Happy Thanksgiving Monday!

We had to be up early-ish this morning to be ready for the festival. We had some time on Skype with my family at their Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately we didn't have nearly enough time for a good visit but a few minutes was better than none at all.
We went down to catch the bus to the festival but it may have been a few minutes early as we didn't see it. We wound up finding the festival on our own. It was a sports themed festival and we spent the morning playing Park Golf. It's a bit of a cross between golf and croquet (large ball, large club) and it was lots of fun! Taran's back is unfortunately causing him a great deal of pain so he suffered through the game. Joisan was done after eleven holes but we pushed on to do the full eighteen. Taran and I each won a prize - mine was house stuff (dish-soap, kleenex, plastic wrap) and Taran's was a bag of veggies.
After the prizes were all given out we got some yummy lunch - miso soup with weird fresh mushrooms and mushroom-rice balls wrapped in nori. Yum yum yum! We watched Hiro's Yosakoi group perform and then we went inside for the bingo. We only started off with one card but we were given two more so we managed to win three times! Unfortunately we did not win any of the big prizes (three tv's - one big screen and two smaller ones) but we did get another big bag of veggies and some mushrooms and some more foodstuffs. Our fridge is full!!!
After it was all finished we had time to get Ian and Taran home before I had to take Joisan for ballet. She was pretty nervous about the whole thing and decided that she was just going to watch. As it turned out the class was not the right one for Joisan - it was very much just for beginners. The teacher told us about three classes in Date that she will join. There is a pointe class on Tuesdays and two others on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It will be a challenge at first because the teachers don't speak any English and it is Russian-style ballet so Joisan will not be as familiar with the exercises. I really hope it works out because we have not been able to find an RAD teacher within a three-hour radius.
We got our bits and pieces for tomorrow all organized and ready. We have to be up early and at the school by 8am. I had lost my speach so I haven't practiced it enough yet but Ian found it for me and I'll be working on it before bed. I'm giving it in Japanese so I'm feeling a little out of my element... I'll let you all know how it goes!
Time to head for the bed now though - goodnight all, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday Katie!