Happy New Year!

A lot happened the last day of 2017 & the first of 2018. Lots of cooking, cleaning, and rearranging. And also spending time with family. The cats did well with all the fireworks on New Year's Eve for most of the evening, they slept through most of it. The fireworks only really got their attention when the neighbor's lit off a short string of fireworks for the grandkids. Since it was only 1 string it was over in about 15 seconds, the cats stayed sitting up on alert for the next 15 minutes or so, then went back to sleep. I turned the TV on & made it a little louder than it usually is at night to mask the sound of the distant fireworks as it got closer to midnight. They did fine during the big blast of fireworks at midnight since nearly all were in the distance, nothing was close by. 

Shiro started his first morning of 2018 by attacking the toy that Sam made for them. He plays with it the most and even carries it to different rooms so he has a better area to play with it. Chibi also spends lots of time playing with it; Xander plays the least with any of the toys.


I spent a bunch of time setting out serving dishes and arranging how the food line would flow. Because there was still a tall pile of electronic equipment in the corner of the dining room, I chose to place the table up against the built-in cabinet adjacent to the living room. I also put together a centerpiece made with the dried portions of several of the flower arrangements from Mom's service and fresh flowers and the live miniature anthuriums I picked up at City Mill a few days ago.

The plan for the dinner set-up; the baguette & kuromame are on the table; and Xander is in the background.

Here's a close-up of Xander testing out the chairs.

For the New Year's dinner I was making kalua pork, gluten free chocolate chip cookies, kimpira, nishime, and apple pie. I also bought mochi & kuromame and had ice cream from Mrs. Vea and a baguette from Bick. I started the kalua pork first since the recipe said it would take a total of 2&1/2 hours with 90 minutes of that under high pressure. I was surprised when 45 minutes later the pressure cooker beeped & switched to "Keep Warm". I played with it to try to get it to start up again but couldn't get it to do anything so I turned it off. I was going to take it out and finish it off in the oven but found that it was done! That was quick! (It was onolicious!)


There was so much food we had to remove the centerpiece and put the parts on the eating tables. Later, while talking to Aunty Judy, I realized that Mom actually has a couple of leaves for the table; I need to find them before hosting the next dinner so that we can fit everything on the table!

Clockwise from plates at top right: sushi, potato macaroni salad, tray of ahi & hamachi sashimi, soba salad stuffed aburage, gyoza, kalua pork, pineappe sweet potatoes, nishime, kimpira, gluten free chocolate chip cookies (in container with blue lid), apple pie, chichi dango, and cupcakes & baked mochi in pink Leonard's box.

During dinner most of us were able to sit at the tables that Curtis & Lori brought over from their house; Curtis and Russell chose to sit on the sidelines. Sometime during dinner Shiro snuck in between them and went to sleep. Later in the evening Shiro stuck around but did not participate in the charades; we skipped okole charades tonight. We used the cards from the Guesstimate game that Lori brought for the charade topics. Dad also spent much of the evening with us; he pleasantly surprised everyone!

Curtis (L) and Russell (R) checking out their new dinner buddy Shiro.

Every year Mia takes a photo with DT and Brent at New Year's dinner to mark another year. All the previous year's it has been at Curtis & Lori's house in front of the piano. They decided to take the photo in front of Dad's K Company 442nd RCT photo to start a new tradition.


As they were leaving the boys gave me the last part of my Christmas present. It's a book called, Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat. It should probably be subtitled more like, "Cute Handicrafts to Make From Your Cat".

Can't wait to try this out!

As everyone was leaving I found a box; it turns out it was the box Paula used to carry the hot pan of gyoza, so she didn't need it as she was leaving; there was no gyoza left. I set it out for the cats so that you could see for yourself that some cats don't try to sit in boxes. Even Momo didn't care for boxes.

Shiro walking away from the box while Xander snoozes on the chair. They like chairs better than boxes.

Chibi checking to see if there's anything to eat in the box; Xander is still snoozing on the chair.

The box is still sitting there as I type this; still no cat's have tried to sit in it.

Today is Tuesday which is breakfast day. I checked out Curtis & Lori's remodel before we left. The contractor put the tile roof on before the holiday. Things are moving really fast, but the still haven't been given a new date that the work will be completed. (It was supposed to have been done by Christmas.)


There was a big group for breakfast this morning; DT is still here, Lori took this week off, and Jenny's school is still on winter break. We went to Cinnamon's Restaurant in Kailua but got there about half an hour after they opened. Because many of the other breakfast spots in the area were closed for an extended New Year's holiday, Cinnamon's was very busy; we were told it would be a 25 minute wait so we went exploring. We tried stopping in at Manoa Chocolate Factory, which is upstairs from Cinnamon's. Unfortunately they wouldn't be open until our table would be ready. We'll have to check it out some other time.


We did get in about the time they said we would. Curtis & I have already been to Cinnamon's but Lori likes their red velvet pancakes, so we came here again. They're known for their eggs benedicts, so last time I tried the kalua pig benedict; this time I tried the special Gingerbread Pancakes with an egg & bacon. Curtis had the Sausage & Eggs special with the Hot Loui, Lori & Jenny had the Red Velvet Pancakes with eggs & meat; and DT had the Red Velvet Pancakes with honey butter & bacon.

Sausage & Egg special with hot loui. (Photo by Curtis)

Lori (L) and Jenny (R) with Red Velvet Pancakes and their eggs & meat.

Red Velvet Pancakes with honey butter & bacon. (Photo by DT)

Gingerbread Pancakes with egg & bacon.

Happy Birthday to Ummihan & Brad! Happy Belated Birthday to Judith, Linda, Belal, Todd, Judy, Amy, & Trevor! Happy Belated 35th Anniversary to Terry & Pam!