A very Merry Christmas and happy holiday wishes from our family to yours! Here’s our holiday card from this year…
A lot of people have been asking where we got our photos taken. We actually took them in the comfort of the living room at home! Dan worked his magic with the lighting as well as some color correction of the photos afterwards, but the pictures came out looking pretty decent — almost studio quality! Thanks to how well the photos came out, they were easy to work with as I designed our custom holiday card. So glad so many people loved it! Hope it brought a smile to your face. 🙂
This is the first year that Mio is starting to comprehend seasonal celebrations and holidays, and remember elements about them for weeks (and even months) afterwards. For example, she’s still kind of stuck in the excitement from Halloween, and likes to carry her pumpkin bucket around the house.
Yesterday, she went up to a Santa Claus doll with a basket and said, “Trick or treat, Santa!”
Christmas is only a couple days away, and I can’t believe how fast this month has flown by! In addition to the holiday season, there’s always a lot to celebrate in our family during this month because both Dan and I have our birthdays, and I love that people come together more during the holidays and the end of the year. This year has had its share of challenges with a tough pregnancy as well as navigating Mio’s tumultuous toddlerhood, but as I spend time with family and friends and reflect back on the year, I know that I have so much to be grateful for! Good health, wonderful friends and relatives both near and far, and our growing family that brings smiles and laughter to every day. And of course, there’s so much to look forward to in this coming year and beyond!
Some pictures from the past couple weeks, as we wrap up the year…
Mio after her final art class at the local rec center. She thoroughly enjoyed her 8 weeks of arts and crafts!
She pressed one of her crafts against the inflatable penguin, saying “Here you go, penguin!”
We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the Roof Terrace followed by a performance of Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. It was a holiday event with Dan’s company and was nice to get an evening out without parenting responsibilities for once!
Celebrating Dan’s 31st birthday on the 13th!
“Happy birthday Daddy!” Mio was so excited to help Dan blow out the candles.
With the girls at Ashly & Danny’s housewarming party!
Congratulations Ashly and Danny on the beautiful new home!
An early birthday dinner out last week with some girlfriends, complete with amazing desserts! Thank you Michelle for planning it. Can’t believe I’ve known these ladies for 15 years!
Mimi knows me so well. Love this nail polish set! It has all the perfect shades, especially for the holidays.
Mio brought home so many cute crafts and gifts from preschool! Now the dilemma is how to keep the chubster occupied during winter break…
Mio’s very own My Dear Darling penguin! Thank you so much Akiyo for such a beautiful handmade gift.
Mio was in love!
A sweet video of Mio playing with her penguin doll:
Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas holiday! We had a wonderful time spending it with my family at home. Here are some memorable moments from Christmas morning… it was Mio’s second Christmas ever!
Mio on Christmas morning
She looks so grownup here! Playing with her awesome magnetic wooden Tegu blocks from my parents.
Mio with her toy kitchen from Uncle Ted! I think I was even more excited than she was!
Playing with the bells from Dan’s parents
Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!
As many of you know, Christmas Day is also my birthday, and this year was an extra special milestone as it was my 30th birthday! Dan made it truly memorable by showering me with little treats, gifts, and love notes during the twelve days leading up to my birthday (instead of the Twelve Days of Christmas), and of course I appreciated all the birthday messages from friends and family!
Celebrating my 30th birthday in the evening.
Mio got to taste-test my tiramisu birthday cake that Dan & my mom prepared for me.
Making a wish…
30 has been wonderful so far, and I am so happy as long as I have this sweet girl and Dan by my side! They are my everything. ♥ Thank you to everyone who sent birthday messages, cards, and even gifts. And finally, thank you to everyone who supported and contributed to my charity: water campaign. Thanks to all of our collective efforts of 37 donations, we were able to surpass the $1,000 goal and raise $1,030! This will help 51 people get access to safe, clean water. In 18 months, we’ll be able to see exactly which products we’ve funded and the communities we were able to help. Thank you for helping to make such a big difference this year and making my 30th really count! My birthday wish has come true, and it’s one I’ll never forget. 🙂
Warm holiday wishes from our little family. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! ♥
Yesterday afternoon, we set up and decorated the Christmas tree! It was actually our first time decorating a tree together, because Dan and I never bought a tree while we were in California because we didn’t really have the space for it a lot of times, and were lazy. But tree-trimming is one of my favorite childhood memories of the holidays, so we wanted to make sure we revisited the tradition this year with Mio! 🙂
Earlier in the day, we met up with our friend Stephanie and she inspired us by showing us an awesome stop motion video she created of her pumpkin carving! (Check out more of her creative work at her blog, From Woo to You.) It definitely made an impression because when we returned from lunch and started unpacking the Christmas tree from my parents’ basement, I excitedly suggested to Dan, “Let’s make a stop motion video!” …to which he responded, “You mean a time-lapse, in this case? A stop motion would take forever.” And I said, “Yes! Time-lapse. That.” (Take no offense, videographers, I do indeed know the difference — just used the wrong term in my moment of excited inspiration!) So below is the result. Thank you so much Stephanie for inspiring us! We hope you all will enjoy this fun, short video of our first tree-trimming experience as a family! 😀
