domesticity

QotD: NYE 2008
Who is ringing in the New Year with you? Who do you wish could be with you, but isn’t there?

I’m ringing in the New Year quietly this year with my husband and kitten. Such a big difference from when I was growing up in Hawaii and my family would spend the day at my paternal grandparents’ home in Hilo and with my mother’s side of the family in Laupahoehoe. There was always lots and lots of food and family around. Oshogatsu meant bowls of ozōni, otoshidama from my paternal grandfather, and yards of red firecrackers strung up and lit at midnight for good luck. I wish we could be home celebrating with our families... maybe next year!

Our new kitten, Keanu, loves all things Hawaiian as much as we do! Here he is enjoying some of my husband’s poi flown in from Hawaii.

A neat idea for the kitchen... the colorful and removable silicone bands allow for easy hanging storage for these maple cutting and carving knot boards.

One of my coworkers gifted me with an adorable Hello Kitty toaster oven for Christmas. It’s especially perfect since we only have pop-up toasters (a standard one for my husband and a Hello Kitty one for me) and I wanted a toaster oven to bake my little pizzas and other goodies. I can’t wait to bake some “tiny, tasty, toasted treats” in this oven!

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday season! The last few months have been really busy… full with new experiences and exciting adventures. We had friends and family come to visit us from Hawaii and then we traveled to Las Vegas to meet my family for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see how much my little niece has grown and spend quality time with my sisters and parents. Then a couple of weeks ago, we adopted a 2-month-old kitten and are enjoying welcoming him into our family. We named him Keanu and he is quite a handful… very curious about everything and fun-loving. I can’t believe how quickly the past months have flown by… hopefully in the New Year I will be able to find more time to blog!