Did Momo Kiss Santa?

Slowly, so slowly we find out about those little things we hold dear!
As we converse they know more about me and I find out more about them. Perhaps it was so very different when I just went to meet with them one weekend a month but now that they live with me we can learn so much more. They can see and feel how life is in a new household and they adapt to it. It's all new for all of us.
We stopped at a red light and the windscreen wipers whoosh whooshed at the rain that was attempting to obscure my view.
"What is your favorite food to eat?" I asked as we were playing favorite things, "And I mean food cooked at home, not going out for KFC, Yoshinoya or Aoiki pizza!"
They suggested a few different things to each other and then finally they agreed on Hayashi rice.
I laughed to myself. My Mother used to make this for my brothers and I when we were young and we loved it. I would say that as a child it would have been one of my favorites too. It's actually a western style dish, a hashed beef stew comprising of hashed beef, onion, mushrooms, carrots and other vegetables in a tomato based sauce with rice.

On my way home from dropping them at school I stopped off at the supermarket for a few things and I saw Hayashi rice ready to make and so I bought some.
Later that afternoon, I slaved away in the kitchen making the evening meal just in time for when Hitomi brought the children home. As they came into the kitchen to greet me their eyes lit up at and they offered a few nice compliments as they breathed in the delicious and savory aroma of Hayashi rice.
Hitomi sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and nibbled at her meal as she had so many urgent and important business calls to get through. The children and I sat at the table in the dining room to eat ours so they could tell me about their day as we ate without disturbing Hitomi.
I asked how the meal was as we were halfway though, I mean I could tell by the way they ate it with such relish that they loved it and I also forgot quite conveniently to mention that I'd bought it ready made from the supermarket.
"It is lovely thank you Mom. This is exactly the same as Keiko used to make it!"
Aiya! My own fault I suppose!
"I'm happy you are enjoying it." I told them with a smile. I enjoyed mine too but it wasn't like Momma used to make.
I need to do something special here so I can be at the top of my children's list of who makes the best Hayashi. I'll ask Hiro for a few tips about how our beloved Mother made hers. As I remember, it was a taste of heaven!

It is looking more and more doubtful that I can maintain this blog in any way like I have done in the past.
Life changes everything!

So I made a Twitter account that you can find here:
https://twitter.com/#!/TShimogawara
I also put the twitter gadget in my side panel.

It is very small and a lot of people refer to it as micro blogging. In Twitter I can use140 characters at most but I can do this from my phone quite easily and so you may often see Tweets from me even if I don't manage to get a blog here more than two or three times a month. It's easy for me sitting almost anywhere with my phone for a couple of minutes to tweet rather than use my laptop or my home desk top to compose a Blogger post.
If you have a twitter account then please be sure to 'follow me.'

I'm sat in Hitomi's office composing this on my laptop as we are having Christmas shoots today. Several photographers have booked sessions and we have three family portraits lined up for today. This morning after dropping the children at school, Hitomi and I sat for our 2011 Christmas pictures.

I WISH YOU & YOUR FAMILIES A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.