Tradition

Went to bed at 10:30 last night. Nope , didn't watch the ball drop in Times Square. M stays up and this year b/c she's been to TS , it might seem more important.
Apparently, security was over-the-top. Spectators were held in roped off areas for up to 12 hrs before admittance to TS. Spectators wore adult diapers b/c there was limited washroom facilities ( no wonder there are more and more of those Depends ads )

Our family celebrated the day , i.e. New Years Day , rather than the eve.
Family would gather in certain hotspots , our house seemed to be one , for food and chit chat.
Food was chicken , fish , turkey , sushi , Japanese salads ( seaweed , cucumber were added ). There were Japanese items such as pickles , teriyaki - style minnows ( ??? ) .
Basically ,thanksgiving gone Asian.

About 15 yrs ago , it seems our present house took over the hotpsot role. The guest list is down to a sister and brother cousin act and their families. The roster once hit 23 but through not so polite hanky panky , the list went down to 14.
To-day , 7 people will gather.

The menu is catered :
Appetizers .. spring rolls , pot stickers  , pork bites ( oriental style )
torpedo shrimp ( crispy coating )

Mains .. sushi tray , *inari sushi and **kamakachi roll 
Fried chicken ( was supposed to be for  me , but last year , there was none left ) This chicken comes from Popeyes , Louisiana style deep fried

Salmon in teriyaki sauce , Cantonese chow mein ( oh yeah ,we had this when I was younger , only home made )
Shrimp and vegetables , Beef and flat noodles ( ho fen ).

These cousins are close and I'm sure that I've mentioned them before.

This morning , I attempted hi tech maneuvering. I connected the little laptop to the flat screen TV. Actually ,all the imputs are labelled and besides finagling around the support bar for the TV stand it was no prob. But I feel like a genius. I know , little things for little minds.
So ,the upshot is that I can project pictures from the laptop on the TV. Thus , we have entertainment for the masses this aft.

And they don't tell you when you use the slideshow function and adjust the screen size - all the slideshow controls are hidden. finally , hit ' escape ' to exit slideshow mode. Gonna have to see if this is the right way to leave slideshow. I've seen on YouTube videos , where they say to hit 'esc' to return to main file if you enlarge the video , so mayhap its OK.

So , happy New Year , Japanese style

FOOTNOTES

* - inari is called bag rice. The seasoned rice is encased in a pouch of seasoned fried , soya bean paper ( about the thickness of a tortilla ) We grew up thinking that this was a New Years food. Boy , we got a shock when they sold this at sushi stands , all  through the year.

** kamakachi roll - is probably an invention of soem sushi freak
the item is presented just as in futomaki or California roll.
There is a seaweed wrapper ,  a layer of rice and then cooked spicy tuna w/ crunchy bits. So , jelly roll style sushi w/ cooked tuna inside

There is raw fish tuna and salmon in the party tray