Fukuda Family

Happy New Year!!!!! Okay, I am sensing that maybe I am the only one who has the luxury to post. BUT- I have been up until 11 baking a cake to take to a friend's tomorrow, AND I have an 8 a.m. -8 mile team in training run out in Grafton an hour away from Boston. AND I have been putting in my days at the restaurant on top of the seafood work. So maybe I am just choosing to post more than you guys. :) We are headed out tomorrow for the run and then to buy sneakers and will not be back in time to ring you guys for the official New Year's Eve in Japan. I hope you all have a great time together. We have an invite to a friends for a 7-whenever party, but we are planning on showing early, dropping off a cake and then heading home, where we have a nice bottle of champagne and some American caviar and toast. Good job making it another year, Fukuda's! Let's see what 2006 brings! Love, Marie

Merry Christmas!!!!!!! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are looking forward to celebrating with Kimie and a bunch of friends here. What are you all doing? -M

Hi Everyone, I don't know who will have time over this busy weekend to check the blog but just in case you have time, it's all about me me me today!! Ha hahaaaa I have total control over this blog!! You will be forced to read all about the exciting adventures of Kibidango--actually it was pretty tame for a kimie-travel experience..... no interrogation, no luggage search, no profiling...just me waltzing thru the airports....it was easy.. i enjoyed calling paul and ben from atlanta to chat--they were excited about a pending visit from Portland Uncle Tim and their upcoming trip.... They were also very excited about opening the presents from Tim and Marie... ok that's all for now soorry it is borrring ha ha ha.... but you read it anyway.. I LOVEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Listening to Julie's MESSIAH last night, it was the highlight of the year!! One of them anyway!! It sounded amazing!!!! Very quality, very professional and an amazing Tenor that blewwwwwwwwwww me away!! xxxxxxo k...

Hey Family, Here's a quick one. I wanted to thank Julie (and Marie?) for the beautiful wreath, which completes my Christmas ensamble. I also wanted to thank Marie and Tim for Kai's X-mas presents! We just couldn't wait! Thank you, thank you! Love Jon

Grandpa's Rose continues blooming Dear All: I just had a call from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, informing me that the Boston Parks Department was entering Grandpa's Justine Mee Liff Rose for the prestigious Ruth S. Thayer Prize in the 2006 New England Flower Show! I was sent a form with some blank spots they needed help with, and I rang Grandpa to get the details. I guess this will make me excited to look around at the Flower Show next spring! I wonder if they will be cultivating a greenhouse rose in order to get a bloom for the entry?

Christmas Wreath: Dear Family, Just showing off my beyootiful Christmas wreath, courtesy of Julie. Thanks guys! Tim and I are taking off for TX for a long weekend get-together with the Horns. Joanie has a new keyboard and I will be trying it out. Best,-M

Good News! Hey there family, I just wanted to share some good news -- a friend of mine from my women's choir, Belle Voci, is singing Handel's Messiah this season with Portland Baroque Orchestra. It is a very small and select choir (23 singers total) that performs every year. I know several choir friends who have participated and who are singing this year, including this friend who put my name in. I got a message on my answering machine last night inviting me to join for the performance this year! After looking at the calendar and talking with Lucien, I decided to do it -- it is 8 days straight of rehearsals and performances. I would miss the final performance because of our departure to Japan, but they told me that was OK. So, here I go! This is the first time I will be paid as a choral singer, can you believe it? It's not a huge amount -- after paying for my music, my concert dress, some babysitting, and Lucien's ticket to the performance, maybe I will have a little le...

Okay Fukuda Bloggers... I've put this off long enough. I was going to wait until the weekend to post, but I'll be working pretty much through the weekend, so now is as good a time as any. This year, Thanksgiving was held in DC, hosted by the very gracious Daughter/Mother duo (Maria and Joyce) and I cooked the bird. Maria's brother Ben, sister Elizabeth with her 3 children and husband, and nephew Shaka (Kai's Cousin). We cooked/ate the following: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatos, Brussel Sprouts, Roasted Root Vegitables, Delicata Squash w/ Apples, Cranberry Relish, Gravy, several botttles of wine and for desert - Pumpkin & Apple pies with ice cream. Ahhh... So nice.. and oh, so full. All told, the family visit was 5 days... activities included: Reading to, Feeding and Bathing Kai Going for walks and to museums Playing in the yard And plain old hanging out Needless to say... we took too many photos to post, I'll be sending out my usual kodak gallery link when I...

Thanksgiving in Jersey I am having trouble posting photos- I think my settings are off, so I put all photos on the Kodak page. Tim and I left for New Jersey early Thursday a.m.. It was good we did- a snow storm was blowing through town, and was with us all through Connecticut. We saw about 14 cars off the road, and cars pinging off each other like bumper cars in front of us. When we got to Jersey, the weather was much warmer! We dropped our things at Leo's apartment and headed out to Central Park for a run. My goodness- that run around the park will get any New Yorker in shape- I never noticed all those hills before... We went home and Kimie was there! We had a great time playing with Mahonna and meeting Leo's family and friends. We stayed up late, eating and talking. The next day, Leo and Helen (Leo's late wife's sister) had to go to work, so we woke up early and left. Tim was a trooper and drove us all to the new IKEA store in Stoughton. We came home and ha...

Hi everyone, OK, I don't know if I am doing this right -- maybe I was supposed to post this as a comment to Marie's post, since it was a response to her Thanksgiving theme, but I guess I am posting a new subject. Here goes. We had a nice Thanksgiving with friends whose extended family has their holiday meal at a bible camp out in the woods. The boys had a blast with their 6-year old friend Zoe who now lives in Spokane. As you can see, we starved our kids before we went so they were eating turkey as fast as it could be carved. After the meal, we ran around outside, exploring, which turned out to be a mistake, since not a speck of food remained after our return for a little post-feast snack! Anyway, the really exciting thing about this weekend, was a 40% off sale at "knit/purl," one of my favorite yarn stores in Portland. I bought a huge pile of wool to make felted bags for taiko bachi. The idea is to sell the bags at the Regional Taiko Gathering in June. Or I could ju...

Turkey Day Plans: Okay, here's an interactive one. What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? Tim and I will drive to Jersey City early Thursday and head over to Leo Keech's house with a bunch of thermarests and sleeping bags. Kimie will be meeting us via the red-eye and we'll spend the night in Jersey with Leo, Helen and Mahonna before heading back Friday. Kimie flies out of Boston on Saturday late morning. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Dear Family: Welcome for those of you who signed in to this blog. Thanks for the comments. I have made a link to the Kodak easy share gallery to the right side bar. If there are other sites that you have your photos on, please send me the URL and I will link this to the side as well. Jon and I both have albums in Kodak. You should be able to make your own post by signing in to blogger and clicking on the 'posting' option. I am new with this, but can try to help if anyone gets stuck. When you post, you have a photo option which will allow you to select a photo from your computer or the web to add to your post.

Dear Fukuda Family: I thought it might be nice to try a family blog. This might be a nice way for everyone to post their recent news, snapshots, or thoughts in a way that will allow us all to keep in touch. If everyone signs in as members, they will be allowed to post freely and add comments and photos. Let me know what you think and hope we can give it a go!