あけましておめでとうございます。今年（ことし）もよろしくおねがいいたします。
Happy new year! I hope this year will bring full of happiness to you. In 2016, I would like to start charity for the people suffering from natural disasters in Japan.

I am thankful for you to have joined the ‘Speaking Sessions’ which I started this year and the great interest shown by all of you. I hope that it was a great opportunity for you to interact with new friends, sometimes to learn from others and sometimes to help others learning, but most importantly to meet people who have the same interests in a fun and friendly atmosphere.

In the coming year, I will be busier in my professional career. Wednesday evenings will be taken for lessons. In addition, there were many people who had difficulty in attending on Wednesdays due to their jobs… Therefore, I would like to continue this event on a different day and time next year.
 
The event will be held in the morning on the third Saturday every month from 2016. ‘Japanese Speaking Session’ will be between　10:00 and 10:55 and ‘English Speaking Session’ will be 11:05 to 12:00. There will be a ten minute break between the sessions. Please feel free to join whichever you would like. It is not necessary to attend both.
 
Thank you very much again for all your support and I look forward to seeing you in 2016!
Warm wishes,

Mineko Arai

今年（ことし）も.実家（じっか）で日本（にほん）のクリスマスケーキを作（つく）りました。とてもやわらかくておいしかったです。まちかどではクリスマスツリーがきれいでした。I made Japanese style Christmas cake at home this year again. It was very tasty!　The Christmas tree in the town was very beautiful.