Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

One of the advantages of living here in the Land of the Rising Sun is the time zone difference, which puts us a good half-day or better ahead of our family and friends in the States. Our marriage merged the Christian and Jewish faiths together, so we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. We've already opened our Christmas gifts, before our family in the States have even gotten past Christmas Eve. By coincidence, this year Hanukkah begins at sunset on 25 December, so we'll be able to start lighting the Menorah sooner than the rest of the Jewish side of the family, too! ... Yes, we are waiting until sunset to open the Hanukkah presents.

Anyway, just a quick post to wish our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. We took plenty of pictures this morning, but we'll wait to post until after we celebrate Hanukkah's first night tonight. Here's a few for those that can't wait, of Joshua sneaking away one of Santa's cookies then trying to look cute to make up for it.



And here's one from our Christmas Eve lunch at Sbarro's, where Josh happened to be offering me a bite of his meal, and I happened to be carrying my camera. I thought it was worth a share because his expression is priceless and it's one of the better indoor shots I've taken with the new camera while controlling the aperture and not using a flash.