Happy 2013!

Happy 2013! As my awesome cake decorating skills show (look, it's not bad for 3am...), 2013 is the year of the (yin water) snake. Chinese New Year actually isn't for a few more weeks, but Japanese new year has been celebrated on Jan 1st since shortly after they began using the Gregorian calendar.

We did our traditional dinner again, as always. All the usual favorites, sushi, udon, gyoza, chicken rice - and some more recent additions like coleslaw and stuffed flounder. As always, there was too much food, as always, we say that there will be less next year, but we all know there won't be. As always we work hard into the night to get everything ready, and as always, while we work we tell stories. Old stories from long ago, and stories from the past year.


It's not just looking back, there is of course some looking forward as well. We start thinking about plans and goals for this year, and the years to come. It's always easy to make goals and plans, but following through is another matter at times...

As 2012 was ending, I saw many people on Facebook, and other places, saying good riddance to 2012 - that it was a horrible year, and that 2013 just has to be better. Now for some, this is understandable - there were deaths, illnesses, family troubles, and the like. However, for several of these people, I watched them say the same thing about 2011, and about 2010...  There will always be things beyond our control, but at the same time one can't just sit by and hope that good things will come along. Sometimes we have to work for those things, we have to make the year a good one, to shape the year into the best that we can.