Sunday, January 19, 2020

My Favorite New Year's Traditions

Happy New Year! It's 2020, which still sounds so futuristic. While ringing in the new year with lots of booze and staying up well past midnight may have been fun in the past, this year's celebration was decidedly more low-key. I had a cold and Keizo worked extra hours to cover for a number of people who called out sick.

Instead of getting together with friends, we stayed home, cooked a yummy dinner, and reflected on the year behind and the year ahead. This has become one of my favorite New Year's traditions after finding a set of prompts online a few years ago (similar). Some years, we go though them with friends, others it's just been us. For me, it's a fun way to start thinking about goals for the next year. Here are some of the 2019-2020 highlights:

2019

The best COMPLIMENT this year:
W: Being named an Associate at work.
K: Being nominated for the Anderson Award at work (for the 3rd time!)

The best ACHIEVEMENT this year:
W: Biking across Iowa! And/or biking 1,000+ miles in preparation for biking across Iowa!
K: Same!

The most INSPIRING person this year:
W: Aunt Maggie for growing all of the flower's for Jess' wedding and running what must be a commercial-scale baking operation to make all those cookies she sends around for the holiday.
K: My co-worker Justin for his calm composure while managing our team and solving problems.

The BEST MEAL this year:
W: Keizo's birthday dinner at Momo Yakitori; finally trying Red Hen; sukiyaki on Friday with Linda & Sergio
K: Sukiyaki dinner; Mr. Pork Chop (Iowa); Bruschetta at Pizzeria Paradiso

2020

This year I want to LEARN:
W: Or relearn some Japanese and Spanish
K: Spanish

This year I want to BE MORE:
W: Positive
K: Social

This year I'd like to VISIT:
W: Colorado; Claire in Europe
K: Assateague Island; onsen (hot springs)

This year I want to TRY:
W: Going to yoga classes
K: Mountain biking

Another favorite New Year's tradition is hand-making our nengajo, or New Year's cards. Although celebrated in conjunction with the Western calendar, Japan uses the animals associated with the Chinese Lunar calendar for each year, which makes 2020 the year of the rat/mouse. Since we hand-make our cards, one of the first steps is deciding on a design that can be easily replicated many times over. Sometimes this involves a stencil that we can reuse, other years it's a simple line drawing with a few embellishments. This year, for the first time, we made stamps (out of a potato)!


There was some trial and error and many practice rounds involved before we got them working just right. The mouse stamp had a low point in the center which we balanced out by stamping the cards on a folded kitchen towel; for the year, the towel was laid flat. The final design is on the plain side, but none of the additions I tested out looked quite right.


Wishing everyone a fun, happy, and healthy 2020!