ignore what goes into it.
The gift exchange, unfortunately, was a little lame - four people isn't quite enough to make that work, but the gifts THEY brought were great! Russell and I made out like bandits. :D
Russell got a stack of twelved boxes of a candy that is apparently a fairly nostalgic chocolate. It comes in a box with a cartoon bird on the front. The trick, which our friend let us in on, is that one of the lid flaps sometimes has a symbol stamped on it. If you get a stamped flap, you should save it. Once you have 12 stamps you get something good. Along with the twelve boxes of chocolates he included a stack of 8 stamped flaps. Four more and we get a prize! He informed us that this was every Japanese child's dream. We have eaten about half of the boxes so far and found no further stamped flaps... this may take some effort. 
My gift was a zhuzhu pet - for those not aware of this new-ish toy trend, zhuzhu pets were the big Christmas gift to get last year (according to CNN, so who knows...). The toys are battery powered hamsters and roll around your house, switching directions and designed to get themselves out of trouble when they run into a wall or another obstacle. They also make all sorts of little sounds. While the noises do make it impossible to keep the hamster on for more than 5 minutes, they are pretty cute. I never would have bought one for myself, but I'm looking forward to letting him run around the office on Monday. 
While our party may not have been the boisterous event we had hoped for, it was fun. We wished our guests a Merry Christmas and sat down to watch pirated Christmas specials. I had horrible memories of that Rudolf stop action special, but watching it now as an adult was totally different. I had forgotten the story completely and it had Russell and I laughing almost the whole way through. I didn't expect to say this, but I am now a fan. We also gave up waiting for Christmas and opened our gifts early. Russell got an ipod to replace the one he washed and I got a video camera. Students be warned. The next morning we slept in and then made pancakes. The pancakes were especially important because I had managed to find strawberry rhubarb jam at a local shop. Rhubarb is nearly impossible to come by here, and I had long given up on strawberry rhubarb anything. I was so excited I bought a jar for all my co-workers too. The jam lady was a bit taken aback. I saved my jam for Christmas morning to have on pancakes with yogurt. It was delicious. We spent the morning videotaping ourselves swing dancing in our pajamas. Those videos may not get posted.
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