On Saturday (12/4), we picked up our Chirstmas tree and got one that was taller than me! It was fun to actually use more than half of our ornaments in the box this year.
We buy an ornament each year to commemorate something memorable for the year. Here is this year’s ornament. It’s a 5 Euro Eiffel Tower that we bought from a street vendor. I put a hook on it and voila!
This year, our turkey was smaller and Jes made butternut squash soup from scratch.
He started in the morning and it took pretty much the whole afternoon to get it just right. It turned out really well and we had lots left over for the next couple days.
The Masayas joined us for our Orphan Thanksgiving and I had a brief iChat with the family in LA. Brother bought Joy a new macbook that has the camera built in so we can actually video chat now.
I also made my first attempt at pumpkin pie, which tasted right but the texture was all wrong. Jes thinks I just need to try a different recipe. I’m gonna try again this weekend.
Here are the rest of the photos.
Last Wednesday (11/17), Brother, Joy, and Mommy came up to visit me. The timing coincided with a bunch of things that I already had planned for the week and they somehow came together just fine. I picked them up on Wednesday night and they spent Thursday exploring the city and also went to Alcatraz. Meanwhile, I went to work and we also had our annual Craft/Bake Sale Fundraiser.
We always have a Happy Hour afterward so the family took BART over to the East Bay and got to meet the gang at work.
HH was at Marc 49 and we had a fun evening decompressing from the crazy month of planning and the actual fundraiser.
The interesting part of the evening was that I saw my mom drinking a beer for the first time! For all my life, she didn’t drink but I guess retirement has changed things.
On Friday, I already had the day off to visit the de Young Museum with Stephanie. So, that morning, I took the family to Mama’s for pancakes and waited a good 45 minutes to get in. Luckily no one was in a hurry so we endured the wait and had a feast of pancakes, french toast, eggs, and corned beef hash. Afterward, we met up with Stephanie at the mall and headed out to Golden Gate Park.
The family went to the California Academy of Science and the two of us went to the Van Gogh exhibit. It was a rainy day but it didn’t matter. We all still had a good time.
Later that evening, we met up with the rest of the girls at Embarcadero Center for Light-up Night. HH was at Osha Thai where we enjoyed appetizers and Effen drinks.
By 6:30, we paid the tab and headed outside for the lighting and caught the fireworks in the rain.
Immediately after the fireworks, we walked over to the Hyatt for the tree lighting. Unfortunately it was quite a production and we had some time to kill. That was when things got a little fuzzy since people were at the bar and bringing me tasty drinks.
About 20 minutes later, they started the countdown and the snow fell while the lights turned on.
My mom eventually got tired and took Muni home. Meanwhile, the girls took off for snacks at Palomino while Jes, Brother, Joy, and I headed over to One Market. Sometime between the Hyatt and the restaurant I fell ‘cuz I woke up the next morning with a huge scuff on my knee. Whoops. As dinner started, Joy wasn’t feeling well so we went home early while the boys finished dinner. As I was taking care of Joy, I got a text from Jes that said “Peanuts in your brother’s dessert. Hooray.” Here’s his side of the story:
Yep, he was struck by the peanut monster once again and ended up yacking at the restaurant and in the street on the way home. What a mess.
The next day we took it easy as everyone was recovering from a fun fun evening. We had porridge and fried dough for breakfast, grilled cheese and tomato soup for a snack, and then Bakesale Betty’s for lunch. Yum Yum…if that doesn’t take care of a hangover, nothing will.
Before taking the family to the airport, we stopped at Modern Mouse for Eleen’s anniversary party. We got to hang out with friends and browse the merchandise as the rain poured down. The drive to SFO was a little scary but we made it and the family got home safely after an hour-long flight delay.
Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend.
We went to Monterey this past weekend and had a nice relaxing time. We arrived pretty late on Friday night and were pleasantly surprised by the free upgrade to a full ocean view room. The room was complete with binoculars for me to spy on the otters below.
On Saturday morning, I got up early and went for a run along the water. The tide was really high and the waves were crashing on the shore. Fun!
For the day, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was perfect for a gloomy, sprinkly day. They had a new seahorse exhibit and a cool tank filled with little sea turtles!! Oh joy! This shrimp was staring right at me in one of the tanks as if he was waiting for me to take a photo of him. I couldn’t resist.
By the end of the afternoon the sun came out and we actually got some blue sky.
We always seem to have fun in the gift shop even though we never buy anything.
Before dinner, I got a massage at the spa upstairs while Jes worked out in their gym. For dinner, we went to a cute little French restaurant called Bistro Moulin. We had the most amazing spinach gnocchi and my mussels with pommes frites were delicious.
The next day on our way home, we stopped at the outlets to shop for work clothes. I made a killing that afternoon!
Here are the rest of the photos.
A little over 15 years ago, we became more than just friends and eight years ago we said “I do”.
Tonight we had dinner at Quince and they were thoughtful enough to print a special menu for us.
I took this photo back in February at Precita Park. Can’t believe he turned a whoppin’ 3 years old today!
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