New Years Report
How was your New Years?
Mine was busy. Hubby did not order the usual New Years "Osechi" lunchboxes and I had to buy and make everything. I told him in October that he needed to order but he didn't remember that every year this company's food is sold out waaaay before New Years. And December came around but well, basically I think he just didn't want to pay 300 dollars for the ready made stuff. So he says, I can make it and buy the rest separately. I don't think he realized that that actually costs more because you actuallly have to make more than fits in the boxes. For example, the Osechi comes with a little bit of beef stew, a little bit of Chinese stewed pork, and a little bit of chili sauce shrimp. If you make beef stew, you make it with at the very least 1 pound of beef. A pound of pork for the stewed pork. etc. And for the stuff I'm not going to make, it is obviously also cheaper for the lunchbox company to buy a whole bunch of sweet boiled shrimp and give us three or four in each set, than for us to buy 3 or 4 separately. You know what I mean? And the prices around New Years for every single ingredient is exorbitant.
But the food was good and I was able to make the vegetable/chicken dish I always make - this time with honey instead of sugar. I made sweetened black beans, also with honey. And the Chinese stewed pork as well. The good thing was that everything was much more healthy than usual. And there was enough stew for dinner the next day.
Hubby and I went out to an aged beef restaurant again on the 30th. Yumm.
New Years Eve, I went to a bigger station to get some fancy New Years stuff I had no intention of making, then we had the usual traditional toshikoshi soba for dinner. I cleaned and cooked but it was more manageable than Christmas, thanks to all the prep being stew-type, and New Years day I went for a walk with Hana before preparing the New Years lunch which we had at around 3.
We basically digested the lunch through to bed time. I spent most of the time going through some serious action films. I first went through all the Bourne series, then Mission: Impossible, then all Tom Cruise films I could find on Netflix and Amazon Prime except Interview with the Vampire. I liked it when I saw it long ago, but I didn't feel any interest for it this time. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise with vampire makeup on didn't turn me on and I think I just really needed some high-paced action.
That brought out some more interesting movies in various genres in my NETFLIX feed and I also watched Wanted and RIPD and just finished The Hitman's Bodyguard because whatever Ryan Reynolds is in is bound to be fun (it was). The other actors were all great too.
Today, Hubby and I took Julian to get his first adult suit - he has "Coming of Age Day" on Monday, where he will be going to a city run ceremony (He is 20, which is considered "an adult" and also legal drinking age in Japan rather than 21 in Canada. He was already able to vote at 18.)
Tomorrow I think I have a meeting in the afternoon with the office staff of the school. Thursday I have a choir part practice just scheduled, Friday I have some more makeups then Saturday maybe the family will go to Karuizawa for a day, Sunday is choir and Monday I start work again. Whether I have work or not, I always wake up at 7am - I miss those days I could sleep in but now I get super hungry and Hana would wake me even if I tried. She has gotten really good at telling the time. Tomorrow I will take her for a walk before breakfast as usual.
Some pictures.
Mine was busy. Hubby did not order the usual New Years "Osechi" lunchboxes and I had to buy and make everything. I told him in October that he needed to order but he didn't remember that every year this company's food is sold out waaaay before New Years. And December came around but well, basically I think he just didn't want to pay 300 dollars for the ready made stuff. So he says, I can make it and buy the rest separately. I don't think he realized that that actually costs more because you actuallly have to make more than fits in the boxes. For example, the Osechi comes with a little bit of beef stew, a little bit of Chinese stewed pork, and a little bit of chili sauce shrimp. If you make beef stew, you make it with at the very least 1 pound of beef. A pound of pork for the stewed pork. etc. And for the stuff I'm not going to make, it is obviously also cheaper for the lunchbox company to buy a whole bunch of sweet boiled shrimp and give us three or four in each set, than for us to buy 3 or 4 separately. You know what I mean? And the prices around New Years for every single ingredient is exorbitant.
But the food was good and I was able to make the vegetable/chicken dish I always make - this time with honey instead of sugar. I made sweetened black beans, also with honey. And the Chinese stewed pork as well. The good thing was that everything was much more healthy than usual. And there was enough stew for dinner the next day.
Hubby and I went out to an aged beef restaurant again on the 30th. Yumm.
New Years Eve, I went to a bigger station to get some fancy New Years stuff I had no intention of making, then we had the usual traditional toshikoshi soba for dinner. I cleaned and cooked but it was more manageable than Christmas, thanks to all the prep being stew-type, and New Years day I went for a walk with Hana before preparing the New Years lunch which we had at around 3.
We basically digested the lunch through to bed time. I spent most of the time going through some serious action films. I first went through all the Bourne series, then Mission: Impossible, then all Tom Cruise films I could find on Netflix and Amazon Prime except Interview with the Vampire. I liked it when I saw it long ago, but I didn't feel any interest for it this time. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise with vampire makeup on didn't turn me on and I think I just really needed some high-paced action.
That brought out some more interesting movies in various genres in my NETFLIX feed and I also watched Wanted and RIPD and just finished The Hitman's Bodyguard because whatever Ryan Reynolds is in is bound to be fun (it was). The other actors were all great too.
Today, Hubby and I took Julian to get his first adult suit - he has "Coming of Age Day" on Monday, where he will be going to a city run ceremony (He is 20, which is considered "an adult" and also legal drinking age in Japan rather than 21 in Canada. He was already able to vote at 18.)
Tomorrow I think I have a meeting in the afternoon with the office staff of the school. Thursday I have a choir part practice just scheduled, Friday I have some more makeups then Saturday maybe the family will go to Karuizawa for a day, Sunday is choir and Monday I start work again. Whether I have work or not, I always wake up at 7am - I miss those days I could sleep in but now I get super hungry and Hana would wake me even if I tried. She has gotten really good at telling the time. Tomorrow I will take her for a walk before breakfast as usual.
Some pictures.