Browse Category: holidays

Merry Christmas!

It’s officially Christmas and much of our holiday fun is over already. On Friday, we had our 6th Annual Christmas Party with the usual food, drinks, and sucky gift exchange. It was so nice to see everyone together in one place again. Over the years, we’ve gotten older and wiser but we’ve all managed to stay the same. This also goes for the exchange gifts. This year the theme was “something shiny” and boy oh boy did the gifts suck…as usual. Why is it that every year we end up with some martini glasses or a shaker regardless of the theme? I don’t remember any of us really enjoying martinis and yet they keep coming. Some of the funny gifts include rolls of coins worth the requisite $25, a shiny vibrator, lots of items from Crate & Barrel that included a gift receipt, and a couple of obvious re-gifts such as a Homedics rain something. We’re going to have to revamp this gift exchange thing. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know.
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On Saturday, I went to Fry’s with the Lao brothers to find a couple more gifts to finish off the shopping list. We also managed to find power adapters that we’ll need in order to play with our laptops on the 17-hour flight to Thailand. When we got home, I made cookies and cupcakes for the Christmas dinner while the boys wrapped the presents. The dinner at Uncle Dennis’ house was cool. The food was yummy and the gifts for the exchange were much better than Friday’s. My Homedics rain thingy went to Auntie Cheryl’s mom who looked a little confused when she first opened it but seemed to actually appreciate it. I think it’s in good hands now. I ended up with a really authentic Italian cook book and a DVD of “The Piano”. Jes won some spa towels and Jason won his own gift back.
So now it’s Christmas Day and we don’t have any major plans for today. Before you know it, it will be time to pack up for Thailand and be on our way.

Santa’s Scary

When I was a little kid I used to be scared of the Disney characters at Disneyland. I was also scared of Santa. I remember when my mom would ask if I wanted to take a picture with Santa I would answer with an immediate “NO!”. Can you blame me?! Imagine being no taller than 3 feet and having to sit on the lap of a big hairy man dressed in all red? Well, I relived those moments today through Cole’s eyes. We parked the stroller, got in line with everyone else, and waited our turn. Cole was in a pretty good mood and didn’t react to the big red man seated before him. But when it came time to actually sit on the dude’s lap, he sorta freaked out. He took one close look at his big white beard and wanted out! Marie just wanted one photo of him with Santa but I think I ended up with 4 shots of him crying and then finally one of him looking semi-calm. Poor Taku-chan…maybe we’ll try Disneyland next year.

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By the way, Marie took me to a Japanese/Asian tapas place in Costa Mesa tonight. It’s called “Oki Doki” and was very tasty. We had the spinach/mushroom salad, albacore salad, kim chee rice soup, blackened cod, and shrimp fried rice. Yum.

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Check it out:
Oki Doki
3033 S. Bristol St. #O
(SW corner at Paularino)
Costa Mesa, CA
714-540-2066

O Tannenbaum

We got our tree today! Our neighbor told us about a place that he goes to each year. The discount lot we went to is across from Orange Coast College and you can get a 7-foot Douglas Fir for 21 bucks. We opted for the Noble Fir and paid 34, which is still a good deal. I was also tempted to get this little 2-foot Charlie Brown tree. It looked so sad and needed a home so bad. I may have to go back to get it for my office.
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So the tree is up with lights, ornaments, and a star on top. We also busted out the stockings and hung them with care.

Getting Set for the Holidays

Jes and I put up Christmas lights on our house today. How festive it looks! We also had a Christmas dinner with our neighbors last night. Jes cooked up a filet mignon and potatoes au gratin and Jay and Nikki brought over some artichokes. It was basically as nice excuse to bust out the fine china and try some new wines. Doggie also enjoyed a nice bone and got to chase Jay around the house for a while. Tomorrow we’ll be getting a Christmas Tree. Woohoo!! It finally feels like Christmas!

Belated Turkey Day

Jes and I went to the Buena Park house today to prepare this year’s Turkey Dinner. Due to work schedules and all, we postponed our turkey eating to today. The extended family came including Jes’ uncle, aunties, cousins, and grandmother. The turkey roasted all afternoon as Jes serenaded it with his version of the “Fat Turkey” song. He also kept muttering to himself, “the best turkey ever”. It appeared that our chef was especially cheerful today. Meanwhile, Jes’ mom prepared a slew of Chinese food to accompany the traditional American fare including her yummy sticky rice stuffing. Of course we had too much food and were so full afterwards. Everyone left that night with baggies of leftovers and about 3 pounds of food in their stomachs.

Non-Turkey Day

Jes and I met up with Bang and Vyl at the Williams-Sonoma on Friday to use Vyl’s awesome 40% discount to buy some real wine glasses. Later that night, the four of us tried out a bunch of wines that we’ve been saving for while. By the end of the night, we finished off 4 bottles of wine and lots of cheese and ended up with a very drunk, stinky Bang.
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Today is Thanksgiving and we had the parents over for a non-turkey dinner. Johnny came over early and beat us at poker while Jes made standing rib roast. What a feast…we had a nice juicy prime rib with sweet potato, corn, and au jus. Jes even made some bread pudding that almost beat the stuff that Lawry’s serves. Mmmm… Happy Thanksgiving!