Okinawa-rama

Just wanted to welcome little Rossi William Santelia to the world. Born on December 9th 2006. A little Christmas present! He's as cute as a button and we can't wait to meet him. Congratulations Rebecca and Michael!

The tug-of-war dates back to 1600, when it served a dual purpose. Villagers from east and west did honorific battle for victory as a sign to shamans who predicted the future. The prayers were for a good rice harvest. The second motive was to instill peace and stability into the lives of seafarers of this island nation, and to ensure their safety. The Naha rope is constructed in two sections: the mizuna, or female, and uzuna, or male. Before the heaving begins, those two sections are brought together and connected with a pin called a kanuchi, representing the unification of East and West Naha. The tug-of-war rivets spectators during the hour-plus event, after which knives come out for everyone to cut ceremonial pieces of the rope to take home.

So, it's Christmas time and we've started a new rotation of holiday music and that frame shop. Thank God, at least a month's reprieve from "Laffy Taffy" and Celine Dion. Back at the house, we are gearing up in our own slow and steady pace. I'm happy to report though that we have a Christmas tree. A real live Christmas tree no less! It's only about five feet tall or so. And it's naked...I think we have three ornaments. But it's a tree! And it smells good! Actually, I tried my hand at ornament making, hot gluing sea glass to a store bought glass ball decoration. However, I failed to take into account the collective weight of the glass until I finished. It's probably about five pounds.

Even the weather is starting to take on a wintery turn. It's dropped down into the 60's and people are taking full advantage of the cool temp. to sport their cute winter gear... sweating all the while. Yes, I admit, I'm one of them.

Hope your holiday season is great!

-Kelly

PS I got the ball pictures back. You'll just have to take my word that they looked great, 'cause I sure ain't posting them!

So, perhaps you are wondering whatever happened with the dress? Well, since I had no need to write procrastination blogs after finishing it there were no updates. Sorry! But, amazingly, I did actually complete the sewing of the dress. Not only that, but the flaws were disguisable enough that I could even wear it in public! Well, fortunately for me I had a great help with Kanako-san, the obi tying instructor. She spent about an hour with me on Tuesday morning tying the obi and teaching me how tie it as well. She also brought along a bag of obi cords to accessorize the obi. I chose the one I liked the best and then she fashioned it into a flower shape, which she then sewed onto the bow. It looked great. That night, I took my portion of the dress, the skirt part, and hoisted it up over my chest. Then I took the obi and wrapped it around my boobs so tight that I could hardly breathe. I mean it was holding my skirt up after all - it needed to stick. Joe helped me tie the obi. (First you tie it in the front and then scoot the bow to the back.) And ta-da! A dress. An extremely uncomfortable and fragile dress. But a dress nonetheless.

Below are a couple of pictures of the dress-making process. We got a full length portrait of us at the ball which I'll put up later, but these are just of the back.

P.S. I wore about three different slips so there was no seeing through the thing!