Our hearts go out to everyone in Japan. We’ve been watching this tragic disaster unfold on the news since last night, and it’s been devastating to witness all the damage and heartbreak that was wrought by the worst earthquake and tsunamis to slam Japan in a century.
We’ve confirmed that my grandparents and relatives on both sides of our family are safe this morning. Thank you to everyone who has expressed their concern. (For those who are trying to find or reach someone in Japan, as well as those who have information on anyone there, Google has launched a People Finder in the wake of this disaster.)
The Bay Area has issued a tsunami warning and a voluntary evacuation for the coastal areas, and we’re still waiting on BART to make a decision on whether they will halt service this morning (hence why I’m not at work yet). We are pretty sure that the effects on the Bay Area will be pretty minimal, but it’s still unnerving.
Japan is still experiencing heavy aftershocks and of course faces a grave crisis and a long road to recovery and rebuilding from the widespread calamitous damage and destruction. Please continue to keep Japan in your thoughts and prayers, and find out how you can help.
I’m home alone this weekend while Dan goes down to LA to take care of some business. He left early this morning at dark o’clock, only to return a couple hours later with a big fat dent in the left side of my Fit! Apparently a woman rear-ended him while he was enroute to picking up his brother. 🙁 Thankfully no one was hurt.
Here’s the damage…
My poor little Fit… I only got her a few months ago, too! Â Oh well… at least no one was injured and the accident wasn’t Dan’s fault so we won’t have to pay for any of the repairs.
Dan headed back out a few hours ago, and this time they are taking his brother’s car. Hopefully they will have a safe trip there and back. Be careful, hubby!
Happy New Year! Dan and I just got back to California late Sunday night after spending ten days at my parents’ home in Northern Virginia. We arrived early the morning of Christmas Eve, and I spent Christmas Day/my 28th birthday quietly at home with my family. It feels strange to think that this was my last Christmas and birthday without a child, and that future Christmases will probably be a lot noisier and hectic!
We had a memorable week spent with family, friends, and enjoyed a much-needed break from work during the holidays. My mom kept Dan busy half the time, enlisting his handyman skills to repaint the kitchen. (He did a great job and the kitchen looks like new! My mom is ecstatic.) Meanwhile, I indulged in stuffing myself with my mom’s home cooking, getting pampered by my parents, and treasured the time that I had to catch up with the friends back home whom I missed so much!
Two of my dearest friends and college roommates, Hanna and Yoon, threw us a baby shower the day after Christmas to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl! Since baby showers typically aren’t thrown until well into the third trimester and since I wouldn’t be back on the East Coast again before the birth of the baby, we initially hadn’t thought that we’d get to have a baby shower with our East Coast friends. We were so touched that they went out of their way during the busiest time of the year to still plan and organize a shower for us! Our friend Brian generously offered his house to host the celebration, and the decorations were absolutely adorable and the food was delicious! The girls planned some fun baby shower games and we were humbled by the generosity of our friends and by all the gifts. More than anything, though, it was just nice to see so many of our friends again, and we felt so blessed and fortunate to be able to celebrate the new addition to our family with them. Our baby (currently referred to as “eggplant“) is the luckiest girl in the world, to be surrounded by so much love before she even comes out!
Here are some photos from the baby shower…
The adorable set-up! I couldn't get over how cute it was.
Classic Pooh + Burt's Bees diaper cake! Yoon did such a great job making it!
Shower favors: beehive candles!
Guess Baby Allen's Arrival Date!
Homemade cupcakes: double chocolate and cheesecake-flavored. Delicious!
Loved it!!!
Pat and I with our baby bumps! We're both expecting baby girls in April, only two weeks apart!
Thanks Greg for stopping by!
All the yummy food!
Snacking around the table.
More snacking! 🙂
The Dirty Diaper game! My sister Miwa, my brother Ted, and his girlfriend Elisa.
Jina and Luice won the game. I missed these ladies!
Matching the candy to the baby phrases.
Guessing belly measurements
Thanks for coming, Jina!
Time to open presents!
The baby's first Hokie gear - a VT bib! Thank you Auntie Windy. 🙂
Dan testing the softness of the fleece baby blanket.
Adorable headwraps from Auntie Erri!
It was Luice's birthday that day - Happy Birthday! 😀
With 3-year-old Audrey. She's the cutest!
So good seeing Liz again!
Ashly and Helly - I missed them so! Seems like yesterday they were just freshmen, and now they're all grown up!
With Erri and Audrey. Erri is my closest friend who has kids, so she's been giving me so much priceless advice. I can't thank her enough!
And of course... my lovely roomies! 501-A reunited! Thank you for throwing me a baby shower I'll never, ever forget. Love you girls so much!
For more photos of the baby shower, click over to the photo album.
(Special thanks to Pat & Theo for many of the photos!)
Some of my friends couldn’t make it to the baby shower, like my best friend Debbie, who’s back in Seoul with her family for the winter holidays. The night before we left for Virginia, we had received this very generous gift from Debbie and our friends Mimi, Michelle, and Stephanie, who all pitched in to get us the Beaba Babycook that I had been raving about a couple months ago! Dan and I were stunned when we received it, because although we’d put it on our baby registry, we were prepared to eventually buy it ourselves because it’s so pricey and we didn’t think anyone would actually get it for us. It’s such a great investment, and we can’t wait until the time comes for us to use it! 🙂
The Beaba Babycook! Thank you Debbie, Mimi, Michelle, and Steph!
We celebrated an early Christmas and Dan and my birthdays with Dan’s family yesterday, since we are leaving this Thursday for the East Coast to be with my family back in Virginia. We enjoyed a delicious dinner cooked by Dan’s mother, a nice gift exchange, some classic board game fun, topped with a red velvet birthday cake for the two of us. It was a delightful evening spent with family. 🙂
I loved this Christmas ornament that Dan’s sister got for us — usually you would get an ornament to commemorate the baby’s first Christmas, but since ours is not out yet, she still got us a handmade, custom ornament to celebrate her anticipated arrival….
She also got us some adorable baby goods: a Baby Soy onesie, matching no-scratch mittens, and a pair of cozy fleece-lined Crocs! Too cute!!! Our baby girl is already getting spoiled by Auntie Hyo! 😀
We’re so glad we got to spend some time with Dan’s side of the family before we took off for our annual trip back East. Merry Christmas from the Allens! 🙂
I’m a little late in posting this, but I’m catching up on uploading pictures. My friend Catherine from Virginia Tech is now getting her Masters degree in Washington, so she decided to come visit San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend. She stayed with our friend Sue, who has been settling into San Francisco quite nicely after moving here at the end of the summer. We spent a Saturday morning watching the Virginia Tech vs UVA game at The Bus Stop bar in San Francisco, stuffed ourselves with delicious dimsum at City View in the Financial District, indulged in some shopping, and then ended the day with manicures and pedicures in SOMA (compliments of Sue). Thank you Catherine for visiting (we expect many more visits!), and thank you Sue for treating us!
With Catherine and Sue... Hokies in the Pacific Northwest!
Sue enjoying her Prosecco while getting pampered...
Fast forward to this past weekend, we had a really fun time at the Nakayoshi holiday party, and seeing everyone from Nakayoshi again! There was so much good food that everyone brought for the potluck, the White Elephant gift exchange is always fun, and there was such good company. 🙂 Megumi even came all the way up from SoCal to surprise everybody — I was so happy to see her; I missed her so! Thanks to Dan for hosting and Sam for organizing the party!
White Elephant gift exchange!
Hubby got a beer pong pitcher... haha*
With some of the lovely ladies from Nakayoshi!
Yesterday was actually Dan’s birthday, but I wasn’t really able to do very much except muster up enough energy to bake him a German chocolate cake for his party with his boys on Sunday evening. I was feeling pretty crappy about not being able to do more for his birthday, but Dan surprised me with tulips when I got home from work last night to cheer me up! 🙂 It seems a bit backwards to get flowers from your husband on his birthday, but it was very sweet of Dan….
Lovely tulips from Dan
We went out to an Indo-Nepalese restaurant so that Dan could get some of his favorite lamb curry, and I surprised him with the Leatherman tool he’s been wanting for a while. 🙂 Happy birthday, Dan!
