As usual, the end of the year was a pretty busy season for us. Last night we had our last holiday dinner party with Kuniko’s family, and even Tomoko and Atsushi made it out to visit. We gave them a bottle of sparkling wine and two champagne flutes to fill, but just before we gave them their gift Tomoko mentioned that she is four months pregnant. That was good news – we were happy to hear it and we’re looking forward to our new niece or nephew.
On Friday last week I finished up negotiations with my company, and I’ll be continuing at KHI next year. Things went smoothly in the negotiations despite my relative weakness in speaking Japanese (especially negotiation Japanese can be a little delicate). Luckily the people I am dealing with are patient and very positive.
I have a party tonight after work with the entire HR department. It is a strange thing to have an after work party on Monday, but the dates remaining before the holidays are getting fewer and fewer. I’ll work tomorrow (during the national holiday) and then I’ll be done for the year. Kuniko is working the regular schedule (that means every day) until we leave for the Philippines on Saturday night. We have our own little holiday party on Christmas night, but until then there are a huge amount of leftovers in the fridge again. Nobody is going to starve to death here.
