New Year!

We all had a very happy New Year. Person let us stay up late and watch a Japanese singing contest on New Year's Eve. Every year there is a big singing contest in Japan. We will put our own singing contest on for person next year. 

This show is very fun for me!

Our person took us to the Japanese garden to celebrate New Year's this year. They had lots of pretty decorations that we enjoyed and tasty Japanese sweets. 

We thought we had made friends with this lion...

But then Elsie got into some trouble.
It wasn't friendly after all.

After we went to the garden, person gave us some tops to play with. Children in Japan play with tops and fly kites on New Year's day. 

Elsie is very good at this game.

Person made some Japanese curry for dinner but we did not like it. It was too spicy and did not have any sugar in it. Elsie picked out the carrots but I wanted more candy. 

Elsie is trying to learn to use chop sticks.

Person should have given us little envelopes with money in them for New Year's morning but she said we had already had enough treats. We were not pleased with this. Children in Japan get little envelopes with money in them and we should too! Next year we will make sure person does a better job with New Year's presents. 

I am making some important additions to the card design!

2014 is the year of the horse. I think it should be the year of the zebra. I tried helping person make the New Year's cards by drawing stripes on all the horses. She did not find this helpful which is strange because everyone loves zebras and knows that horses are just zebras who have lost their stripes for some reason. Elsie is happy because there is a year of the bunny. We will have to wait many years for that which will be extremely difficult. Elsie and I think that when it does finally come, we will get whatever we want since she is a bunny. 

This decoration is called a Kadomatsu. People decorate their homes with them in Japan. Next year we want person to help us make one for our house. It should not be hard. We will give person good directions so she won't make any mistakes. 

Happy New Year everyone!