New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day is all about noshing for our family. We went to my parents’ house, where my mom made a plethora of family favorites. One new addition was doing shabu-shabu. Interactive food is always fun!

My parents gave me a bread machine for Christmas. It has been fun experimenting. These pretzels turned out well, although they were quite labor-intensive!

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, we had the opportunity to go to Knott’s because I obtained tickets through the OC Register and winning tickets through a blog contest. It was fun to see the changes made since our pass expired in 2013. Most of the changes were done in Camp Snoopy. Also, n grew enough to go on Sidewinder, so that was a first as a family. The Linus’ Blanket ride was interesting. I do not believe I have ever been a ride where you are on your stomach!

For some reason, D and I liked Pig Pen’s Mud Buggies. It was much better than the ride it replaced, which was perpetually empty.
These vultures were added to the Mine Ride, along with a revamping of the inside. The recorded narration takes away from some of the charm in my opinion, however.

n was also tall enough for the bumper cars! I think the next time we go, n will need to hit 48″ so we can go on even more rides!

Waiting in line for Sidewinder, the longest line of our day.
We ran into church friends at the Birdcage Theater! We saw A Christmas Carol. Afterward we went to see Snoopy on Ice, always a favorite.
Finally, we saw a show from the balcony of the Calico Saloon.
There were a lot of people, but it never felt overly crowded, which was nice. We cut our outing a little short when it started drizzling, but it was a fun day!

Din Tai Fung has been on our to-do list for quite some time now. We put it off for a while, because who wants to drive to Arcadia just to eat Chinese food? When we found out they were opening up a location in South Coast Plaza, we decided to wait until it opened. However, after hearing all the complaints about ridiculous wait times, we decided to put it off some more, to see if they hype died down. Since we had a free day during our Winter Break, it was finally time!

We arrived at around 3:45 in the afternoon, and D put his name/phone number down. They sent us a text when our table was ready, which was just before 5:00 (perfect dinner time for us!) The good thing is that there is plenty to keep you occupied since you’re at the mall. We just did some post-Chrismtas window shopping.

The kids’ water cups are so cute! Love the dumpling mascot. We ordered one order of pork XLB, green beans, chicken lo main and pork-shrimp dumplings.

So the soup dumplings were just as I expected–delicious! n could not get enough of the green beans, which is amazing since he is not a veggie-lover. The noodles were just ok, but we mainly ordered them for the kids. Overall, the food was quite delicious, but it did not fill us up. Value-wise, it was a bit disappointing. However, it was an experience to remember, and D was happy to add it to his restaurant list.

The day after Christmas, D and I went out to see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies since I needed to use my free IMAX 3D tickets. This would not normally be our first choice for a movie, but it was the only one playing in the IMAX theater. We had not seen any of the previous Hobbit movies, but it was still understandable.
For dinner, we went to Umami Burger. They were having a special that week, $8 for the “Manly Burger”. We also ordered a side of fries. I enjoyed the three sauces that were provided in squeeze bottles on the table, as well as the umami ketchup. However, I think Bachi Burger still reigns supreme!

Happy 2015!  We are back to work and school and our routines.  We had a good break, but it is good to be a little more productive, too!

Christmas seems oh so long ago now.  The kids woke up at their normal time and opened their stocking stuffers.  Next, they helped make breakfast.  We made stuffed french toast roll-ups. 

D made the eggs, and we added bacon and blackberries. 

After breakfast, we opened gifts.

D received his own “Snuggie”!

Later in the day we went to my parents’ house.  We found this Santa ducky in their neighborhood.

We took a hike at Peters Canyon.

How sad that the water has disappeared due to the drought.

Cousins!

We went to church service on Christmas Eve, so I wanted something quick and easy to clean up. We had our receipt from receipt day last month, so everything was free! Plus, it looked kind of festive with the red and white packaging. 🙂

We usually try to check out some Christmas lights/decorations at least once a year. This year we went to Olwyn street in Tustin. There were some pretty impressive displays. A singing group was even scheduled to perform at one of the houses, but we were too early. When I see such displays, I always wonder where they have room to store everything the other eleven months of the year! And, what their electricity bill must be like!

This Christmas village was cool. Love the Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s!

We’ve been enjoying the slower pace of Christmas break. It actually started out busy since we hosted k’s basketball team for a cookie decorating party. We also celebrated k’s birthday with a party at CPK.

The kids made their own pizza. They had to wash their hands, first!

Next was a behind the scenes kitchen tour.

The highlight was the walk-in freezer!


This was the “adult” food. I was able to order my tricolor pizza/salad, which is now an “off-menu” item. Who knew?
Look at how k’s friend eats her pizza!

We sang “Happy Birthday” with ice cream sundaes instead of cake.


For k’s birthday dinner at home, we had kim bap from Zion Market, House chow mein and House chicken from Pick Up Stix (all her faves).

We attended our church’s annual Christmas program. This year there was bbq from The Newport Rib Company.


The Nichigo Choir (Japanese-speaking) sang.

k and n sang with the children’s choir.

k also made her debut with the keiki hula team! They presented “Silent Night”.