Right now, we are at church preparing Thanksgiving dinner. We arrived here early this morning just before 10. Our English group gets together for Thanksgiving every year to celebrate. Many have come from other countries around the world, not America. However, because we are all Christians, we can all celebrate a day of thanks to God. Right now, we are cutting and peeling vegetables and preparing for dinner tonight. It’s a lot of fun hanging out and spending time together like a family. We even have a ping pong table set up to play one another. Only thing is, those of us who are preparing and...

Don’t you love stories about families receiving gifts of food and necessities when they need it? Around this time of year, TV news and special shows come on sharing about people who are in need of food, clothing and shelter and receive it just before Thanksgiving or Christmas. Thanksgiving started when the pilgrims and indians, way back when America was just a colony, took time to give God thanks for the blessings He had poured out on them providing them food and safety. The tradition has carried on ever since. However, these days, people seldom give God the glory for the things they have or...

At Hashimoto Elementary now with Noah as we wait to walk in the Yawata city parade with the Hashimoto Elementary baseball team. After that, we have practice and then out for all-you-can-eat yakiniki dinner with the team. Update: We walked around Yawata for about 45 minutes or so through the Hashimoto area up the mountain and back down to the school. As we walked, many people came outside their homes and greeted us. It wasn’t anything like parades back in America where businesses, schools or organizations ride around through town on floats they’ve made, march and/or play music to show the...

Finally, we were able to see the aurora under starry skies! Once again, it was foggy at first. But this time, the fog lifted earlier and revealed more star and aurora than we have seen the entire trip. The aurora was also a bit stronger tonight and wavy.

While it wasn’t the best aurora conditions we could have asked for, it was good enough to see the Northern Lights lighting up the sky. We woke up several times throughout the night in order to see the lights. Early around 8pm, it was too foggy, so we ate dinner and then checked periodically until around midnight. After midnight, we went to sleep and woke up about every hour or so until around 5am, which is when we had the best view of the aurora because the fog had lifted. The aurora was lime green and looked like a mist in the sky. It wasn’t very bright, but that is the nature of the...

We are out in front of the house we are staying in right now waiting and hoping to see the aurora. It is supposed to be Active tonight. Anyone else out looking for it tonight? September 26, 2011 10:45pm Fairbanks, Alaska time