Lots of Glee

Here are the girls with a few favorites - their new kitchen and grocery store, Strawberry Shortcake karaoke, and regalia.

Christmas Singalong

Here is what we were able to see of the Christmas Singalong at the preschool. It's still pretty cute.

Happy Birthday Andy!

Hana chose the decorations for Andrew's birthday this year - Buzz Lightyear with blue and orange streamers.

Poof, look at all that smoke. I'm glad I'm not that old. I was so busy fixing my Japanese feast (see below) that I decided to invent a new birthday cake recipe for the hopelessly lazy. First, make a small box of cook-and-serve Banana Cream pudding, according to the package directions. After the pudding has come to a boil and thickened, dump in a yellow cake mix and stir until smooth. Pour the batter into a greased springform pan, and bake for about 25-30 minutes at 350. Cool cake for an hour or so in the freezer. Top with sliced bananas and cool whip. I'm sure you could do the same thing with any flavor, like lemon pudding and lemon cake mix. I got the idea from a recipe my mom makes with chocolate pudding, devil's food cake mix, and chocolate chips. It was surprisingly delicious. I might even venture to take it to the next potluck.

"Cheese," said Lane.


I thought it would be an adventure to make some traditional Japanese New Year's food. I'm not sure what Andrew thought of it (well, I am - he hated most of it, especially the mochi). But I had a great time. Clockwise - sort of - from the left is kurikinton, kuromame, sunomono, panko shrimp and gyozas, steamed rice, datemaki, and spinach with sesame paste. In the middle is a big bowl of udon with egg, shrimp, and kamaboko. Delicious.

Merry Christmas!

We took a lot of video this Christmas, which I still need to edit. But here are a few quick pictures for now. These are the Christmas dresses my (crazy) mom made. They're both hand smocked with candy canes and have fluffy petticoats underneath. I have to admit, they're pretty cute.All Hana wanted from Santa was a princess dress (the video is coming soon). Lane made off with plenty of Elmo and Dora in her stocking, but she was still feeling a little left out, so my sisters dressed her up.


The girls are having a great time with all of the new toys. As soon as we unloaded the car, I started de-junking the house to make room for their spoils. Their favorite thing to do now is cook and shop. Michi and Grammy sent the pretend kitchen, and the play grocery store and shopping cart are from Nana. Of course, now I have two kitchens to clean.