2020 is done, and the world will never be the same.

Even though 2020 ended very different from other years,

all the hardships of the year couldn't hold back a super special year end celebration.

Goodbye 2020, it's time to embrace 2021.

What will the new year bring?

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Look! A Merry Christmas sunrise. Oh yea!

I'm going to come and see, camera.

Where are the Christmas lights?

See? The pink sky. Very nice, huh?

It's orange, not pink.

It's Christmas!

It's Christmas cakes, huh?

Christmas pancakes!

Yum! They look good!

This is already my second pancake. It's already your second Christmas cake?

Merry Christmas!

We're going to school. Going to school on Christmas?!

What is going on here?

I've been working on a secret project which is making the girls their own little desks.

And they're going to have their own little magnetic board above each desk.

So now the kids just went to school,

And we're rearranging their room while they're gone.

So when they get home, it's the Christmas surprise.

The desks are in! Now we have to put some drawers in.

Momma chan is probably going to decorate a little bit.

Watch out, Joshua!

Can this be mine? No.

Why? Only when you get to shyogakkou (elementary school)

Now what are we measuring for? Get this centered.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's the importance of perspective.

We can choose to be overcome by hardships, or let the hardships make us into stronger people.

Oh, and up here we have the Christmas racetrack, huh?

3, 2, 1 — the red one wins! Whoa!

Wow, Dude, that is awesome!

It's hard work to keep the right perspective, but it's worth all the effort.

Drawers underneath. Whiteboards on top.

Desks to do their homework.

And a Christmas tree for good measure.

I did it! We're all setup for the livestream tonight.

It's going to be our first livestream ever.

I really don't know what to expect except I imagine it's going to be a great time of interaction with all of you!

And to be able to say "hi" and answer questions and show what we do for Christmas.

I'm looking forward to it!

Well, it's time, huh? To start some setup here? Yes please!

Do you want to do some races first? Yea right!

A couple more things for Christmas! Some stocking stuffers and masks.

And some sleds.

Even though we don't really get a lot of snow here they can use it on the slides and it makes them go really fast.

Oh boy! Might even need to go try that out at some point, huh?

It's all cute! Christmas placemats. Are we going to have a meal here?

Yeah! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Ham and mashed potatoes. Ham and mashed potatoes, mnnnnn.

Um, ham time! Yes, ham time!

Oh my goodness!

Yum yum yum!

In Japan, a big deal is fried chicken at Christmas.

But for Americans, a lot of times it's ham or turkey.

The girls should be getting home soon, so I'm going to go, get into their room and hide in there

And get their reaction as they get home from school and see their desks!

Can I open my eyes?

Which one is mine? Yeah!

So look, let me explain some things to this. You made this?!

Mommy did this for a long time! These are your drawers,

So you have this drawer and this drawer.

If you get more stuff than fills this drawer, than we get rid of it.

No—oh yes. We get rid of the stuff.

And this, it's a white board.

Are you kidding me?! You can put your pens right here.

Can you guys say "Thank you Mommy" and give her a big hug?

Ohhhh!! Christmas lunch/dinner — yum!

Mommy made us something so yummy, huh?

Oh! This looks so good!

I'm going to get my plate now!

Go dude, go dude, go!

Go go go! Alright, good job.

We're playing some MarioKart while mommy is making her famous cinnamon rolls for the family to have breakfast tomorrow!

Oh my goodness! Is that real cinnamon rolls?

OK dude, let's do the last race, ok?

Uncle Paul's here!

Time to setup for the livestream.

T-minus one hour!

Uncle Paul's over here! We're getting the livestream all setup and ready to go,

And in just a little bit, we're going live!

Whew!

Normally we pack our place out with friends for Christmas, but that wasn't an option this year.

Instead of focusing on what we couldn't do, we opened up our family Christmas party to all of you via a livestream, and had our biggest house party ever!

Yeah! Welcome everybody! I can't believe that we're live with you right now!

Wow- good job girls!

Everyone's saying "great job" here!

We're changing around the whole scene scenario here... behind the scenes of livestream Life in Japan!

Change, change! Change, change, change!

I'm sweating! Oh!

[Christmas story in Japanese]

Well, that does it for now, and until next time, we'll see you on Life in Japan! Bye bye!

So our livestream is just ending right now,

What an incredible time, oh my goodness!

Our first livestream ever, I think we'll have to do this again...

And here is — we forgot to show the guy behind the scenes, making this all possible!

There's no way we could have done it without his help!

I think you can, next time!

Daddy, open this for me. Ok.

Good job, momma chan. What was your favorite part of the livestream?

Oh! Just seeing everyone comment, and having the family enjoying Christmas but with new friends.

Everybody munch munch munch munch munch.

Oh there we go. There we go!

You did it! Put it in the nest, honey!

Oh Sarah! Your guy's going to fly for the first time?!

He's going to fly?

No, he's doing the happy dance.

Awww!

We're trying to figure out how to make this guy fly!

But he won't fly! But he won't fly!

He's a little shy.

2020 also taught us to appreciate the value of everyday moments and find joy in them.

What are you playing with? Hammer!

The hammer! How did you sleep last night?

Good. Good?

Oh that's so nice.

Cold is coming in here... The cold is coming in here?

Well you got to push right here and turn it on.

OK- now it's going to start heating up.

Oh! It's finally flying! Oh my goodness!

Oh my goodness! Ohhh!

Oh, it got sad. Crash landing!

It's ok- it's ok.

Yeah! The first flight!

It's called an owly or something...

That is so cool!

My voice was so strange, when I was cheering it was like [squeels]

Joshua, did you show Grandma your new hat?

Now now now

Look at that hat! And it's Mario.

Oh- where did you get a Mario hat?

He got it in there — in his stocking.

You got it in your stocking! Cool.

It's going to go. It's going to go again.

These are Ruth's famous, classic cinnamon rolls

And we are going to go for it in just a little bit.

The limitations of 2020 actually forced us to do things differently,

In one minute we're starting our livestream for Paz Church — you can check it out at PazChurch.com

These guys are ready! Alright! Ben and Daichi!

Got a jog going on today.... Come on guys!

So if 2020 was rough, don't give up!

The best is yet to come — it's a new day, a new year.

With God's help, it can be a new you.

We're a tenth of the way there!