Happy Three Kings Day to You!

Our second annual twelfth night celebration was last night. (you can read about our first one here). We invited some friends over to feast on traditional English Twelfth Night Cake (I totally burned it AGAIN!). Mr. Q was the lucky one to find the bean in his slice, making him the king of the feast and the recipient of good luck this new year. We LOVE this tradition and plan to continue it forever, though I need to perfect my cake-making skills (or find a new recipe... anyone?). It looked pretty though, right?

Our celebration of the twelve days of Christmas has been pretty low-key since we were all getting over colds and holiday fatigue. We came back from New England and just enjoyed some down time in our own home, which was lovely. We managed to get out a few times, once to introduce Mayumi to the joys of ice-skating.

We dined on traditional Japanese fare on New Year's Eve. Mom would've been proud of my udon nabe, omochi, and mikan (okay, they were just clementines, but close enough!). 

New Year's Day was so warm around these parts, that I was actually able to go outside and do some clean-up work in the yard. Cutting back some old plants and general tidying actually had me breaking a sweat - it was wonderful! And I had my favorite little helper working alongside me.

I also found some time to finish up a few projects around the house, including sewing some curtains for the guest bedroom and the playroom area. The guest bedroom curtains were made from a store-bought shower curtain (I loved the print) and the playroom curtains from a vintage sheet I picked up at the thrift store for $1.50.

We continued to enjoy Christmas music and all the decorations (which come down today because it's bad luck to keep them up past the 6th!). I'll have to do some more research to find some more meaningful activities to honor the twelve days of Christmas, but I'm content with the family time we had. Next year will come soon enough!

Hope you all have had a wonderful yuletide and are starting your year off well. May 2011 be a blessed and tranquil year for all of us!