I spent the afternoon of the New Year’s Eve helping my fiance’s family pack osechi ryori. This was my second year participating in this event and I still can’t seem to improve. I’m still very slow … but I’m learning!

I made a mistake of partaking this on an empty stomach, and ended up eating a truck-load of food there, including three freshly-pounded mochi (rice cakes) with azuki (sweet red bean paste), oshizushi (mackerel sushi), breakfast burrito, and small bites here and there.  Kinda feeling guilty because a small, such innocent looking mochi has as much calories as a bowl of rice!  Eeek.

Then, we were off to Staple Center to cheer on the LA Kings. I can’t believe this was our first game of the season, considering we used to go to so many in previous seasons. We met up with some of my finace’s hockey friends, and my pals Kerry and Carmela, also huge hockey fans. It was so nice to catch up with them! By the way, the Kings beat the Canucks, 4-1! Yippee!  Oh yeah, and I had chicken tenders with fries, bites of my fiance’s nachos, and a glass of red wine.

We returned home in time for the countdown and had ochazuke, instead of a traditional noodle. Since we don’t have TV, we had to rely on our partying neighbor to figure out when 2011 ended and 2012 began.

I leave you this post with a quote my Facebook friend, Jerod, posted on his page: You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

I hope you all had a wonderful 2011, and looking forward spending another great year filled with good health, love, and prosperity with you!