Christmas 2018!

Hello Friends! How was your Christmas?  We had a great one celebrating the Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! Christmas eve, we attended our Church service, then had Chinese food. Christmas morning we had breakfast together, my Hubs prepared Pop Overs! We try to keep breakfast simple because we know we’ll be snacking all day! Lots of family time, yummy food and just the right amount of gifts:) Over the years our family is really trying to be intentional with our gift giving and trying to minimize the amounts of gifts given. Mia received many gifts from our immediate and extended family – almost too many! We are thankful for their generosity and thoughtfulness.

I’m kinda itching to take down our Christmas decorations, normally I wait after the New years! But I’ve been watching and reading about minimalism, living intentionally and simplifying. I’m debating whether or not to take it down or just wait for few more days, because I really do just love the coziness of Christmas. We’ll see…

Christmas Eve service
Garlic honey pork chop from our Chinese dinner!
The night before Christmas!
Daddy and Mia making breakfast

She got Mickey and Minnie stuffed toys from Grandparents!
Minnie robe from Auntie!
I got a massager, and I tried it today and so far I’m so loving it!

Snacks the whole day!
Crab dip
Fresh Oysters
Thanks Hubs for all the work!

Auntie Candy and Uncle Tom stopped by to deliver gifts and Christmas goodies!

I made roast pork belly!Yum!

Day after Christmas! Mia had fun jumping on her gift from Auntie Chak and Uncle Chads gift!

My sis got me these new sheets! I love the blue paisley print! My family spoiled me this year, they got me everything I wanted:) HA!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I was able to convince everybody to be matchy matchy! I love it:)

Have a great night friends! I’m hanging out with Hubs watching TV and sipping Hot chocolate:) Blessings to you and your family!

Holiday Traditions!

Hi Friends! I wanted to share one of our family traditions with you.  Every year we go to Seattle the day after Thanksgiving, officially welcoming in the Christmas season. Since we had Mia we always go to the carousel and let her ride, she didn’t really care for it this year!HA. Maybe when she’s a little older, she will love it.

We always do the Pike Place Market, check Delaurenti’s cheese and charcuterie selection (love this place but Ugh so pricey). Franz chocolate shop is also a must. We got a couple of their famous sea salt caramels. We end up eating at Dahlia Lounge (Tom Douglas resto). I enjoyed their corned beef hash (so so good!). Mia loved the Macy’s Christmas decorations, she was really into watching the snowflakes, trains, and Christmas village scenes. I loved seeing her reactions:) One more week till Christmas friends! Blessings to you and your family this time of year:)

Weekend Fun!

Hi Friends! Hope you’re having a restful Sunday evening. We did a little shopping this weekend and our shopper Boo was really serious and loving every second of it. The place has a little cart for kids and she loved putting stuff in there. She had a meltdown when it was time to go home:( We got Chipotle after, Hubs likes their tacos, I always get the steak bowl.

We attended a white elephant party with friends and it was so much fun! Hubs got a  squatty potty spray and I’m still giggling about the whole thing! Love a good time with friends. Hubs baked bread pudding, really good! We volunteered at Mia’s Sunday Class at church and they had cupcakes for snacks. She totally enjoyed it:) That’s our Boo! We plan to see Santa this week at the local Zoo. Hopefully Mia will cooperate. Have a great week ahead friends!

Mr. Squatty Potty!HA

Christmas in our house!

Hi Friends! It’s beginning to look like Christmas in our house:) Christmas time is so special when you have a little one! Mia was having fun when we set up our tree and put up all the ornaments. She already broke 4 ornaments! We have to put our “nicer” ornaments in the upper part of the tree, she’s getting so tall that she can reach things easily!

Our decors are old and mostly second hand from my In laws. My Mom In law gave us our nativity set and made our stockings too. I wanted to keep things simple because it’s easy to put things away, less stuff to organize. I’m thinking of getting some things after Christmas though (Christmas sales) just to update some decorations for next year.

Just two more weeks till Christmas friends! I’m getting excited:)

Like mother,like daughter! Twinning with my Boo!

Some of my fave ornaments!

Baby’s first Christmas!2016
I got this from Lenox when we visited the Philippines early this year!

Keeping it simple in our stairway. Old poinsettias from my Mom in law, and we have a collection of Teddy bears. I only put out 3 because Riley gets crazy and wants to play with them.

Stockings are made by my Mom In Law except for Riley’s, she just added his name.
Our nativity set! Gifted to me from my Mom In law.

Seattle Aquarium!

Hi friends! Happy Saturday! We went to the Seattle Aquarium this week  to celebrate the hub’s company Holiday party. They had it in the aquarium this time. I wanted to go mostly for Mia. I knew she would like watching the animals, especially the fish. I’m not sure if she liked the octopus! She did enjoy harassing the fake one:) We had a great time, especially during dinner, when we had a good view of the aquarium and the fish while having yummy food!

We were able to watch the workers feed the otters too, they’re so adorable and cuddly looking! They ate a lot:) We also got to see the Seattle Great Wheel, that ferris wheel is HUGE! So pretty with all of the lights and the water reflection. WOW! We would have loved to walk around the area but it was so cold and we worried about Mia getting too cold. Anyways, are you done with your Christmas shopping friends? I’m almost done with mine. I’m trying to be intentional with my shopping and not go overboard. It helps that I’ve been decluttering and minimizing stuff around the house.

I’m off to watch a Cheesy Hallmark movie and have some hot chocolate with my Boo. Have a great weekend friends! Blessings to you and your family:)

Herb Farm!

Hi Friends! I hope you’re all having a good Monday:) Last Saturday Hubs and I went to the Herb Farm (together with his co-workers and their spouses). They did some work on their website, and the owner invited them for a meal at the restaurant. What a fun experience this was for us (Hubs and I), what a great place. If you’re a foodie and happen to be in Seattle, it’s worth a drive to go and see this place in the Woodenville area.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect about this place.  The Hubs told me it’s a farm to table kind of place and it’s going to be a 9 course meal, approx 4 hour dinner time! HA. To be honest we didn’t notice the time because we had such a lovely time/conversations with the group and we all got along so well (it’s my first time to meet all of them). The food presentation was amazing, the service was personal (always anticipating our needs), great ambiance, music just blended it all together throughout the night. It was such a cozy evening. The Hubs thought he’s in a Jane Austin novel or something! HA( there were carolers visiting each of the tables too (you could request a song ).

Chef visiting our table!

The best eggnog I’ve had!

I don’t drink wine/alcohol but the non-alcoholic selections were great! The Hubs also preferred my drinks over their wine pairings that night (but we’re not wine people so what do we know?!HA).

such a fun group!
With the owner,Carrie!