This year was our first Christmas with Mio, and although she is still too young to appreciate the holiday, we had a lot of fun spending the day at home with my family. Yesterday also marked my 29th birthday! Here are some pictures from the special day….
Mio with her grandparents
My parents
Ted with the Kindle Touch that Dan, Miwa and I got for him.
Mio with wooden blocks from her grandparents.
Hyo came down from New York to spend Christmas with us!
A present for Mio from Hyo!
An adorable cupcake playsuit!
Mio among all the presents.
Miwa and I showing off some of our presents. I got the ZOKU Quick Pop Maker that I'd had my eye on!
Mio with Uncle Ted
A blissful Mio in Elisa's arms.
Mio peacefully sleeping...with her puckered lips and cheeks so kissable!
Christmas dinner with the family.
My tiramisu birthday cake, decorated by my sister Miwa.
Thank you to Miwa and Hyo for the cakes!
I loved that I could celebrate my birthday with Mio this year!
I turned 29 this birthday, and although it saddens me a little that 30 is right around the corner, I’m determined to make the best of this last year of my twenties! I’ve resolved to make changes for the better and to take steps to be more positive, rather than complain about circumstances and not do anything about them. I’ve been stuck in a bit of a funk lately, and I’m hoping to start anew in a lot of respects in the coming new year. Facing drastic changes can be daunting and uncertain, but ultimately it’s up to me to pave the road to continued happiness for both myself and for my family. Here’s to a fresh start in 2012!
We arrived in Virginia early Thursday morning and have been having a great time relaxing and spending time with family and friends since! But before too much time passed, I wanted to post about some of the festivities before we left California. Last Sunday, we celebrated Christmas a little early with Dan’s family. Here are some pictures!
Delicious sashimi and sushi dinner.
Mio and I admiring the spread!
Mio playing the nativity snowglobe.
Mio opening more Christmas presents from her grandparents…
Adorable new clothes for Mio from Grandpa and Grandma!
Dan's parents with the tea chest that my family sent to them.
On Monday, Aileen came to visit us to drop off Christmas presents and delicious coconut macadamia cookies for our whole family! She also handknit this scarf for Mio… so sweet and thoughtful of her! 😀
Mio looking chic in her first scarf!
On Monday evening, we drove over to Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley to check out their Christmas Fantasy. Their Merry-Go-Round was surrounded by Christmas trees decorated in different themes, and there were bright illuminations outside. Mio had just woken up from a nap, though, so she looks serious in all the photos… haha*
Mio and Daddy by the Merry-Go-Round.
A Yoda Santa topping a Christmas tree.
We wanted Mio to get her first picture taken with Santa, but he unfortunately couldn’t be there that night… maybe next year?
Mio and I by the giant Christmas tree at Tilden Park.
From the pictures, it looks like Mio didn’t enjoy the illuminations and Christmas decorations as much as Dan and I did. Hopefully her appreciation for the holiday season will grow in coming years.
Christmas comes early this year for Mio — because we’re going to Virginia for Christmas and can’t really bring all her Christmas presents with her to open under the tree, we’ve been opening them early and letting her play with them. Defies all the rules of Christmas gifts, right? It’s mostly because we (Dan and I, as well as both sets of grandparents) can’t wait to see her playing with her new toys!
One of her favorite new toys is the activity table that Dan’s parents got her! They brought it over last week, and she stands up next to it and plays on it all day long!
The table features a toy piano keyboard, “storybook”, phone, and laptop!
Her favorite part of it is the laptop — she loves opening and closing the lid! ::sigh:: Probably as a result of seeing her parents glued to their own computers.
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Mio loves the toy table!!! 😀
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!
