New Year's 2014

We are now in the second week of the New Year, so I hope everyone is still going strong with those resolutions. We had a really low key celebration at home. We decided to just eat a lot of the traditional Japanese foods and hang out inside. It was snowing and cold...story of our lives recently....and Ten only had one day off, so we just relaxed. 

Here are some of the pics of what we devoured over the holiday.

New Year's Eve Dinner: mikan, tomato and cucumber salad, fried ham cutlets (trying to get rid of Christmas leftovers), and soba (cold because easier for Mia).

On New Year's Day we had osechi, and you know what...it is not nearly as bad as what Ten said it was. Seriously 90% of it was quite enjoyable.

Ozoni that I made that morning. Mochi, naruto, carrots, spinach, and chicken in a nice broth. This is easily our favorite part of New Year food.

Yum.

Mia unwrapping the osechi.

Lots of really good food...and some that wasn't so good. Mia especially loved the fish eggs. She called them "snacks."

In other news, I've decided that this year I wouldn't be making any specific resolutions. Don't get me wrong. I have a big list of things that I would like to get done by the end of the year, but they aren't necessarily resolutions. They are things like finish Mia's baby book and register our second baby at the Japanese embassy. Things like that.

I have, however, decided to pick a theme word for my year. This seems like a pretty popular thing to do, and I like the idea that you can choose a word that you can use to improve all aspects of your year. 

Anyway, so I was thinking hard and kicking words around like "happiness," "focus," and "self-discipline." However, none of them felt right. They weren't what I exactly wanted to achieve this year. Then while I was up way too late last night, I finally came up with my word.

It is "simplicity." I love the simple life, and I think that that is something that we have gotten away from here. We are gaining clutter, we were eating quite unhealthy, and spending a little bit too much. I mean if I look at Mia's toys alone, she has toys that are basically the same thing but just different versions. If I look in my closet, we have DVDs that we don't watch. We own 5 cutting boards. All of these are symptoms of a life that needs to be simplified.

So, that is what I want to focus on this year. I hope to report back in a few days with the first part of my project to simplify things.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

Christmas Day 2013

This post has a lot of pictures. I just couldn't choose which ones I wanted to share from the huge amount I took, so I'm just throwing a whole lot of them together.

On Christmas Eve, Ten got home a little earlier than usual, so we spent the afternoon getting ready for Christmas. I think Ten and Mia watched "The Grinch" and "Frosty" while I got dinner ready. We also went to the park and quickly realized it was just way too cold and almost came straight home. Seriously, our coats weren't helping...and Ten was only wearing sandals and a hoodie...no idea why he thought that that would be a good idea.

Anyway, after our failed park attempt we came home and started getting our Santa cookies ready. We decided to go with the pre-made gingerbread men, so we could just enjoy getting to decorate them.

First cookie out of the bag...he didn't last very long.

Ten icing a cookie for Mia so that she could add her candy.

Going much better than the gingerbread house!

Our finished products...Mia's is on the top and by far the best. Ten's has two green gloves, and I'm not sure what is going on with mine. Sorry this picture didn't rotate properly.

After Mia went to bed, we tore down the train track and reorganized the apartment a little bit so that we could fit everything under the tree and still have space to move in the morning.

Like I mentioned before, everything was wrapped and ready to put under the tree. Saved us a bunch of time.

Ten did have to stay up pretty late putting together Mia's table and chairs along with this kitchen though. I don't think he got to bed until 2:00 a.m.

Mia's Minnie table and chairs.

Mia ran in first thing in the morning and went straight to Totoro. We knew this would be a big hit with her.

Followed by a rush over to her new kitchen. This things keeps her so busy, and she is picking up so many words from it. We all love this toy. Once again....sorry this didn't flip when I added it to Blogger.

Treats in her stocking from a good friend in Japan. Thank you so, so, so much.

The beginning of the unwrapping marathon.

Deciding to have a tea party with Totoro in her new socks....midway through unwrapping.

After we unwrapped a good amount of presents, we took a break for breakfast. We had this really good casserole, and you can find the recipe here. I decided to make something sweet because I thought we may have a better chance for Mia to eat some.

Of course, Mia wanted us to all eat at her new Minnie table.

Mia in her first outfit of the day. She seriously had to put on every article of new clothing that she opened.

It just isn't Christmas without a toy drum.

....Mia enjoying her afternoon tea with her new tea set.

After all of the unwrapping and cleaning, naps were much needed. We then got up and ate a really late Christmas lunch. I honestly didn't have the time to make everything that I wanted too, but it all turned out pretty good.

Tossed spinach salad, deviled eggs, rolls, spiral ham, green bean casserole, and an apple pie. Notice that we actually had serving dishes this year. Thanks Ten for the Christmas presents...and thanks mom for the matching dish set!!

My plate...so full we had to skip the pie. We also had baked potatoes, and I love putting salsa on mine. Not very traditional for Christmas, but very good.

So, that is a glimpse of our Christmas morning. I was so exhausted once the 26th rolled around. Anyway, now just to get the New Year's post up!

Father's Day Weekend / Ten's Birthday

This post is a little overdue, but my Internet is not cooperating...so I bring you this blog from my TV....yes, I am typing it via my TV which is the most uncomfortable way to blog...I am sure of this.

Anyway, so over the weekend my mom and her husband came to visit with us. We had lofty plans, and we achieved maybe 5% of what we wanted to....so I call that a success.

When they arrived, Mia had just woken up from her nap....and she was having none of the strangers that had entered her home.

I have never seen her this serious before!

We then headed over to Times Square to grab some lunch at Red Lobster. We had gift cards that we could use, so it made it even better. I have never been to a Red Lobster that was this...shall I dare to say....fancy. I mean the staff even had ear pieces to communicate with each other. The decor was nice, and it was very clean.

By this time Mia was actually warming up to her grandparents...though you can't tell here.

We all decided to do the 4 course lunch since it was priced about the same as the other meals and it gave you more bang for your buck. The food was actually really good and we had so much left over that it took care of dinner later that night too. Here is what my mom, Ten, and I ordered....we got the same thing.

New England Clam Chowder 

Garden Salad...Ten had a Caesar Salad but also ate half of mine. 

Baskets of Cheddar Biscuits

Coconut and pineapple shrimp served with rice. We also chose mashed potatoes...though my mom went for the baked potato.

For dessert we had Brownies a la Mode....so good...and no pic unfortunately....I forgot.

After that we headed over to Time Square and looked around a little bit. By that time it was nearly 3 pm, so we went back to the apartment so that Ten could make a phone call.

For the rest of the night we just hung out and also made a quick trip to the park.

The next day we packed a picnic and went to Sheep's Meadow. This is probably one of my most favorite places in Manhattan. It makes you feel like you aren't living in a concrete jungle.

Yumm! Berries!

When we got back home, Mia and I went down for a nap. Ten and Gary went to visit St. John the Divine...and I have no idea what my mom did...haha. We then did some shopping. My mom bought Mia the cutest pop up book based on the story The Very Busy Bee. Loved it.

The next morning we gave Gary and Ten their Father's Day presents. I actually have more pictures on my camera, but didn't want to overload the blog post...so I just chose two. The others will be put in the photo book I hope to make.

It is really too bad we live so far away from both of our families, but at least we have little visits like these.

Mother's Day and Japan Day

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had such an absolutely great time celebrating with my hubby and baby and felt truly appreciated. I also want to say thank you to my mom and grandmother for all of the effort they put into being the best moms that they could be. Thank you!

Now our weekend started exactly the same as it always starts with swim lessons. Ten and Mia always take a stroll around the pool before their class begins.

Whose shoe is that? haha...oh well

Practicing floating...getting better

I'm excited to say that Mia will be moving up to the next level. The instructor told Ten that even though she was still a bit young for the class that she should go ahead and advance. Yay! Good work Mia! Mia can hold her breath underwater, splash around, and blow bubbles...so she is ready to learn some new things.

Also, on Sunday we headed to Central Park to go to Japan Day. I wasn't really sure what this event would be like, but it turned out being a lot of fun. They had a few different activities and some basic Japanese foods for people to try, and the best part was that it was entirely FREE! 

First, Mia and Ten tried yo-yo fishing. Mia was really looking like she wanted nothing to do with it at first, but when she actually got the balloon...she was super excited.

After her game, we headed over to the calligraphy tent to have something written for us. A lot of people were having the teachers write Happy Mother's Day or their names. We decided for them to go ahead and write Mia's name...so, we gave them her kanji and this nice lady wrote it out for us.

Unfortunately, she actually wrote it wrong...so Ten decided that he would sit down and do it himself. You should have heard the oohs and aahs over how beautiful (their words not mine) Ten's handwriting is....his mama should be proud since she is a calligraphy teacher.

Oops someone's little hand got into the picture.

The finished product is hanging on our wall at home :)

Next we headed over to the stage area. They were actually between performances but had some music playing and Mia wanted to dance...so we let her dance her little heart out.

Notice how there aren't many people in the picture...well they were all lining up at the food tents...free food can make people crazy...haha. We ended up going to the okonomiyaki line first which was a great idea because some people had to wait 40 minutes to get it!! Wow. We also had some gyoza, ramen, miso soup, and rice balls...all pretty good.

Okonomiyaki tent.

They were also handing out bottles of tea....by the box! I was shocked when Ten walked up to me with a box of tea. He said that they asked him to please take the whole thing, so we ended up with 24 bottles of flavored tea...It was so heavy carrying around the event, but I'm loving having the extra tea around this week.

We then headed home and showered and had a lovely dinner made by Ten. Also, here is a pic of my Mother's Day present. Two new shirts and a Vacation Candle from Yankee Candle...perfect for the summer. Thanks Ten and Mia.

Me and Mia then headed off to bed because we were pretty tired. I had the best Mother's Day. Thank you so much to Ten for making me a mom and to Mia for loving me!