Merry Christmas(es) and a Happy New Year!

The turkey has been digested, and the presents put away.

The tree is back in storage awaiting a future Christmas day.

Resolutions have been made for two thousand and fourteen; 

we return to work tomorrow and it's back to the old routine.

 

Santa made the rounds, that guy knew what to do,

leaving loads of presents and the sadly the stomach flu.

We made our way to a shrine and rang the new year in,

and started the year of the horse with a prayer and a grin.

 

Kio's first Christmas was full of family and love.

Mommy ate too much chocolate, a food she is now sick of.

Daddy worked hard, having to wait for his rest,

but for the Hirano clan this Christmas certainly was the best!

 

Kio's first Christmas(es) are done and dusted and I am happy to report that he loved each and every one of them.

Yep, the kid celebrated Christmas three times. Such a lucky (and spoiled) little boy!

Christmas number one went down at Casa de Sugar Fairy. And man did she put on a spread! Shin and I put away our fair share of turkey with all the trimmings and Kio ate his weight in mashed potatoes - his first experience with butter and cream. I'd like to say that the bourbon laced chocolate pecan pie was a personal highlight of the evening, but there was something that outshone even that!

In true Sugar Fairy style, she handmade a gift for Kio (her boys each got one as well). Bearded baby beanies will go down in history as one of the most hilariously fantastic Christmas presents ever! 

Unfortunately, Kio wasn't too keen on the beard. I keep trying to slip it on him at home (because it is seriously funny) and he just rolls his eyes at me and pulls it off.

Christmas number two happened at our place. Due to work and schedule conflicts, Christmas was officially changed to the 27th in the Hirano household. 

As was the custom when I was growing up, Kio got to open one present on 'Christmas eve' (the night of the 26th in our house). 
 

Not quite your traditional present opening style, but it got the job done.

Have you ever seen a kid so happy to get a pair of pajamas?

The next morning Santa had come and Kio dove into his presents. However, as soon as he had opened his little xylophone, the rest fell by the wayside. 

Kio loves to make noise. I think that Santa was under the impression that mommy and daddy might be able to handle it a little better if it was somewhat musical in nature.

Hmmm...

We didn't push Kio and let him go through everything at his own pace. Of course he didn't have a clue as to the reason why the living room was suddenly filled with colorful paper and ribbons, but that didn't stop him from being super excited by it. By the time his morning siesta came around, he was wound up to the point of no return.

Later that day Shin's mom, dad, sister and her three kids arrived for their first ever Christmas dinner. I have to say that I was a little concerned when approaching the spread that took me two days to cook, our youngest nephew asked, "where's the rice?" But in the end everyone enjoyed the food and helped themselves to seconds and thirds.

As I mentioned before, we celebrated family Christmas on the 27th. This worked out well for a few reasons and one of them was that on the 25th, Kio came down with the stomach flu. For twenty-four hours he covered our apartment in vomit. It got so bad that he spent most of the day dressed in only his diaper, hanging out on a plastic sheet covered in a towel. 

And then he was 100% a-okay.

I only mention Kio's stomach flu because just as I finished serving up Christmas dessert, I came down with it as well. Within the next three days everyone that joined us for Christmas got a little something more than they bargained for.

Just as it was Shin's turn for the tummy bug, Christmas arrived again!

Two giant boxes from Canada made an appearance after Kio had gone to bed and Shin to work. So I had to sit there with all those presents and not touch them. This took a great deal of self control and it lasted up until I spied a box of chocolate Turtles.

When Shin got home the next day we tied into the presents once again.

This time Kio seemed to have the knack of it and opened a lot of them himself although the proceedings were waylaid when he came upon his Hickory Dickory Dock book - he is in love with that little mouse.

And after a week of presents and turkey dinners, Christmas came to an end...just in time for new year celebrations!

I have to say that new year's eve was a pretty tame event, which was fine as we all needed some Christmas recovery time. I stayed home with Kio and did the countdown with a glass of wine, and Shin worked. He called to wish me a happy new year, but couldn't talk for long as the celebration at his bar was in full swing.

The next day, following the Japanese tradition, we went to a nearby shrine. Even though it was a local place, not one of the big ones where thousands of people wait for hours to enter starting at midnight on January first, we still had to stand in line for about thirty minutes. Luckily, the old fellows from around the neighbourhood were keeping the fire going so we could stay warm.

Usually we spend time with Shin's family at new year, but as everyone was still recovering from the stomach flu, we spent a quiet evening at home.

With a few days of relaxation behind me (Shin was still working), I started the Christmas clean-up. The apartment feels a little less jolly now that it has been returned to its former state. I'm still trying to work out where to put all of Kio's new toys; he prefers them strung from one end of the apartment to the other and for the time being that's where they lay.

Shin is finally getting some much needed rest and taking a couple of days off this week. When I asked him what he'd like to do on his 'holiday' he rubbed the bags under his eyes and said "relax". Fair enough mon cheri.

January is my last month of 'maternity leave' (although I have been working part-time) and then it's back to work full-time for this mama, and Kio will head to nursery school in February.

*sniff, sniff*