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! ♥
We were invited to our dear friend Hanna and her brothers’ annual Christmas party this past Saturday, and we were so excited we could make it this year! (We’ve only been able to attend once before because we were always in California until right before Christmas.) We put Mio to bed and left her with my parents in case she woke up, and got to have a fun evening celebrating the holidays with friends!
With the lovely hostess Hanna! ♥
With beautiful ladies Liz and Luice!
Love these silly girls! 🙂
Dan and I by the Christmas tree.
It was a potluck, and there was SO much amazing food! I ate so much, and it showed. haha* I should think twice before wearing a bandage skirt if I know I’m going to be stuffing my face…
Having a piece of the cherry pie that I brought!
Ladies in red! Hanna with her girlfriends.
The highlight of this annual Christmas party is always the White Elephant gift exchange! There’s always lots of laughs and interesting gifts, and this year was no exception! This year there was everything from a knockoff Snuggie to a Kindle up for grabs!
Eric opened the S’mores kit we brought! (But it was eventually stolen by Sisi.)
My turn to open a present.
A lunch sack! (Which was eventually stolen a few times, so I got a travel cosmetic bag and a neat message-growing plant in the end.)
Us with our gifts!
Dan and I with our gifts. He got Ferrero Rocher – my favorite! 😉
Handsome Cider. I remember he was so tiny when Hanna first got him 5 and a half years ago while we were in college!
Reunited with gorgeous Sisi!
I’ve missed this girl! ♥
Playing Dance Central with Sisi!
Showing off our moves! lol… I’m an awful dancer, but it was fun!
Beautiful family picture 🙂 We love the Chang family!
Catching up with my former roomie and one of my best friends! Thank you Hanna for a wonderful party. 🙂
Last Saturday, we went to a holiday potluck party with friends. Everyone brought such delicious food, and we also had a Secret Santa gift exchange. It was great seeing a lot of my high school girlfriends again, even some I hadn’t seen in years! Special thanks to Lucy for hosting the fun gathering at her lovely home.
My best friend Debbie and I in front of the Christmas tree. 🙂
Enjoying delicious food and chatting with friends
Mio was anxious and overwhelmed by all the people at first, and wanted to be held for the first half of the party.
Beginning the Secret Santa gift exchange! It was fun to find out who each person’s gifter was!
The girls opening presents. I was Yonmi’s Secret Santa!
My Secret Santa was Ploi, and she got me the Naked palette from Urban Decay! I was so surprised! I’ve heard so much about the Naked palette, and was so delighted to receive it. Thank you Ploi ♥
Revealing each other’s Secret Santas
Mio was really curious about my gift.
Already a fan of makeup, she grabbed the box and wouldn’t let it go.
…and then she tried to eat it.
Mio warmed up to everyone a lot more after a while, and started checking out the Christmas ornaments and running up to everyone.
I was so surprised when in the middle of the party, my friends turned off some of the lights and started singing “Happy Birthday,” bringing over a birthday pie lit with candles! I was so touched. :’)
A sweet surprise!
Thank you everyone! Special thanks to Debbie for buying the pie from Pie Sisters – it was so delicious!
There was so much good food at the holiday party!
I hadn’t seen Yonmi since college! We’re both moms now. 🙂
A family picture!
We had a wonderful time at the holiday party, and it didn’t go too late so we were able to get back in time for Mio’s bedtime!
My nightly routine of reading a few books to Mio before bedtime.
Reading together ♥ One of my favorite moments together.
My sister and I built a gingerbread house last night! We had made one last year for the first time in years, and it was so much fun that we had to do it again. This year, we decided to make a time-lapse video to document the process, because we had so much fun making the tree-trimming time-lapse the other week.
We bought the gingerbread house kit from Trader Joe’s, and we really liked it for its unique look, all the materials it came with, and its unbeatable price — only $7.99! It’s imported from Germany, and while we have yet to eat it, the gingerbread was pretty soft and thick coming out of the box, compared to the rock-hard gingerbread you find in most other kits. It looks and smells delicious! I just love everything Trader Joe’s sells, especially during the holidays!
Here is the time-lapse video of us assembling and decorating the gingerbread house! Special thanks to Dan for setting the camera up and editing the video for us. 🙂
Some additional photos…
Decorating the gingerbread house
The completed gingerbread house!
Love the little people and dog!
Miwa and I with our completed creation!
And Mio’s reaction to the gingerbread house? She saw it this morning during breakfast and broke out into a huge smile!
Curiously pointing at the people and the dog.
Maybe next year, Mio will be able to help build one with us! 🙂
Happy Halloween! We have survived Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm and all of its pouring rain and howling winds it brought with it earlier this week. Thankfully, we didn’t suffer any damage to the house or cars, and didn’t even lose power. Unfortunately, some of our friends up north were not as lucky — we’re keeping them in our prayers, and hope that they’ll be able to regain a sense of normalcy back in their lives as soon as possible.
We have nothing planned for actual Halloween Day today, as we got all of our festivities out of the way this past weekend before the storm hit. Here are some photos from our Halloween activities this year!
Watching Shimajiro is serious business.
Breaking out of her trance a little to wield her wand…
Casting a spell!
Because Mio was sort of a Tinkerbell-esque fairy this year, I decided to wear this dress — it’s a vintage Betsey Johnson dress that I bought at a thrift store a couple years ago, and Dan always calls it my “Peter Pan dress” whenever I wear it. Instead of buying a costume, I figured I’d just wear it to be Peter Pan-ish this year. 😉
Almost-Peter Pan and Almost-Tinkerbell.
Mio and Mama
Looking out at an autumn afternoon.
I love this little silhouette of her in the doorway…
Mio holding a mini pumpkin outside.
On Saturday afternoon, we took Mio to the Air & Scare event at the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the annex to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It was actually one of the first places I took Dan for a date when he first came to visit me in DC several years ago, when it had just opened in 2003, so it was fun to revisit it again after almost a decade. The Air & Scare is an annual event they hold at the museum, where kids can come in costume for safe indoor trick-or-treating and participate in creepy crafts, spooky science experiments, and other Halloween-themed activities. There’s storytime for younger kids like Mio, and opportunities to take photos with Star Wars characters all around the building!
Arriving at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
Inside the Air and Space Museum. There were so many people!
Mio is too young for candy, and I knew that if we let her trick-or-treat, she would most assuredly put the candy in her mouth, so we avoided the trick-or-treating stations and just explored the museum and other activities. Between the permanent aerospace exhibits and the Halloween-themed activities, there was plenty to see!
Mio and I posing with Star Wars characters. I confess that I have no idea who the heck these characters are…
I think the main attraction for Dan and I was seeing the retired Discovery space shuttle up close! We weren’t in DC yet when it made its final flight over the area back in April of this year, and we just missed the Endeavor space shuttle flying over California right after we moved away last month, so I had felt disappointed that we missed both opportunities to see the shuttles. Thankfully, one of the perks of living right by the nation’s capital is that a lot of such historical sights are open for viewing and can be easily visited. We stood in awe as we got to see the retired orbiter, which has made 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service as the oldest of the surviving space shuttles.
For some reason I always envisioned the space shuttle to be pristine, but it’s actually quite worn if you look at it up close (which of course makes sense, if you stop and think about how old it is and how much it’s been through).
Mio and I by the Discovery space shuttle. Thank you for 27 years of service. ãŠã¤ã‹ã‚Œã•ã¾ï¼
Mio and Dan by the base of the Discovery space shuttle. Dan was really excited to see the shuttle so close!
Dan showing Mio the models of Japanese rockets that were on display.
Daddy’s girl.
We met up with our friends Pat and Theo and their adorable daughter Anna, who was born only 3 weeks apart from Mio.
Trying to get the cuties to pose together.
…but the attempt failed, as they kept running away from each other. haha* I will find a way to make the two of them BFFs one way or another! 😉
Mio looking a little out of place among all the rockets.
Mio and I by the first military plane. I can’t believe they flew these things into war — incredible!Â
Storm troopers!
Look at these great Daddies! It was Theo’s birthday that day – Happy birthday Theo!
And of course we had to get a photo of the mamas with our girls! It was so wonderful seeing Pat, Theo, and Anna again.
Later that night, we put Mio to bed and entrusted her to my parents in case she woke up in the middle of the night (which she never does), Dan and I went off to have some more grownup Halloween fun at our friends’ party! The theme was comic superheroes, DC vs. Marvel. We had a great time seeing a lot of our college friends again and catching up with them! 😀
The DC Comics superheroes. (I didn’t get a photo of the Marvel ones.) I went as Catwoman — the latest Dark Knight Rises version too, with the cat-ear-like-goggles! Dan (not pictured) was lazy and went as Peter Parker (basically just hanging the camera off of his neck).
Hawkeye Danny with sexy Rogue Ashly! 🙂 Thanks for being such great hosts and throwing an awesome party.
The most adorable couple award goes to Tom and Hanna as Superboy and Wonder Girl!
Lastly, we also carved pumpkins as the weather got crappier into the weekend and we were cooped up indoors. Dan is always the skilled carver, so his is the awesome creation in the middle, but my sister Miwa and I also carved our own mini-pumpkins. Mine is the Angry Bird on the right.
