Happy New Year!

Only two days in and so far we're loving 2016. Baylie tried so hard to stay up to ring in the new year. She fell asleep at about 11:45. We woke her up in time to count down the final minute. She loved it. 

Jalen fell asleep hours before.

We tried to wake him up, but he wasn't having any of it. He drank his sparkling cider for breakfast the next morning.

We were all ready with cider, noise makers and confetti shooters.

I spent New Year's day sick on the couch, watching football. We didn't even turn the lights on. I coughed so hard that I had a migraine and my rib muscles were irritated again. (I spent the night in the ER the week before Christmas, thinking I was having a heart attack, but it was just pulled muscles in my rib cage.) My chest ached and I was afraid I was getting pneumonia again. I even had sore neck muscles from the coughing. It was a pretty low key day for all of us.

Fortunately, I took some awesome pain killers (left over from my night in the emergency room) and felt much better this morning. We all headed for Rock Hill this afternoon. David had to change offices and we had been invited for a traditional Japanese New Year's dinner at the home of two of his colleagues.

Winthrop is such a beautiful school. (Although, I have to confess that the music school is pretty run down and has a very funky smell. Apparently, there is a lot of mold.)

This semester, David gets a corner office. Woot-woot! It's the office of the professor he is covering for who is going on sabbatical. She and her husband are the ones that invited us for dinner. They hired David and have been amazingly kind to him. Actually, everyone he has worked with has been fantastic.

Pretty fancy for an adjunct.

Move over Beethoven.

This cool tree is shaped like a W.

Winthrop was originally a women's only teacher's college. (Baylie's kindergarten teacher went here.) There was a time when at the beginning of the year they'd line up all the female students and have them walk down Scholars Walk. They'd continue off the campus past beautiful homes and churches. This was so they could each choose a church where they would worship while at Winthrop.

Cool clock.

Scholars Walk

Baylie met a friend who was reading a book.

Another view of Scholars Walk.

Afterwards, we went to a local park to take some pictures of Baylie for her baptism announcements. (She's getting baptized in March.) We just got her beautiful dress in the mail and she couldn't wait to try it on again. I must say that our little girl is incredibly photogenic. Here are some of my favorites.

Jalen photobomb

Then we went to another park with a cool fountain. The kids threw coins in the fountain. 

After that, we went to Ron and Tomoko's for dinner. Tomoko is from Kobe and she made us a meal that is traditionally eaten at New Year's. We weren't sure how the kids would do with the exotic food, but they loved it. The different foods have different symbolism.

This includes bamboo shoots, lotus root and other stuff I can't remember.

This was sweet potato with chestnuts (my personal favorites), black beans that had amazing flavor, sardines and red/white fish cakes.

Baylie loved the sardines.

The sushi rice was also amazing, as was the fried chicken that I didn't get a picture of.

Happy eaters. Even the kids used chop sticks. Notice the bowls with tangyuan - an incredibly sticky rice ball thing. It was one of the strangest things I've ever eaten, but was tasty.

This is Ron and Kotone, their daughter. She's an amazing artist.

It was such a great beginning for the new year. I feel like this year is full of promise for our little family.