Christmas Party photographs

Apologies that it has taken me a long time to edit the Christmas party photographs & post them to Flickr 

We had a super gathering and were thrilled especially to see Santa looking fit & well after a couple of years 'off''. Rinka & Yukari worked really hard to get our venue & food sorted out; Eleanor & Hinata really stepped up as big sisters and ran two of our crafts stations, and Naomi was a star getting the koinobori painting station sorted out! Thank you Miriam, and unfortunate Simon missed out having to isolate before his trip home to family.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

All the fun from our Christmas Party now available on Flickr

All the children (and our staff!) were delighted to welcome Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus) to our end-of-year Christmas party on December 22nd, after a variety of games, activities and even a quiz! Excellent mime skills (Konoha), flag recognition (Ceilidh) & animal name spelling (Godzilla, naturally) and all-in participation (Seita, Airi, Kanna, Haruki, Yoshi...) check out all the photos on Flickr where you can also download your favourites.

Thank you Eri, Emi, Yuka, Yukari, Natsuho, Rico, Sam & Cedric for making the day a roaring success.

We are now closed for the New Year - we will be open from Jan 6th, with a new full-time English teacher joining us, and Sara returning from Egypt early in the New Year as well. Sad news is that we will be having to say goodbye to Natsuho...yes, with Matsumoto Yamaga's relegation from J-League, our lovely manager has been transferred. Boo!

Thank you all for a great year in 2019; we are very excited for the year/decade ahead, and are looking forward to mission #1, which is the papier mache mouse (and England winning the next two Rugby World Cups of course!). Let's chase our dreams :)

Jim

Do they know it's Christmas? They do now!

Already a week since our wonderful Christmas Party over at the kominkan!? Far too many excited little Lunanauts for us to host the party at the school, and our go to venue being renovated meant a return to our local roots but sorry mums, no space for you - we did our best to catch as much of the action as we could...but we were really busy because Jim got the wrong songs on the CD!

You'll find Father Christmas (aka Santa) meeting most if not all of the children on Flickr here Please help yourself to downloads - we are very happy to share the smiles! (More upload to follow tomorrow btw)

Of course we have to thank the man with the beard for making such an enormous detour to visit Matsumoto prematurely, and to:

• Head Elf Yukari for sorting everything out and having yummy food ready - and for taking Ceilidh to hospital when the TV landed on his foot tidying up :(
• Elves Matt & Naomi for running teams & minding minions energetically
• Elves Chihiro & Chiyo for stepping in when required & being heroes
• Catering Elves - nothing left over = mission accomplished! 
• Major Elf Damian for prepping & organising lovely things to do, and for knowing what to do

Wishing everyone a holiday season full of family fun, a chance to relax & take (turkey) stock...and spend time with loved ones together or in spirit. to those of us on the road/in the air these hols, travel safely - and remember to come back?!

Snow, tree, and lights....must be Christmas soon!

The tree-builders did their job earlier this week, just before it snowed. Brrr! Bitterly cold! Jim got the ladders out to hang the lights & jolly up the house. Hope you enjoy the light show - tell us if you like the tree, please!

Ceilidh had the right idea and painted a tree instead - which we'll be using tomorrow afternoon - so please don't forget the Christmas party (I got a text message from Santa that he's already packed his bag & given Rudolph an extra carrot for the journey over from the North Pole).

That Xmas party in music

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Christmas Party - sadly canceled

I regret to inform everyone that I am canceling the Christmas party this Sunday (19th).

My son is in hospital for at least a week, and Yukari is not able to get away from his bedside. You may have noticed she is not in the office?

I know our children will be very disappointed about this - it is one of the highlights of our year too. Santa is also sad he cannot meet our lovely students this time. He says he knows everyone has been good, so he will not forget to bring something to your home on Christmas Day.

We are very sorry to cancel the party. We will organise an alternative welcome 2011 party as soon as we can in January - and welcome you to our new school as well. Please understand our situation at this difficult time.

Thank you for your understanding, and a great big sorry from me.  Jim

Refunds will be made in full. Everyone will be invited to attend a replacement event in January.

クリスマスパーティのご案内

☆★☆★ クリスマスパーティのご案内 ☆★☆★

ルナインターナショナルでは、今年もクリスマスパーティを開きます。
ご家族やお友達をお誘いの上、是非ご参加ください。

14：00～16：00がお子様の部、19：00～が成人の部となっております。

お子様の部につきましては、下記のとおりです（詳細は添付ファイルをご覧ください）

会場　　ルナインターナショナル　松本教室
日時　　１２月２３日（水）　１４：００～１６：００
持ち物　５００円相当のプレゼント（プレゼント交換用）
会費　　一人１,０００円　（写真CD-Rは別途　５００円）

参加をご希望の方は１２月１８日(金)までに事務所へお申し込みください。


成人の部はポットラックパーティとなりますので、みんなで分け合えるお料理や飲み物をお持ちください。参加料は無料です。参加される方は、こちらのメールアドレスにご返信ください。

※もし人数が一定に満たない場合や、インフルエンザの感染状況によっては中止させていただく場合がございます。予めご了承ください。

多くの方々のご参加をお待ちしております。
もしご不明な点がありましたら、教室までお尋ねください。

ルナインターナショナル

Grown ups' Christmas party at Luna

Barely time to catch our breath after the children's party this afternoon, before we welcomed our bigger friends and students to the school for our end-of-year/Christmas party. Last year's BYO format was really successful, so why change a winning format?!

It never ceases to amaze me that in Japan, "start at 7pm" means you can expect everyone to arrive at 7pm on the dot...and so they did tonight. A lot of familiar faces, some bravely coming for the first time and making new friends. Eleanor stole a few hearts, and Jim went quiet for the first time all day.

Unlike last year, we put on a couple of events which got people working together less self-consciously. Tana's quiz was hard - "What do Turkmenistani people do at Xmas?". The winning team scored about 40% - and this was multiple choice!

The "Who am I" activity worked well - Taro Aso won. However, some very long faces due to the fact that Bugs Bunny was apparently a woman, Nelson Mandela and Winnie the Pooh American. Jun didn't know too much about reggae, and Ineko couldn't remember John Lennon's name. Oh well!

Frank Sinatra also featured, as we broke into some unusual karaoke to the tune "I love New York in June". Two teams had to organise the lyrics first, then put a dance together and sing along. Hilarious efforts from both teams and a lot of fun, before attention returned to finishing off the buffet.

Lots of happy faces, new friends made, promises to come and party some more with us in 2009. Wishing everyone a super Christmas - few more classes yet before we can relax properly though!

Cheers!

Christmas parties at Luna

Just to let everyone know for sure for sure that we are having TWO parties at the school on Sunday.

1. Children's party is from 13:00 - 16:00 and is already fully-booked, Santa already has his sack packed (for good kids only).
   
2. Adults - from 7pm until late. This is BYO (preferably something home-made for food, a supply of whatever your preferred tipple is). Don't drink & drive! Drink all night and walk home!

Jim, Tana, Yuki

Children's Christmas party at Luna

Sunday afternoon on December 16th was Christmas party time for all of our younger learners at Luna. It was a really cold day outside, so we made sure to do lots of running around to keep temperatures soaring & energy levels pumping.

Every year we try out new games and ideas, so that every year the party is fresh & fun. Of course we also make sure to include activities that have proved popular in years gone by - things like sticking the nose on the snowman, relay races with oranges, musical cushions & King-size blow-football. New things we tried out this year were a sausage race and learning how to dance - from the Rocky Horror Picture show...that was a real treat!

Santa's new helpers this year helped the event go really smoothly, and make sure we could all eat when we got tired & peckish! Thank you Maki, Tomoko & Ayaka - as well as to all mums & dads who joined in. As you can see, everyone wanted to meet Santa & get an early Christmas present - and happy to please, Santa very generously came to Luna with his sackful of goodies.

Although Santa looked a bit tubby this year, he had to jog here as there's no snow for Rudulph & the reindeer to pull his sleigh through! All of our good boys & girls had a moment to talk to Santa (in English of course) & tell him something about themselves (kind of a test really!). Too soon, it was time for Santa to leave and for all of us to go home - another Merry Christmas now not faraway.

Thanks to everyone who made this party such a success - please Luna's unofficial website at http://groups.msn.com/Lunasfamily/santacomestoluna2007.msnw and also at Jim's flickr site for plenty more photos of all the fun.