Anthony drew this whilesitting on the floor behind my chair this morning, while I worked on the computer. Thoughtful as before, he included the requisite biology to support pooping and peeing. They don't have hair this time, but at least they have fingers.

He said that he drew it for Grandma, so we'll be sending the original to her.

I'm not sure why he chose to put a mailbox in there, but it's a pretty good rendition of a Japanese postbox.

Here's our New Year's card (nengajou -- 年賀状 -- description) this year (sans contact info).

My friend Shimada-san used my camera to take the picture, but I'd set the fill flash a bit too strong, so there's some feeling to the image that we're standing in front of a backdrop in a studio. However, it's a bridge near our place, as the end of this post from a year ago shows.

Our timing was lucky... within a minute or three after taking this shot, the sun had set enough that it was only on the mountains in the background.

Here's [...]

We're back from our mini trip to near Ise, in Mie prefecture, about three to four hours away by car. It was a wonderful little trip.

We stayed at a large but traditional ryokan at the water's edge (map). The picture above is Anthony, wearing a yukata, sitting on the tatami floor of our room, looking at a book.

Sometimes I can't get over how cute he is. Hmmm, perhaps I'm biased....

My Christmas present this year seems to be my health. Finally, yesterday (Christmas Eve), the cold I've had for the last two weeks or so started to abate. Perhaps it was the drugs that the doc gave me, or maybe it was just time, but I finally felt good enough to at least do some shopping.

Our Christmas Eve began, just like last year and the year before, with the mini free concert at the Kyoto Hotel Okura. This time it was a Mr. Wakata playing Christmas favorites on the pan flute.

Anthony had been hoping for horns like [...]