Thanksgiving in the 80’s

Not the 1980’s, but as in 80 something degree weather. It just didn’t seem right. I didn’t post earlier because I left my camera at my parents’ place…oops. We started the day off with pumpkin pancakes with cranberry sauce.
pumpkin pancakes with cranberry sauce

Then we went to the park across the street. There were a lot of other dads. I guess the moms were busy in the kitchen.

thanksgiving day at the park

red stroller

swinging with daddy

I, on the other hand, had it easy. The only thing I made to bring to my parents’ house was “healthified” creamed corn. We also brought frozen puff pastry appetizers from Costco and a pumpkin pie from Marie Callendar’s, courtesy of our neighborhood real estate agent. Thanks Jeff!
healthified creamed corn

the bird
The turkey! I have yet to cook a turkey myself…someday. My cousin, aunt and grandma were at my parents’ house too. I love how our country set aside a day just to give thanks. Too bad more people don’t acknowledge WHO they’re actually thanking.

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Celebrating 33 @ the Happiest Place on Earth

D turned 33 on Sat. and we celebrated as a family by going to Disneyland. D got in free for his birthday, n and k are free b/c of their age, and I used my summer pass for the second time.

k is starting to get more used to Disneyland now since she knows what to expect. What she didn’t expect was for me to encourage D to take her on the Matterhorn for the first time.
Matterhorn
This is her face at the end of the ride. She didn’t want to ride it again with me.
🙁 Maybe next time.

k’s favorite ride is It’s a Small World. She sings the song ALL of the time, including in the grocery store.
It's A Small World

n went on many of the rides with us, including the Jungle Cruise. Sadly, we lost this hat somewhere between here and the Tiki Room.
Jungle Cruise

Minnie Mouse
We caught Minnie on our way out.

At night we dropped off the kids with my dad, sis and BIL, and went out for a nice dinner at Tommy Bahama’s in Newport Beach. I picked the restaurant in part because they were participating in OC Restaurant Week. D had the prix fixe with coconut shrimp, black cod, and malted chocolate cake. I had the pulled pork sandwich, but of course, we ended up sharing everything. (It was kind of hard to go back and forth with those two dishes, though, since they were so different, taste-wise. The fish had really strong pickled asian vegetable flavors).
pork sandwich
I would’ve preferred to go for the prix fixe lunch (cheaper), but we were busy last weekend and this weekend, so dinner was the only option. The appetizer and dessert portions seemed pretty small, but the entree was a good size. Plus, we filled up on the warm sourdough rolls with cinnamon butter, so I ended up taking half of my sandwich and a lot of fries home.

Happy Birthday, D!
Tommy Bahamas

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A Sacramento Wedding

We didn’t have much time to get ready, but we took a quick photo before we left.
wedding

The wedding was at St. John’s in downtown Sac. What a beautiful church.
St. John 2

church

church 2

D ended up having to take n out to the foyer during the ceremony.

taylors
The newlyweds!

We went back to D’s brother’s house to rest, and then it was off to the reception at Arden Hills.
kids' meal
k’s kid’s meal. Love the mini bottle of ketchup! We had beef and a chicken breast wrapped in puff pastry…very nice.

k at wedding

Our table consisted of Zach’s high school/college friends, but D didn’t really know any of them since D didn’t go to the same high school. D met Zach while playing tennis in high school, and I’ve always thought of him as one of D’s “quality” friends. The reception was full of toasts with people saying nice things about the couple, and with Zach, I found them all to be true. (I had never met the bride before, but I’m sure she’s just as wonderful). There was also a slideshow with the cutest baby photos. The whole thing made D and I reflect on how short life really is and how easy it is to get wrapped up in our own family and grow distant from old friends.

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Celebrating @ Irvine Regional Park

We are continuing to unpack boxes and slowly whittling down our pile of stuff in the living room. I am very excited to say that I managed to hook up my Series 2 Tivo to our AT&T U-Verse box. (I had to order an IR cable after failed attempts to purchase one at Best Buy and “The Shack”. I am still waiting for my wireless adapter from Amazon…then we’ll be really hooked up!) I must say, the connections do not look pretty as we have an awful media niche. Hopefully my BIL can help us use the conduit (is that the right term?) to hide some of the wires.

Back to last weekend. We celebrated my mom’s birthday at Irvine Regional Park, hence the title of this post. My sister and BIL brought some delicious food…ham and cheese baguettes (w/cornichons!), egg salad sandwiches, green bean/cherry tomato salad, potato salad (w/ bacon!), rice crispy treats and cupcakes. Afterward we rented a couple of bicycles built for two. (Look for the buy one rental get one free online). Of course, k was *very* reluctant to put on the required helmet for kids. We basically just forced it on her head while she cried/screamed. However, once D took off with her, she had a good time, like I knew she would. We ended up all taking turns and had a nice time in the perfect weather.

D + k

mom + dad

k also had a great time kicking around her new ball (from Target) with Uncle K. She was running around so much and had absolutely no problem falling asleep that night!
ball

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Mother’s Day/Dad’s Birthday

Last week my grandma had a stroke, so my parents went up to visit her this past weekend. At first I thought that meant we would have to cancel our planned Mother’s Day/Dad’s birthday celebration. However, I rescheduled it for Sunday night and everyone made it, so that was nice. We had take-out from Zankou’s.

all four
Our first picture with all four of us. k is wearing a sweet dress made by my grandma…hopefully I can sew like her and my mom one day.

candles
My mom played “Happy Birthday” on the ukelele while we sang. My sister made the cake–yum!

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5 Year Anniversary!

Hard to believe, but last Friday was our five year wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going out to dinner at Spaghettini’s on Sunday, sans kids. We chose this place because: 1. D had never been, and he was always saying he wanted to go. 2. It’s very close to my parents’ place (aka the babysitters). 3. They are having a special all April and May on Sunday nights where pastas and salads are 50% off! The waitress told us to tell everyone we know about the deal, so here you go!

I had the butternut squash ravioli and D had the seafood pasta. Mine was a little too sweet for my liking (tasted kind of like pumpkin pie). We also shared a walnut apple blue cheese salad–very tasty.

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More Birthdays

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a girl that was born just five days after k. (Coincidentally, we were also married within a week of the girl’s parents). The theme was Finding Nemo. There were hot dog octopuses, fish sticks, and sushi.

birthday girl and grandma
Birthday girl & Grandma

Finding Nemo Cake
Look at that Nemo cake! We didn’t get to try it, though, since we left right after the singing.

My sister’s birthday was also Saturday, but since she spent the day at Disneyland, we celebrated on Sunday. We had lunch at Gyu-Kaku, followed by strawberry cake from 85 Degrees Celcius Bakery at my parents’ house.

Gyu Kaku
We ended up ordering the “Samurai” lunch for 5-6 plus two “Meat Lovers” lunch specials for the 8 of us (plus k). However, one “Meat Lovers” would probably have been enough since we had leftovers. (We just cooked the extra meat and brought it home). Note that they don’t offer the “Gold Platter” on Sundays, contrary to what the website said at the time.

Gyu Kaku 2

85 degrees strawberry cake
I enjoyed the strawberry cream filling inside the rolled cake. I guess D and I have to make a trip down to Irvine to try their other goodies.

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Back in the Swing of Things

Sigh…our vacation is over. It was nice having a break from our routine. Actually, D had to work all day Friday, and part of Saturday, so maybe the transition will be easier for him. 🙂

New Year’s Eve/Day were pretty uneventful for us. Lots of good food, of course. We slept over at my parents’ house. D was feeling under the weather, so we ended up watching the crazy stuntmen in Vegas, watching the east coast midnight celebration, and called it a night. I think it was the earliest I went to sleep on a New Year’s Eve since I was a kid. However, I was able to keep up my tradition of making a lot of cards with all of my moms’ craft supplies for the upcoming year.
New Year's Day
k ended up spending the whole day in her pjs! Happy 2009!

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for k’s favorite one year old. (She even named her baby doll after her). The guest of honor likes noodles, so they set up a ramen bar…so yummy. Put some noodles in a bowl, add broth (just a little for k), then add sprouts, green onions, char siu, dumplings, and hard boiled egg to your heart’s content. I think I see a restaurant concept here. There was also beef curry and rice.
Abi's 1!
Look at the size of that cake! It was from a Chinese bakery, though, so it wasn’t too heavy.

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The Thanksgiving Feast

This year Grandpa Lim made the turkey (a 14 pounder from Trader Joe’s). It was nice and moist, but way too big for the 5 of us (k just had a few small pieces with gravy). We also had rolls, rice (for k), asparagus, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a stuffing made of taro and Chinese roast pork. There was also pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert. After dinner, k entertained all of us with her dancing and antics. k seemed comfortable right away on this trip, especially compared to her clinginess during our July 4th visit.

IMG_1778

IMG_1775

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Thanksgiving in Pebble Beach

This year we spent Thanksgiving with D’s family (we alternate every year). We visited D’s parents in Pebble Beach and D’s sister also made the drive down. Our drive went smoothly, thanks in large part to the CX-9 that our BIL hooked us up with. There was plenty of space for all of our cargo, plus it had navigation, Sirius, built-in DVD player and Bose surround sound. All of those features really made a difference in our 6+ hour car ride.

CX-9 entertainment system
We watched the Jonah Veggie Tales movie, My Best Friend’s Wedding and Elf. I guess we need to buy more DVDs for k. We also listened to a lot of 90’s hits and ESPN on Sirius.

On our way up the I-5 we saw this rainbow. D said it was the brightest he has ever seen. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen brighter, but it was pretty nonetheless.
rainbow

We burned some calories in preparation for out Thanksgiving feast by taking a walk along Pebble Beach. The scenery was beautiful, of course.
IMG_1769

Pebble Beach 2

Pebble Beach 3

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