christmas 2010

gabe's 3rd christmas!

the past 2 years we've managed to take pictures with santa (last year was a bit traumatic...he cried once we were sitting with santa), but this year there was no way in hell it would happen. we've hit lots of malls throughout december and we'd talk about santa, but as soon as we ask if he wants to visit with santa, the answer was always "NO!". rather than force the issue and have a complete snotty picture of gabe and santa, we just walked away. we'll try again next year :-)

our traditional christmas eve dinner with my family starts with our seafood chowder meal. yum yum! now that gabe's got a definite bedtime, immediately after dinner we start opening presents! this year gabe understood the concept of presents and ripped off the wrapping paper to discover FABULOUS toys :-) (gabe's a dainty little man...he would only use his thumb and index finger to unwrap his gifts, so it was a slightly slow process!)

it's a leapster leaptop!

gabe was a lucky boy and got lots of gifts from my family! since we still haven't opened all of his birthday toys, we're set for a few months of entertainment! and this week i've spent some of gabe's xmas money and bought him a few new toys! i just can't help myself :P

we ended up having a pretty late night, so gabe didn't get to sleep until 11 p.m.! unfortunately that meant he slept in on christmas morning, so santa's present was delivered to gabe on boxing day! (more on that later) on christmas day, gabe was having the mother-of-all rough mornings! we had dim sum with the lok's and gabe was just not having any of it. he was still tired from the night before and just desperate for his nap. unfortunately i don't have any xmas pictures from that meal :(

christmas dinner was at my mom's house, and gabe had a blast with his cousins. this was the evening of technology...blackberries, iphones, itouch, ipad, nintendo ds, and the leapfrog "learn to text"! talk about silent night...everyone was so absorbed before/after dinner, there wasn't much talking going on :P

boxing day...totally relaxing! we slept in, we stayed home, we did NOTHING! the highlight of our day was giving gabe his present from santa claus...a home depot work bench! it took chris a little while to get it all assembled, but gabe was "dad's little helper" using his power drill and hand tools to screw all the nuts and bolts in place.

that was christmas 2010! we hope everyone else had a great holiday with their families :-)

33 or 23?

today i found myself at a car dealership with gabe and my parents. while my parents were out test driving a car, the salesman talked to me about their potential purchase. he asked if i had graduated school yet, because there was some sort of discount for recent graduates. i told him today's my 33rd birthday, and that i graduated college in 1996. he laughed and apologized.

i think when i'm 40 i'll appreciate the blessed "asian genes". but for now, do i seriously look like a 20 year old with a 2 year old child in tow?!?!


ah well, happy 33rd to me :-)

elfed!

ok, i couldn't resist doing this...

merry christmas!

gabe's gingerbread house!

this xmas i wanted to do 2 things...build a gingerbread house with gabe and create (um, buy) a non-chocolate advent calendar. i kind of gave up rather easily on the calendar search and settled for a disney gingerbread house kit.

we had a lot of fun, and it ended up being a full day activity! before gabe's afternoon nap, we built the house. i think the biggest challenge was icing the walls fast enough before gabe would stick his fingers in it. once the house was built (but the icing wasn't dry), gabe started knocking on the gingerbread door...i didn't notice at first but he actually dislodged the house and we had crooked walls :P

(there's the little hand sneaking in!)

after gabe's 3 hour nap (yippee!) we decorated the house. while i iced the roof, gabe was checking out the candies (i don't think he knew they were actually edible). he was very meticulous about decorating...he would point to where i should dollop some icing, and then he would gingerly place the gumballs on the house. we repeated these steps until the gumballs were done. then we'd move onto the jujubes. then we did the sweettarts. boy, did i screw up though. when it came time to do the sprinkles, of course i let gabe "help". except his version of helping was pinching them, throwing them over the roof and then blowing as hard as he could :P

all in all, it was a great activity and we had a lot of fun together :-) now that we've built our house, i can't wait to take him to see gingerbread lane at the hyatt!