Dinner with Old Friends
Back when we lived in Irvine, we used to throw a big Christmas party every year. Now that we live in SF and everyone else is on a tighter schedule, we usually just go out to eat and have drinks afterward. This year, we met up on Sunday night (12/23) and had dinner at Hsiang Yuen and it was so nice to have everyone (sans Agustins) together in one place.
Afterward, I dropped off the kid with my parents and picked up Brother and Joy for drinks with the gang at Buffalo Wild Wings. Ah, gotta love the ‘burbs. Drinks were cheap, there’s plenty of parking, and the drive home is just 10 minutes.
While Jes and I were at church, Brother and Joy went to Redondo Beach to pick up some crab and clams for our tasty lunch.
We ate the steamed dungeness crab with a special sauce that my mom made.
She cracked all the shells for us so we were grubbin’ at a record pace.
It was the shortest day of the year but the longest drive ever. On Saturday, we left the house at 11:30 am. The drive started out well but then as 1-580 was merging with I-5, it became a bumper-to-bumper nightmare. Here’s a photo of Kumquat when we stopped for lunch at Panda Express.
Luckily, Kumquat did well on the drive down. However, at about the 7-hour mark, she was done. We were all done. Fortunately, traffic was moving past Kettleman City but it took us about 6 hours to get half-way down and then a total of 10 hours to get to Cerritos. *sigh*
When we arrived at the Magical House, it truly was magical. My mom had prepared a tasty Chicken Rice dinner and had ice cold Singha waiting for Jes. Thanks, Mommy!!
On Tuesday, we decided to have an impromptu HH at Cato’s on Wednesday. I actually skipped out early at 4 pm to drive home and pick up Kumquat and then drove back to the East Bay for this and it was totally worth the wait in traffic on the way back to the East Bay.
It turned out to be a fun little mini holiday party for us and was just the right combination of people, food, and drinks.
Kumquat was a trooper and was passed from one auntie to another all night while she grubbed on puffs. The girls got a good laugh while she ate her puffs and also blew snot bubbles from her nose. Here’s a 
We were able to stay out until at least 8 pm and my little sidekick rocked it all evening without a single complaint.
I love these ladies and I’m so glad that we were able to hang out and celebrate the end of another year together before going our separate ways for the holidays.
Aunties Steph, Mai, and Karen were there too and they each got some time with Kumquat.
Here’s a photo of Karen with both of the chubby cheeksters.
The best part of the party was watching Sophie enjoy her first taste of cake and frosting. Good stuff…
This year’s ornament came in the mail today. It was perfect timing for the tree trimming tonight.
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