I still hate the elf on a shelf...

But...

This one cracked me up. My favorite 16 year old (that is in Young Womens with me) set their family's elf up like this:

Wrecking Ball Elf.

Made me chuckle.

Merry Christmas! We are {hopefully} starting our Christmas travels tomorrow. Let the government flight adventures begin!

Tis the Season...For a Holiday Rant

So, I hate the "elf on a shelf." HATE it. It's mostly the whole concept of "I'm going to post a picture EVERY day on facebook so everyone can see what my elf is doing" that I can't stand. I DON'T CARE! (Even the lady on the radio tonight was talking all about where they found her elf and I wanted to throw up). There seriously can be a semester long course of social media common sense. No one wants to see the stupid elf on a shelf clogging up their newsfeed every day! Why, people?? This sounds dramatic, considering the only reason I have unfollowed people from social media is too much political posting, but I truly am removing people from my newsfeed this Christmas season who fall into this trap. I'll have to make reminders to bring them back after Christmas. I have already unfollowed several pinterest boards, because I personally can't stand it. I don't get why it's so ridiculously popular. Man, it feels good to get that off my chest.

While we're on the Christmas theme, can I share some holiday songs that need to just go away? Let's see:
The number one answer to this, without a doubt is "Christmas Shoes," but that's a given, obviously.
"Little Drummer Boy": what does that even have to do with Christmas??
"Santa Baby": slutty and annoying.
"I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas": Stupid stupid stupid.

There is one song that should be on this list, but I can't bring myself to do it, because it's a guilty pleasure of mine, and the music video?? Priceless. Oh, George Michael.


Are there any other annoying songs I'm forgetting?
Anyway, Happy December! I sure do love Christmas time.

Arashiyama and the Monkeys

Arashiyama is the neighborhood on the outskirts of Kyoto and it is so beautiful and charming. And man, those fall colors! So, we climbed to the top of a mountain to mix and mingle with some of Japan's native monkeys. That was such a fun, random experience. Those monkeys are drama. They pick fights constantly with each other when you are trying to feed them, and if you look them in the eye, they freak! One caught me looking at it and got very upset ha ha. 

 I posted the above picture because the sweetest old man who owned this little drink stand really wanted to take our picture. The people in Kyoto were just so nice. The people here are definitely a reason we love Japan so much.

Fall Beauty in Kyoto

While everyone was raving about fall temperatures and colors back at the end of September, I was still beaching it up everyday in Okinawa. Finally, I get my turn to rave about the beautiful fall colors this year. Kyoto, Japan is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the fall with all those vivid red Japanese maples. We had such a great time with our friends Shannon and Scott (besides it being much colder than what we were used to ha ha).

The first day we rented bikes from our hotel and stopped at various temples and shrines throughout the city: Kyoto has hundreds of them: it was the one city spared from WW2 bombing because of all its historic buildings. At the end of each night, I relaxed in the Japanese onsen (public baths) in our hotel. Victor wasn't much of a fan, but I loved it so much.

 ^^Our trusty bikes^^

What a beautiful place. If you only go one place in Japan, it needs to be Kyoto. It's everything you imagine when you think of Japan.