New Year's Eve

Tom's mom spent all day New Year's Eve cooking. We started eating the fruits of her labor for dinner on New Year's Eve.


In addition to the many, many dishes she cooked, she took a trip to Japantown in San Jose to buy things like the fresh tofu, above, special fish cakes and o-manju, fancy cakes made with sweet rice flour and filled with sweet beans.


After dinner, Quinn had a bath and we read some books. We put him down a little late in hopes he would sleep in a little on New Year's Day. Wrong!



After Quinn went to sleep we watched a Japanese variety show that I love to see whenever we're here for New Year's. The male singing stars of Japan, both old and young, compete against the women. The acts are everything from an older woman in a kimono singing a very traditional song to a teenage boy band. This year there was even a little girl.

After the show ends we watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rocking Eve for the countdown. At midnight we have a sparkling cider toast - this year we got yummy sparkling pomegrante juice at Trader's Joes.


Then we enjoy the Japanese tradition of eating long noodles at midnight to symbolize long life.


Here is how little Quinn spent the first moments of 2009.