The Stinking Rose

On Saturday, we spent the day in San Francisco and visited the Fairmont Hotel to see the largest-ever gingerbread house to be built in San Francisco! It’s constructed of 7,500 gingerbread sticks, 1,200 pounds of chocolate icing and 650 pounds of candy! It was beautifully decorated and everything had so much detail. Thank you Megumi for suggesting we check it out! 🙂

Mio and I — Mio looks suspicious of all the candy.

penguins wading — A snowy landscape in the window of the gingerbread house... made of frosting, littered with cinnamon sticks.

Merry Christmas! — We had a great time seeing it with friends!

Family picture — Our little family by a smaller tree.

My sweet little Mio. — This will be Mio's first Christmas!

Mio and Mama — The excitement is palpable.

Mio's first Christmas — A family picture by the Christmas tree.

Mio getting some love from Megumi! — Mio's beautiful dress was a gift from Megumi back in the summer. She's big enough to wear it now!

Before we went to the Fairmont, we had lunch at The Stinking Rose, a garlic restaurant in San Francisco. I love garlic, so everything we had there was amazing!

Megumi caught this perfect moment of Mio in a "banzai!" pose.

with some Nakayoshi friends. — Lunch with dear friends!

Mio loves Graig! — Mio loves Uncle Graig

With Megumi and Sam — Hadn't seen Megumi and Sam in so long! I love these two!

Megumi brought thoughtful, generous Christmas gifts for everyone… so sweet of her!

"What could it be...?" — Even Mio got some presents!

Megumi brought her signature sugar cookies… they’re always so adorable, and get better and better every time (if that’s possible!).

Megumi with her signature sugar cookies! — The cutest reindeer and Santas!

It was so great seeing some of our San Francisco friends before we fly back East for Christmas! We had just all recovered from being sick the past couple weeks, so it was nice to be enjoy some holiday cheer! 😀

Christmastime in San Francisco