New Year's Break

Last week, we had four days off for Shogatsu, the Japanese New Year holiday. Unfortunately, Fox was sick the entire vacation. We had our 5th anniversary on New Year's Eve, and for the first time, we had nothing planned. Of course, this is the first anniversary we've had a baby and no babysitter. The whole day was spent relaxing at home and then we finally decided to take Cash and go out to dinner. By that time, every restaurant was closed for New Year's. Oh well. Luckily, there is always next year! The highlight of our holiday break was going to karaoke (カラオケ? from Japanese kara, "empty", and ōkesutora, "orchestra") with the Morimuras (our boss) and their son (our branch president) and his family. I loved it! Fox was skeptical. There are tons of karaoke places around, as it is a national pasttime, and people take it very seriously. They are all great singers, since they do karaoke so often. As Fumi puts it, "karaoke is a thing to do when you are stressed. It relaxes you". I don't know if singing in front of total strangers is relaxing, but it's fun!
Fox and I are a bit performance shy as we stammer out our "A Whole New World" duet:

Bro. and Sis. Morimura are pros!

Miu, their granddaughter, enjoyed the music, as she toddled around and ate dried squid.

Cash has a mouth for singing!