Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Curt & I traded places this evening. He came to stay with Mom & Dad while I went to his house for the family New Year's celebration with Aunty Judy & her family. (Aunty Judy hosts the Christmas dinner at her house; Curt & Lori host the New Year's dinner.) It was a nice break for me. And there was a lot of good food!

Clockwise spiral from upper left: sushi platter, chichi dango & an mochi, sashimi, rocky road, fresh strawberries, fluffy dinner rolls, gyoza, vegetable tray with ranch dressing, tonkatsu, nishime, salad tray, shrimp tempura, pot roast, macaroni salad, & jin dui.

After dinner we played Pictionary. Which was also a lot of fun. The final word was "mermaid"; Brent made a great drawing, which we used as a back drop for photos of for the New Year. Here are the ballerinas and the boys with the mermaid.

L to R: DT, Mia, Eden, & Brent.

Last night, Shiro spent the noisiest hour of the New Year's celebration in my bedroom, which is the closest one to the road. He was alert but not skittish about the loud noises. Xander was very good about taking his pill, his asthma stayed under control & the smoke didn't cause any problems for him.

Shiro looks up at the window, trying to figure out what those noises are.

Mom is still having problems with the dizziness, which is why she opted to stay home tonight. The MRI results came back; its another good news, bad news situation. The good news is that the MRI is normal, the bad news is that we still don't know what is causing the dizziness so we don't know how to get rid of it. One interesting thing is because of the dementia Mom does not remember having all the dizzy spells. When one happens, she thinks it is the first time that day that it has happened. She does not realize that she is having them 8 to 10 times a day. She also can't remember that this has been going on since Christmas Day! However, she has figured out that she needs to do things differently so she doesn't make the dizziness worse. It's like she's in Groundhog Day or the Star Trek: Next Generation episode where they are stuck in a time loop and on every iteration they learn something new & use it to ultimately get themselves out of the loop. Hopefully, Mom will find the key soon.

Update on the new Subaru: My insurance agent in Washington can't add it to the policy I currently have for the old Subaru that Kai is now driving. (It's 25 years old and still going! I hope to keep the new one just as long.) I called the insurance agent for the company that is providing the homeowner's insurance for the Kohala house to see if they also carry car insurance. I had to leave a message for her, I think she started her New Year's celebration on Friday. Which means Tuesday will probably be the earliest I will hear from her. So I might have to wait till the following week to pick up the car.

Happy Birthday to Judith, Linda, Mari, Belal, Todd, & Judy! Happy 66th Anniversary to Barbara & Willard!