Holiday season

The year that started moving at a snail's pace now seems to be rushing headlong into 2022. 

It was a very strange year, starting with continuing fear of COVID, which eventually morphed into little bits of hope with the vaccine. I started off wary of the new mRNA technology then couldn't wait until I was eligible.

As the weather warmed, it started to seem like things could slowly open up, and we could slowly all start getting together again. Ballet classes continued with masks, first in small groups and only outside or in the large back studio. Eventually, classes all moved indoors, got bigger and expanded into all of the studios. 

I found myself talking to my fellow students more, including people I'd been in classes with for years and never bothered to say hi. A few of us started going to coffee after class, first at Blueys and then when they became too busy, at Cafe Ruisseau. 

It started to feel safer to meet people for meals, first outside, then slowly indoors. I am so grateful for the creativity it took for my neighbourhood restaurants to stay open. 

I got back on a plane in May to spend the weekend with Mei. We didn't do much but it was mostly about spending time together after over a year of Zoom only. June brought a welcome invitation from Mei to join them on Maui. Again, not a trip full of ticking off things to do, but we were all grateful for time together, eating good food (although super early) and basking in the HI sun. The stress of testing to go there was totally worth it.

My ballet friends and I went to Napa for a Roberto Bolle & Friends performance thanks to Kelly's initiative, driving up together. Another dance focused trip followed to Vail in August. These opportunities to see live dance really felt so special. While the weather in Vail was not great, we rejoiced in being back in a place we all love. 

We were supposed to be going back into the office in September, but Delta put a stop to that. We could choose to go back if we want but we had to be vaccinated to do so. I went back a few times but it was rarely worth the commute and only to see colleagues.

Thanksgiving was a return to the Bay area but without the large family gathering due to a non-vaccinated family member. Most of us got together for an easy outdoor hike followed by tacos, which was a great way to see everyone safely. 

Just when we thought this would be the first 'normal-ish' holiday, along comes Omicron. With all of the stress of worrying about what's happening, I am looking forward to finally seeing Ma and D's family in person. 

I also did some holiday baking for gifts. Since one of my ballet teachers is vegan, I set a challenge to find recipes with those limitations but which were just as tasty. The first one I tried was from LA Times recipe writer Ben Mims. His cherry-walnut fudge looked really good. However I used an old candy thermometer which caused the fudge to not set. After an informative Insta message exchange, I redid it and it worked like a charm! Super delicious, too! Definitely worth doing again, although expensive with Luxardo cherries. The second recipe I found was for lemon sugar cookies. I had a bunch of lemons left from various HelloFresh meals so wanted to use them up. The recipe called for vegan butter and silken tofu, which didn't feel like too much of a stretch (since I love tofu). These turned out so delicious! The texture is light but flavourful and definitely better than regular sugar cookies. I love that these experiments led to two new recipes to add to my collection.

Thanksgiving Returns

After last year's Thanksgiving forcibly spent alone (well, with neighbours who had plans cancelled), I spent the week up at Mei's and seeing family. It's been the first time seeing the cousins in a couple of years.

Mei, the kids and I had dinner with the 3's at Hong Kong restaurant in Palo Alto on Monday night. Delicious sticky rice chicken, crab and a bunch of other dishes. 

We also were able to check out Shu Shu's new electric Mustang SUV. Fancy! 

On Tuesday, Gugu picked me up for ballet class at Western Ballet. The teacher was Andre Reyes, who apparently danced at SFB with Mark Lopez (who teaches at Westside). The class was Intermediate/Advanced but I feel like after Chasen's Wed evening class, I'm better at picking up complicated choreography. Still stepped out of grand allegro though. After, we had lunch at a little strip mall place called Chef Zhao Kitchen. Food was pretty good, with XLB, shen jiang bao and walnut shrimp. We talked quite a bit about various and sundry things, which was nice to have that opportunity.

Later I started a couple of batches of chocolate chip cookies. I use Tara O'Brady's basic great chocolate chip cookies recipe. We found Guittard chips for the nut-free version for the family and Valrhona bars for our family. Neve helped with making the dough and we let them sit in the fridge before baking up. 

Tuesday night was Mason's birthday dinner. Mei made prime rib, new potatoes and bok choy, and his cake was a vanilla strawberry cream cake.

Wednesday we went to check out a new place in Sunnyvale that made souffle pancakes. We were told it would take an hour to be ready so we left to grab lunch at Dishdash, on a walk street. By the time we got back, the pancakes were just about ready. They are quite puffy, with a choice of whip cream, chocolate sauce or matcha (we got whip cream and chocolate). They are mostly air and took us all of 5 minutes to eat. Not bad and worth trying once, but very expensive and I don't need to go back.

On Thanksgiving, we did the local Turkey Trot 5k, walking the whole way. It was a cold but sunny morning and they adjusted the route to be a full lap instead of repeating a 1k lap as in the past. It made for a nice start to the day.

The rest of the day was making the dinner (small turkey, roast potatoes, air fried Brussels sprouts with bacon, cranberry sauce with orange, sourdough bread, kale onion stuffing, cheesecake bars) interspersed with playing Scrabble. Dinner was delicious. The cranberry, stuffing and cheesecake bar recipes were particularly good.

On Friday, I had arranged for the family to meet for a hike. Sandy suggested Stulsaft park so the dogs could join. Almost everyone was able to make it, including Foster from LA and Hunter visiting from college. Again, a beautiful morning, everyone could be outside, we got a nice family picture and then Shu shu treated us to fish tacos at Sancho's. I brought the nut-free cookies. Some people had one before the hike, some after lunch, some both times. 

In the afternoon, we visited Boba Pup, which is known for their corgi mason jar cups. Their selection turned out to be Totoro Xmas themed but I got a corgi one for extra. I wanted to give it to Kelly who is a huge corgi fan and has been so generous with her post-ballet treats all year. 

Neve drove us everywhere all day and did pretty well as a new driver. 

Then it was time to head to the airport for home. It was a great visit but I'm always happy to return home. 

Rose Parade 2014

My third outing at the Parade but first driving in and sitting in the stands. I will NEVER drive in again. What a complete pain, poorly organized (no good ever comes from having human beings direct traffic, I swear). But, Ma and I did make it to our seats, which were excellent. The weather was gorgeous and warm. The floats were beautiful (although no crazy special effects as in past years). The bands are always so much better in person, and for Ma a brand new experience. After the parade, we tried to get to the post parade shuttle parking area, but wasted a bunch of time circling around not being able to get in and gave up. I suggest you not do the post parade until Jan 2nd. Mei went to the decorating viewing and that might be a better way to spend time.

We got back and had some za jiang mien (which makes everything better), and turned on the TV to watch the parade reruns on channel 5 so we could hear the commentary and learn who was on the various floats. It also shows the special performances that happen in front of the TV stands that we don't see on the route.

Photos here.

Christmas 2013

Photos from various holiday related activities, including the Venice Boat Parade party at Amy's, my first annual Christmas party in Mar Vista, Christmas Eve dinner at the 3's, present opening at Mei's, and post Christmas drive down to LA with Mei, including stop at Pismo Beach butterfly grove, Endeavour visit and Little Tokyo lunch with Jeremy Lian.

Subset of the photos here.

NYC Christmas

I had a week back from Thanksgiving and then headed to NY for a project. It was cold and we had a packed schedule, but we did get to Eataly again (yum) and Trattoria del'Arte (also yum) and Carnegie Deli (excellent open face beef with gravy). Saw Neal Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy in the hotel bar having drinks in tuxes, and was too nervous to go up to them. Sigh. I was able to squeeze in a stroll to see some of the decorations along 5th Ave as well as the Rockefeller Ctr tree.

Photos here.

Thanksgiving

I drove up to the Bay Area to spend a week with Mei and family and join Gugu's Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to squeeze in a visit with Tegan across the Golden Gate and it was such a beautiful day I stopped to photograph it on the way back. I had my first American Girl shopping experience with Neve, did a Turkey Trot with Mei and the kids, and met some interesting new people at the Thanksgiving dinner.

Photos here.

New Year's Day

For the second time, I went to the Rose Parade with Alex and Elaine. This time, their daughter Charlotte came with us. She slept through a good portion of it, but she was awake while we walked past the floats as they waited in line for their big moment. The detail on these is always amazing. I brought my big lens this time and captured details of stuff that I didn't even realize until I looked at the photos. There was a 'hero' type theme to the floats, so we had astronauts, Olympic athletes, etc, hanging around their respective floats in the early morning in addition to the usual retinue of dancers, kids and dignitaries. Link to the set on flicker here.

Christmas feasting, toys and movies

This past Christmas was spent in Silicon Valley with Neve and Mason and the rest of the Cheng clan. It was a nice relaxing visit, with a LOT of eating. There was the big family feast on Christmas eve where, among lots of other foods, I was introduced to guava cake from Aki bakery in San Jose. Apparently it's famous locally, and I can certainly see why. Neve and Mason must have been VERY good this year because Santa brought them a bunch of cool toys. The GloDoodle was one they kept picking up (as did I!) to draw and erase (the erasing seemed to be part of the fun).

More feasting happened on Christmas day with an informal brunch for whichever family members wanted to stop by. In the evening, we visited the Barty's for a lovely English Christmas dinner. The meal was turkey, roast potatoes, apple pie, christmas pudding and custard from a can (delicious on pie!) and we were all quite stuffed at the end.

The following day Mei and I made a brief stop at Stanford mall, braved traffic and parking, left quickly. That was the extent of the Boxing day shopping. In the evening, Stephen made roast beef and more roast potatoes (can't really get too much of those) along with some delicious trifle from Sarah Barty.

I vowed to have leftovers for the rest of the week! I saw two movies over the holiday, both highly recommended. "Up in the air" was excellent, some great acting by the three leads (George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick). The ending was quite unexpected. "Sherlock Holmes" was very entertaining. Lots of fun banter between Holmes and Watson, they reminded me of House and Wilson, which is ironic and a little circular! Great action, a very Holmesian story (about cults and the supernatural and stuff). They definitely set this up for a sequel.

The year is about to turn and it's hard to believe 2009 has passed.

Thanksgiving!

This is my favourite holiday. Lots of good food, no gift giving pressure. This year was special since D and Julie brought the kids to Silicon Valley. They spent a total of 10 days with Mei's family and reports are that the kids mostly all got along! I was up only for the major feasting, but it was fun to see D, Julie, Austin and Mari so soon after having just visited them. This year's usual turkey blow-out at Gugu and Al's was supplemented by a surprise party for D's 40th birthday, coordinated by Julie, Baldwin and hosted by the 3's (Yvonne and Ralph). The Da's (Marjorie and Dah Yu) and their family were all their, which was nice because they will all be at Ching and Grace's for Thanksgiving. Food consisted of delicious meaty ribs, ducks (2 of them), Da Bo Mu's (Marjorie) spring rolls (which I usually miss because I don't visit during Chinese New Year, so I ate a lot of these), and of course cake. Julie requested comic strips for D as gifts and many people contributed very creative strips.

The big turkey day started with a ballet class with Gugu. We figured we would need the extra calorie burn. In the afternoon, I went over to Mei's and hung out for a bit, then headed over to Baldwin's with D and hung out some more. There were 26 people at dinner, including an Iranian couple (who have been to previous Thanksgivings) with each spouse's brother, some relatives of Al's, various other graduate and former graduate students who have been attending for years, plus the usual relatives. We had potatoes of all kinds (yams, mashed, scalloped, Stephen's roasted), some token veggies (peas, salads), and stuffing (with pork and without) to go with the juicy turkeys (2 of them). Desserts included the usual apple and pumpkin pie, but my favourite was Edie's cranberry cake and her chocolate mini muffins with secret zucchini inside.

On Friday, I headed over to Mei's again and went on some shopping errands with them. The mall parking was crazy busy and we ended up only spending about an hour inside after all that but I did get some ideas for Xmas gifts. Mei and Stephen made a delicious 'toad in the hole' dinner with more roasted potatoes. Toad in the hole is basically sausage with yorkshire pudding served with onion gravy. Delish!! In the evening, there was another surprise for D. Julie had arranged for all the Cheng cousins to play Bocce at a place in Los Gatos. D is pretty easy going so it wasn't hard to get him to go along with whatever crazy scheme Julie and Mei were dreaming up. Once we got to the courts, the cousins were all there and we had a great time. It was such a blast to hang out with the cousins without any kid responsibilities. I'm not sure when was the last time that happened.

D and Julie and kids were flying home on Saturday so I hung out with them in the morning to see them off. Then I headed to San Francisco where I'd planned lunch with my 'city' friends Annette, Deborah and Tegan. We ate at Bar Tartine and the food was delicious. I had a french toast with berries along with home smoked bacon. I loved catching up with everyone although the time was short. I had to hit the road for the long drive home. A relatively short trip, but relaxing and fun, just perfect!

Cheng Family Christmas

The family holiday meal is a massive feast held annually at Da Uncle's home. As in most years, extended family are brought along to add a little variety to the festivities. The food tends to be an amazingly eclectic combination of dishes. This year included roast beef, ham, yams, mashed potatoes, cellophane noodles and plain noodles, a shrimp and mushroom dish, quiche, carrots, and some other things I skipped over. Dessert included chocolate birthday cake (we have a lot of December birthdays in the family) and Grace's famous flan. The collection of small children keeps growing (Kai is the newbie this year), and some of the children are not so small anymore! After most of the families with kids went home, Hunter brought out his cello to play a few selections for the hardy few remaining. I wrapped up the evening with a personal slideshow of 3 Uncle and Aunt's photos from their Egypt trip, which were amazing.

Fireworks and surprise birthdays

This year's Independence Day fireworks came courtesy of Marina del Rey as well as John & Beth. The latter had a few people over for grilled burgers and brats and interesting conversation at their home on a lagoon in Playa del Rey. The view from their roof deck was amazing (although chilly when you're 3 stories up). After dark, we walked down to the channel to watch the fireworks. We were almost right opposite the launch pad for the rockets. The sky was crystal clear with warm temps (two things that don't always go together at the shore). They did a fantastic job with the display. There was no music (kind of glad, actually) and it was just all 'boom, boom, sizzle, boom', etc. The finale was amazing especially as we could see the rockets going off one after the other from the launch pad.

On Saturday I flew up to Mountain View where my dad had taken my mom last minute to visit with the grandkids and to throw her a surprise birthday lunch. It's not hard to pull off because my mom never remembers her birthday. That could be because it changes date every year since they mark it according to the lunar calendar. We had as many family as were in town at Hong Fu in Cupertino for a delicious lunch. The cold plate, guo tie (potstickers), peking duck and birthday noodles were particularly good. Cake was chocolate fudge with cream cheese frosting from Draeger's, recommended by my sis and definitely a worthy finish. I also had my introduction to Kai Cheng, Hao and Cathy's son who is just a month old!

After lunch, I went with the parents and 3 and Da uncles and aunts to Stanford's art museum (Cantor Center) to take a look at the collection from the New Orleans museum. They are currently homeless (until their regular home can be fixed) so they are touring around the country. They have a nice selection, heavy on the French (who did originally colonize the place after all) but with a few interesting modern touches (a really nice Joan Miro for example). Outside, there is a nice little serpentine wall by Andy Goldsworthy.

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving turned out to be a balmy day, high 50s, low 60s.  Amy, who is Julie's sister, came by with her husband John and daughter Lucia to play with Mari and Austin.  The kids love hanging out together, especially the two girls (as you can see from the photo of them jumping on the bed).  It was so warm out, D and John took the kids to the park, no coats!  

Dinner was at the home of Julie's and Amy's stepsister Catherine Rocchio.  The home was filled with young children.  Dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes (traditional recipe from Julie's maternal grandmother), D's famous brussels sprouts, and roasted sweet potatoes.  Dessert consisted of 5 different pies: chocolate with gingerbread crust, apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, blueberry.

Rose Parade 2007

I've lived in LA almost 20 years and for the first time, I went to the Rose Parade this year. Elaine and Alex invited a few people over for New Year's Eve and we made it a slumber party. We all got up at 5a for hot chocolate and coffee and started the walk to the start of the parade. When we got about half way up Orange Grove, the floats were lined up getting ready for their moment in the sun. The detail on them is really remarkable. There was a large crowd when we finally found a spot near the start of the parade. It really is a very different experience seeing this live. The crowd's excitement is infectious and everyone cheers for all of the bands, all of the floats, all of the horses. The highlight for me was George Lucas as Grand Marshall, the Storm Trooper battalion, the Star Wars band and Chewbacca. This photo is a detail of one of the sea themed floats. There was a strong citrus aroma wafting from this fish.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving tends to be my preferred holiday. Lots of food, no religious etiquette to be concerned about, and my aunt Yvonne (otherwise known as Gugu) always has interesting people at her annual dinner. This year, I went up early to spend the week with my sister, brother-in-law and Neve. She just turned one and is starting to get the hang of walking. As my sister says, she looks like she's drunk.

The crowd at Gugu and Al's was smaller than in the past. Several of the Thanksgiving regulars were there. Newbies Daragh and Hilary have just moved here from Ireland and it was fun to hear how they are getting the hang of living in California.

I didn't do any sightseeing in the city this time. I did spend time with a few friends who now live in the area. It's been years since Tegan, Annette and I were all in LA (in the design biz) so it was wonderful to have dinner with them. And I had tea with Deborah (from graduate school) at the Mark Hopkins. It was a beautiful day in the city (clear, no fog, but cold) and after tea, we walked around the area. I took this photo of the Transamerica building at twilight by holding my camera against a phone pole (trying to stop my hands from shivering).