Merry Mitsumas!

Christmas Decorations

I'd say "Holiday Decorations," but the menorah was put away earlier and I think the Hanukkah candle holders should not be near so many flammable objects.

At the request of Mordecai's mom, we assembled some decorations. We got a little rosemary tree from Trader Joe's, and Mordecai found an animatronic tree that sings "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at Walgreens. It was one of those moments where one of us says, "Look at this silly thing" and then it ends up home with us. This reminds me of someone, who, despite the addition of the puppy, is still a star member of our pack:

The tree's eyes reminds me a little of Doraemon.

My mom's gingerbread house

Eve

Here are some of our best tree ornaments: plush dreidel man (not sure where his wife went), my hospital bracelet from my lung collapse, and a delicate family of penguins.

On Our Way, Continued

• Re-cap of the Detroit Tigers portion of our honeymoon here.
• The photo above is from the resort portion of our honeymoon. There is much to blog about, mostly regarding events, clothes, and...Carleton Popperstein. TBC.
  
• I got these shoes at Payless today. They are apparently only available at certain Payless locations (in Chicago: Lincolnwood, Woodfield, Old Orchard, State Street, Michigan Avenue). I thought they'd be a part of the timeless Halford Collection, but Mordecai informs me that they're a part of the not-so-classic Cenobite Collection.
  
• Summer is coming to an end. It's all downhill from here! Quick, paint your nails a coral orangish color now while it's still acceptable, before people think you're a Halloween nut.
  

Early

My second cousins from Yokohama, Mitsutaka and Mai, just left today after visiting us for a week. They were real troopers, coming to Chicago in mid-December after visiting San Fransisco for a few days. When they arrived at our apartment, they started unleashing the omiyage, or gifts, from the motherland. Christmas and Hanukkah came early!!!

Apparently their father gets a lot of cosmetic samples, so they generously shared some of their fortune. With the exception of the Chanel lip palette, the above are all sample products. Clockwise from the top left: facial moisturizing masks, hair treatment oil (that I saw and eyed at Mitsuwa, incidentally), heating packs, sun block base, more heating packs, flowery-scented lotion-soaked cotton wipes, strawberry-honey lip cream, buttery lip cream, sheer "sakura pink" lip cream, and a shimmery facial powder that supposedly makes one more photogenic.

The Chanel lip palette was from their mother--this set is apparently only available in Asia. I played around with it today and got overly excited and applied all four colors to my lips.

They had an early flight today, so when we got home I just fell asleep in the heated table. I couldn't even play Animal Crossing. After I woke up, the living room immediately started to fall into a most disorderly state. Naturally.