Happy New Year!!!

It was pretty cold at my PILs house but in the end, New Year didn`t suck as much arse as I thought it was going to. I felt pretty horrible on the 31st though with a sore throat and swollen glands so ended up passing out on the sofa at 9pm! I woke up a couple of times but didn`t notice Joey and Aoi running around like maniacs until 1am. I also didn`t notice everyone eating New year`s soba or anything! I guess I needed the rest! At 1am i woke up, shifted over to my futon (taking Joey who had been up WAY too long with me) and went back to sleep until 9am. I never usually conk out like that anymore because I am always aware of what Joey is/ isn`t doing but I guess I must have just been worn out from all the work we did for Xmas, finishing up my classes etc... My SIL seems to have gotten a bit of a clue about child discipline and has started actually trying to set a few boundaries with Aoi so it wasn`t so bad on that front either. Joey and Aoi got on like a house of fire and had a great time running around/ playing together. On January 2nd I made my annual visit to see my home-stay family. They have 4 kids and their oldest son has two kids with another one on the way any day now so it is usually a really fun evening! With his wife so heavily pregnant, the oldest son and kids went home before dinner so Joey got to be centre of attention and they doted on and spoilt him rotten! He has become quite the comedian lately and had everyone in stitches with his antics. We had beef shabu shabu and birthday cake (their younger son is a year younger than me and turned 28 on the 2nd, I turn 29 on saturday so we always celebrate our birthdays together when i visit, I really love that they bother to do that!!) I went home completely stuffed which was a fabulous feeling as I really am not a big fan of traditional Japanese New Year`s food (osechi ryori) so spent most of New years day feeling hungry!!! Joey and I came back last night after my MIL spent all day creating distractions to get us to stay for longer!! Daisuke had to stay to get some test results from his health check last month (he got the all clear) so he came back today. I rushed to the ferry port to pick him up and on the way back got a call from Joey`s daycare to say that my class today was cancelled! I jumped for joy because I am REALLY hating teaching these two girls. I swear one of them has ADD and no matter how hard I try to keep things moving/ interesting, I can`t get her to concentrate on ANYTHING. The other girl is very quiet and barely speaks but I can handle that because I know she is listening and taking things in. I know I am spoilt with my other students being angels and that a teacher can`t have good students all the time but the girl who can`t concentrate at all is driving me to distraction and I am at a bit of a loss at what to do with her. I think I am going to give the class another month and if we still aren`t making any progress, I might have to tell Joey`s daycare that we can`t continue with class. My classes start again tomorrow and Daisuke is away at a wedding until Monday evening. I was originally planning a trip to Okinawa to celebrate my birthday but for various reasons, have decided to cancel the trip and stay here. We are going out for dinner to celebrate tonight though so it is all good!!!