christmas dinner with the folks

On christmas morning, i ran to my tree to look for my gift from John. Haha.. i am still in my pajamas.

Later that day, we went to Debbie's house to celebrate christmas. They do christmas at her house every year. I didn't take that many pictures. We had a regular christmas together with the family but i must say the dinner was really good. Dan made some kick ass prime rib. No picture on that unfortunately. Here are some pictures of the kids opening their gifts.

Jasmine with the Princess travel kit- frm us.

Jacob with Thomas the train set- frm us
having good fun with his new toy
one of the gifts frm grandma and grandpa
i think this is the wii organizer set that jasmine is trying to open here....

We got the best gift of all.... cash! ehehhee...

my version of santa clause incident

So I was reading June's blog the other day about her santa claus gift. It was really a peculiar incident... and what are the chances that a company made a mistake in shipping right? Plus, it was something that she wanted. I am pretty sure it was one of her friends that wanted to give her a surprise.

I then realized that something similar happened to me too. On Christmas morning, I was all excited, ran to my christmas tree to look for my present from John. More details on the christmas on a later post. Aside frm John's gift, I found another gift addressed to us both. It had a card, so we know it's from Jocelyn. I then found another unusual gift! with no name, no card. We thought that it might be Jocelyn's and that she had accidentally left it there. We put it back under the tree, didn't think it is for us. But i was very tempted to open and take a peek. John forbid me from doing so. We took the christmas tree down last night and of course that gift was still under the tree. Jocelyn hadn't come home since, and we had no chance to ask her. We left it on the counter and finally, she came home today. Surprisingly, she had no idea about that gift. I quickly told john that i can open the gift now cause no one knows the origin of the gift. I unwrapped it and the note was inside it. It is from Janet!!! I guess she left it there to surprise me. Well, i am surprised! She might have left it there the night she dropped her plants off. We are housesitting their plants for them while they are in London.

See??? I too have a santa clause incident.... hehehe....except i know who my sender is. My gift is a cd that i wanted, Lisa Donahey. I went to a disney charity event "Applause for a Cause", and she had performed there. I love her voice. Thank you mucho net!!! :)))

I hope you find out who your santa clause is.. june! :))))

Dinner @ K Town

Last week we decided to try something new. We headed all the way to K town for real authentic Korean BBQ :) I picked out Soo Won Galbi on Vermont St based on their rave reviews on the internet. This place cooks with real charcoal so the meat tastes extra flavorful, i think. It was the best Korean BBQ I've had so far.... Everyone enjoyed it and had good fun. Wish we could find something similar in our valley :(

the side dishes were delicous..... unlimited refills.... :))))) the fish cake was the best! tim patiently waited for the meat to be cooked..... the dinner package we ordered came with a bottle of soju... me and tim think that the soju was fake because we had like 5-6 shots... and felt nothing. even dustin who usually doesn't drink, drank some that night. haha... i guess because the hostess of the restaurant was flirting with him

All of us brought home a full stomach and clothes that smelled like Korean BBQ the entire night.

It was fun to eat at new places and explore.... will definitely do this again. I think Jenn said to try an Argentinian Restaurant at North Hollywood. We'll see if we can arrange a time....

hot pot dinner

Me and janet decided to have a hotpot dinner together because you get to eat more when you have more ppl. Plus, it was more fun to eat with people that know how to appreciate it ;) right babe?! :) I am saying this because John is not a big fan of hotpot. It would be ridiculous to attempt a hotpot dinner with him because there will be so much leftover. I can only eat so much. Anyway, we had the dinner over at my place. Since the Christmas tree took up our dining area, we had to eat on the coffee table and sat on the floor. Regardless, the food was good and we still had the time of our lives. :) And oh, I forgot to mention that the plan was to have jimmy and john eat first and when they were done, we pour in the taiwanese spicy soup base for ourselves to enjoy.

the non-spicy soup janet pouring in the spicy soup base.... yummy after dinner, jimmy gets his hand on the guitar hero for the 1st time. he did pretty good for playing it the 1st time. i remembered me hitting all the wrong notes when i first played it... got simply frustrated and refused to ever play again. haha... janet tried it and was pretty clueless on how the guitar works. After some trial and error, she finally got how the game works...

Of course the night would not end without a game of.....

PICTIONARY!!!

a bouquet of cupcakes!!!

John decided he wanted to make me something yesterday.... and look what he came up with!

a bouquet of cupcakes~! :)) That was so sweet!

our little ringbearer's birthday bash

We went to Jacob's 2nd birthday party on the 1st Sunday of dec. As usual... Debbie did a great job at hosting a kid's party. Since Jacob is very into the movie Disney's Cars now, it would only seem fitting that the party theme is Cars! Here are some pictures of this cute little boy on his bday party.

my winter wonderland

It is cold and windy outside as I stepped outside my office building. it was drizzling and as i walked towards my car, i pulled the hood frm my jacket over my head. How i wish it was snowing instead of raining... how i wish it was snowflakes that's on my jacket instead of little rain drops. there's something about the cold winter weather... it's so romantic! As i was driving home, I saw ahead of me, mountains covered in snow. I started to dream... and wish... my winter wonderland.

My ideal place would be staying at home while it's snowing outside. Everything out there is covered with white snow. Cuddle with John in front of the fireplace together with our dog snuggled up against us, enjoying the warmth from the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate. yep... it's that simple.... my winter wonderland! :))))))

But in reality, it's not snowing outside, it's a boring working weekday, and i have no dog nor fireplace at the house, and my husband is probably working late tonight. BOO!!!


http://weather.latimes.com/US/CA/Los_Angeles.html?main=1

It is snowing everywhere even Vegas!! ... but SANTA CLARITA ! DOUBLE BOO!!!

Vegas on thanksgiving

We went to Vegas with janet & jimmy during thanksgiving and here are some pictures.

the gloomy vegas weather- on the day we arrived.

our hotel room. we stayed at the Mandalay bay hotel because they have some deals. Very nice hotel...

Our lunch, we settled for a chinese restaurant at the mandalay bay.

their version of chicken lettuce wrap... doesn't look so appetizing but john gobbled down the whole thing, i guess it's not that bad.
we had fried rice (duh... what else when john goes to a chinese restaurant ;)), bbq pork ribs, chicken & beef chow fun

And for dinner, we went to a burger bar at the Rio Hotel. Yep, we wandered off the strip to somewhere where gambling is cheaper.

we sat at the bar to avoid waiting in lineshredded onion rings... so good!
there was a performance going on at the hotel- some sexy gals & guys dancing, whatelse?!
aligator bar in the casino area at the Rio hotel

We gambled the night away.... lost some money! :( We called the night early because we had a mission the next day... black friday shopping. We woke up at 4 am and headed to Wal Mart, Office Depot and couple other places. Janet had this whole thing planned... we all went separate ways so we don't waste time. You know you are in good hands when you go shopping for deals with Janet. If she said it's cheap... then it's cheap! :) So we all went home with some pretty good deals.

john stood in line infront of Office Depot
look at the line! not too bad... i think we were in the top 10 in line.
i was so pooped after the shopping. we all went back to bed :))))) when u are on vacation, you can sleep anytime you want ;)
haha... this is so cute!
we used this picture for our christmas cards

jimmy had a "Grumpy" jacket on... he should be wearing "happy"

We had seafood buffet for dinner.... it was so good! would definitely go again if we go to vegas again

vegas is not vegas if you don't stop by the bellagio water fountain..... highlight of the trip! my favorite!

on the way home....