Merry CHRISTMASSS!!!

By the time you see this Christmas is probably over,

and you've probably realized that I've completely failed at vlogmas.

But either way today is my Christmas

and today. I went to announce the giveaway winners

for this year's vlogmas, Christmas, holiday prize thing

But yeah, so today is actually Christmas Day

And I am so happy because my best friend

my like 3.5~4 years college roommate

Flew all the way in from Virginia

so I'm not alone this Christmas, which is really nice

And we're getting ready to go to a Christmas lunch!

I got a present from Boomer's dad actually

its a new OVEN!

and when it came my landlady was like

"So this is American size, huh?"

Like yeah. It's American size.

and it's in FAHRENHEIT!

So I have a new oven and a brand new day with friends to look forward to

but FIRST we have to get cooking!

I'm making a version of my family's baked macaroni and cheese.

My secret touch is always a little swig of mustard

and USUALLY I add brown sugar.

but I couldn't find it

So I'm using a little bit of Japanese black sugar

and some onions and garlic,

then we bake for about an hour

so let's get started!!!

So the baked macaroni and cheese,

Loretta-style, not quite mama style, is done!

And I'm ready to go pick up my friends!

So now we're gonna head over to Hiro-o

to pick up the TURKEY! This year is legit. :)

I hope this is Christmas-y enough!

I'm wearing like a black mini dress

with like a shiny over thing and stockings.

So I'm a Christmas ornament!

Anyway, who cares what my outfit is. Let's hit the road

[ Tokyo on Christmas Day]

I'll keep these on so no one knows who I am....

They know who you are.

I"ll put on the video of you being the grudge girl.

Anyways, so this is a girl who's not to be named.

This is Voldemort.

We're on our way to Luca Deli which is in Hiro-o.

They usually cater turkeys and American food

but we're picking it up instead.

Kendall wanted KFC...

I was going to get KFC tonight...

but you have to order, you can just walk in today.

Hi! We ordered a turkey???

Yes, you are?

Loretta!

It's quite heavy!

It's OK I brought people!!

Thank you, Merry Christmas!!!

[Tadaima! Modotte kimashita!]

We're home and it's actually a new day!

The Christmas party was such a fun time

It was crazy seeing my old friends from the states

meeting a lot of my new friends here in Japan.

Like...everyone's coming together in one place! AH!!!

and then the FOOD!!

The turkey was not dry at all. It was so moist.

I think it was like twenty dollars per person for the bird

We got a 12-person turkey or something like that

so it was pretty pricey actually

but it was so moist and so flavorful

and you just picked it up, ready-to-eat. So that was really nice!

So to actually have like a turkey...YUM

Everyone made these like delicious like roasted veggies

dressing, eggnot, and like all these desserts!

Australian fruit mince pies-- so many FLAVORS!

Like UHhHH-- CHRISTMAS!!

Thank you! I missed having a proper Christmas!

Good job to Amanda !!!

Thank you for hosting an amazing party!!!

This year was nice because I wasn't actually alone on Christmas day.

In general, Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas here.

It feels like

Valentine's Day with different decorations.

Like in the states, everyone's off from Christmas until New Years

and then some people take extra weeks.

So like my friends visited,

then flew off to Thailand and their vacation kept going!

Whereas I just dropped them off and went straight to work.

Christmas is so abrupt here

It just suddenly ends.

I feel like in the States, Christmas is built up for like weeks and months

and for a few days like work and school

and everything that doesn't quite matter

All of that is suspended

and the only thing that matters is like food and warmth

and love and that just feels so good.

Here, Christmas is like an afterthought to work.

It's hard! It's definitely interesting..

But I've been trying to make some new traditions here

for example going to the Christmas Market

I went with Yummy Japan, we made a video together

And we tried out a bunch of the different foods there.

It was so much better this year!

And then I also went ice skating!

Which I totally shouldn't have done because I threw out my back that last week

Last year I went ice skating with Sam and friends

So that's that's really fun great and Christmas markets

going ice skating with friends,

the other thing I really like

is just SENDING gifts to people!!

Mail here is so much cheaper than in the States

So I sent gifts like to my family, to my brother's family

I sent them to my brother, Lincoln, in Houston

So, it's time to give YOU GUYS a gift!

It's time to share the giveaway winners!

I had no idea you guys like stationery so much

And I thought I could give all of this to one person,

but about 550 people entered the giveaway?!

I was like 550 PEOPLE?!?!?!

Guitar picks, nengajo, pencil-case, dog planner, stickers

I think that's five total winners that we're going to have

So one out of every 110 people gets one???

We'll just have to do more giveaways

Start raffle and pick random winner - HERE WE GO!

First Winner: Nathaly Cruz!

Alright, Nathaly, you're getting the guitar picks!

The designs are shiba inu, sakura, mameshiba....

The next winner is Grayson Jay! "I would like the pencil case!"

You're getting the pencil case

Okay, and then the next winner is KatDawg14

You're getting stickers!

PikachuTVStar, you win the nengajo - New Years Cards!

Okay, the next winner is Kacey!

You get the shiba journal!

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who entered!

I'm gonna send the winners a private message on youtube

So please look out for that!

It's time to go ahead and wrap up this video!

I'm very happy

It was a very good Christmas season for me,

but now it's already New Year's!

My spider buddy. He's getting really big

huh

I'm rearranging the entire apartment

because Boomer is coming with Lily our dog

in only three more weeks!!

So everything is changing for me as well

In terms of videos,

Our wedding video is done!

So we're going to be uploading that I think in about a week or so

So we're so excited to share that but in the meantime

We did actually do some wedding vlogs over on our couple channel

so if you want to start getting like

Some sneak previews into how that's all shaping up

You can see that on our channel "BoomLore"

The camera's trying to touch my camera!!!

I'll take him outside

How is he getting so big?

Thank you so much for watching today!

Let me know in a comment what you did this year, or what you are doing this year

That's just to make you feel good. I want to hear about what you guys are up to so

I'll see you guys my next video

Bye bye!!