Happy New Year!

Welcome, 2023!! It's so great to see you!

But first, a quick look at what we did for the holidays...

Seems like such a long time ago but earlier in December, I did a holiday team event where we did a virtual cooking class to make a fish curry! It was pretty good. It was a fairly mild curry, and I think it would have benefited from cooking longer to develop a more intense flavor but it was still tasty. It was my first time doing a virtual cooking class and I had a lot of fun!

Virtual cooking class!

Pan frying my black cod was surprisingly easy.

My plating looks professional, no?

On the 19th, we made it out of Seattle just as snow as starting to come down. Our flight was delayed so after finally arriving, getting luggage and driving home, it was close to 2am when my head finally hit the pillow. The girls were champs on the flight though, with Nora sleeping most of the way there.

Once we were in LA, Grammie and Grandpa had lots of fun activities planned for the girls. First up was a horseback riding outing in Sylmar. Nora was a little scared at first to get on her first horse (she had previously only ridden ponies) but she did great and both girls ended up having a great time! Afterwards we dropped by the Wildlife Sanctuary and Learning Center. I did not know about this place and it felt a little random since it's on a main residential street, but it was a fun detour. It's not very large but they had some fun animals like servals, lynx, porcupines, foxes, an alligator, squirrel monkeys, bald eagles and hawks. Many of them are animals that were rescued from being ill treated pets. On the way home, I spied the Nethercutt Museum on Google Maps so we also went there and boy, what a surprise! I have never heard of this museum before but it was pretty neat - ~200 or so classic cars on display, for free! Scott had a lot of fun ogling at the cars.

Nora on her horse.

Happy riders

Porcupine feet!

One of the many enclosures at the Wildlife Sanctuary.

Fancy cars at the Nethercutt Museum

LOTS of cars to see.

The rest of the week passed in a blur! We did all the usual things like walk to E Waldo Ward to stock up on jams, we picked fruit from the orchard, and took walks around the neighborhood and generally soaked up all the CA sunshine we could. We also took an evening to check out the lights at Descanso Gardens. It was nice evening stroll but a little spendy for what it was and we all agreed that we don't need to do it again. And then we also tried out a new-to-us rock climbing gym in Arcadia and the kids had a blast going up and down the walls. The last time we went rock climbing at Camp Orkila, Nora freaked out when she got to the top. This time around, she was still scared but much calmer and there was no crying fits.

Tangerines from the orchard.

Descanso Gardens lights

10 "exhibits" in all. This one looked like millions of fireflies.

At Descanso

All 3 of them climbing at Hangar 18

Scott and I took a walk to have a drink at Rt Rogers Brewery.

We came across this Gratitude Tree during one of our walks around the neighborhood

Snowman at Kersten Court

Turtles in Grammie's pond

On Christmas Eve, we drove to Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Rich's house. We all really enjoyed seeing Scott's cousin Heather's little twins and their dog, Nala. Nora, especially, was their favorite playmate and the little tykes kept wanting to hold her hand to go down the stairs, and Nala couldn't get enough of Nora's scratches on her belly.

Christmas morning was a whirlwind, as usual, but in the best way possible. Thankfully this year the reluctantly agreed to wait until 7:30am to open gifts so that the grownups could sleep in a little! This was also the year that Evie pulled me aside after opening presents to question the gift that Santa gave her. She apparently had spied it in an Amazon box in my room a few weeks back and wanted to know if I was Santa? I knew in previous years she was already questioning Santa but adamantly said she believed because she wouldn't get a Santa gift otherwise, but this was the first time she outright asked me. I'm a little sad I had to break the news to her, but also secretly relieved too and now she can join in on the fun of making Christmas magical for the littler kids!

Girls getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner

Snuggles with Nala

Table all set for Christmas Eve dinner!

Patiently waiting for the grownups to get up so we can open presents.

What's in your stocking?

Homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Eve breakfast!

As per tradition, after opening gifts on Christmas morning, we packed up and headed over to my parent's house for our Yu Christmas dinner! It was the first Christmas get together we've all had since 2019 so it was so nice to see (most) everyone again. It was unfortunate that Caspar's family couldn't make it and that Kin, Meredith and their kids had their flights back from New Orleans canceled because of the big winter storms. Without them all, it didn't feel complete so hopefully next year will work out!

While there was great weather on Christmas, it started to get rainy after that so our plans for going out fell through! I think everyone else had similar sentiments because when went for indoor activities (like bowling), it was too packed and we couldn't get enough lanes next to each other to make it worth our while. That was okay for the kids though - they enjoyed hanging with their cousins and playing with all their Christmas toys. As for us grownups, I was super happy with all the yummy food we had during the week!