van.nurse@gmail.com – Page 29 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Christmas 2017!

Merry Christmas family and friends! Happy Birthday Jesus! We had a wonderful White Christmas, it SNOWED! It was so special! My In laws say it’s very rare to have snow on Christmas day here in the PNW. We stayed at home the whole day. Breakfast, opened gifts, watched Hallmark movies, ate yummy food (what a spread we had!) and just spent time with family! Thank You to our family who sent gifts to Mia (specially my sisters) we appreciate your generosity!

This is always our Christmas breakfast: Cheesy popovers (made by Zach),bacon,sausages, fruits!

Thanks to Uncle Chad and Auntie Cynthia!

Mia looking at her Dad’s 2nd Christmas picture! Zach’s second Christmas, 1980!

Strawberry shoes for our boo-berry! hehe

I made roast pork belly (lechon belly in the Philippines)

Enjoying her books given by Aunt Candy and Uncle Tom!

Dessert: Bread Pudding made by Aunt Candy!

Merry Christmas Friends! Blessings in the coming new year!

Christmas Eve!

Hello Friends! Merry Christmas EVE! Merry Christmas to my family and friends back home in the Philippines! We attended a Christmas service this afternoon at our church, then Chinese food for dinner! I’ve done a lot of things in preparation for tomorrow, we’ve been hosting Christmas day festivities for a long time now! We (my In laws) have brunch here, open gifts, watch Christmas movie/ naps/ walk around the neighborhood, then Christmas dinner (nothing fancy though). Have a wonderful Christmas Friends!

Thank You Heavenly Father for the gift of your Son Jesus!

Before we left for Church I cracked some crabbies for tomorrow! I’m in charge of the crabs because I REALLY enjoy cracking! hahaha (the Hubs is not complaining but has mentioned that I’m so weird!)

My audience during the cracking! HA

Dinner at Yea Wok! We really enjoyed our dinner, we’ll be back again!

Watching the snow after we got home! I hope there will be lots of snow on Christmas day! It will be magical:)

Listening to a Michael Bublé Christmas album while folding laundry! HA! We have very simple Christmas decorations this year! Nothing new, but I might get something during the after Christmas sale this week! I love a good deal:) Anyway, Good night Friends!

Merry Christmas Eve eve!

Hello Friends! I hope you had a great Saturday! Ours was pretty fun and “yummy”! We went to the house warming party of a good friend of my mom’s. Lots of yummy Filipino dishes, and I was pleasantly surprised that they had lechon! Love Lechon! Anyways, 2 more nights and it’s Christmas! I kept our Christmas/Holiday activities simple this year. After our NYC trip I just wanted to slow down and enjoy the season. Jesus is the reason for the season. I don’t think He would wanted us to be stressed! We did some fun activities with my In laws at one of our local Zoos and got a pic with Santa. We ended up doing Snowflake Lane last weekend. Lots of quality time with family this time of year.

Christmas shopping with Grandpa yesterday:

Cougar Mountain Zoo earlier this week with Grandparents to see Santa and reindeer (and other animal friends):

SnowFlake Lane fun last weekend:

It’s getting kinda late here, and I still have things to do! I wish you all a Merry Christmas Friends! Lots of Blessings to you and your family!

The Plaza!

Hi Friends! Hope you’re having a great Saturday. The hubs and babies (Mia and Riley) are napping, so I got a little free time to post our NYC adventure! My sis was very generous in treating us to a dinner at The Palm Court (Plaza Hotel). Originally we wanted their afternoon tea but they were fully booked so we opted for dinner. Before our reservation we made sure we had enough time to walk around Central Park and enjoy the scenery.

Took picture of the hotel lobby and their Christmas tree! So pretty, I love it!

The Palm Court is such an elegant restaurant! The interior (from the ceiling to the table) is beautiful. The service was quick and good but the food was disappointing for us! Not impressed with our orders, especially my roast Chicken (a simple dish in my opinion) and I found it quite DRY! I was like, “What in the world is going on in their kitchen?!HAHA! How can a prominent Hotel fail a chicken dish?!” My hubs and Sis found their dishes ordinary too. She had bolognese (the flavor was good though) and hubs had duck which he found dry too! Anyways, it was still neat to see the hotel!

The most expensive Root beer float ever!haha

After dinner we walked around Fifth Avenue and enjoyed the Christmas decorations/lights show. We also stopped at the Rockefeller Area, the tree was beautiful! What a fun and exhausting day:)

Thank You Auntie for treating us to The Plaza!

I love Henri Bendel! Fun fact: I own several bags of HB!

Burger and Lobster!

Hello friends! Our first dinner in NYC was Burger and Lobster! Thank you to my sis for bringing us there. We really enjoyed our dinner! The place was spacious, and the ambiance was great. I ordered the lobster and burger combo so I could share with Mia (the burger was OK! nothing special to be honest!). We all loved our lobster rolls (sis and hubs got the lobster too) and their lemon garlic butter was the BOMB! PERFECTION!

After dinner we checked out Barnes and Noble and got my sis our Christmas gift to her! We also stopped at Dough to try their doughnuts and they were amazing!

New York!

Hi friends! We just got back from NYC early Sunday morning, it was so much fun to see NYC during the holidays. This is our second time to see New York during Christmas time and it’s such a fun thing to experience. It was Mia’s first time on a plane, and I was a little nervous because you never know how a toddler will react (if she’s gonna have ear pressure issue, etc.) Thank the Lord that she did so well, she cried every now and then during the 5 hour trip (SEA to JFK) but no big deal, she did so good!

We stayed at my sisters cozy apartment (thank you dick for accommodating my little family), we watched 2 Broadway shows ( The Rocketts and Wicked), lots of eating, and checked touristy places like Rockefeller, Central Park, Times Square,etc).

It was such a fun week at one of the busiest cities in the world! I will try to blog more in the coming days (where we ate,etc). I loved all of the Christmas decorations especially the light displays at 5th avenue and Rockefeller Center (but the crowds were exhausting! HA! We surely expected things to be crazy so no surprise there!

Till Next time Big Apple!

Lots of things to bring when traveling with a toddler!

With Sis and Aca! After watching The Rockettes, we wanted to try Halal food! It was good:)

Thanksgiving 2017

Hi Friends! Happy Thanksgiving! We had a simple celebration at home with my In laws. It’s so neat to see Mia eat her first Thanksgiving meal (stuffing, turkey, etc.) she totally devoured her food! I also prepared roast pork belly and it turned out perfect! My hubs baked a mascarpone cheesecake (Giada De Laurentiis recipe) and it turned out perfect! He said he’ll probably make it again.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends! Blessings to you and your family!

Happy Birthday!

Hello friends! Yesterday was my birthday and we had a simple celebration. We had dinner at a local restaurant near our home, Hubs had sushi while I got my fave steak Pho! We are planning to have a little get away celebration in the coming weeks, so we are looking forward to that. Thank You to all my family and friends who took time to greet me, your birthday wishes are appreciated. Thank You Jesus for another year:)

Birthday cupcakes we shared with the In laws (the eve of my Bday)

Mt. Rainier, Washington State!

Hello Friends! Before we went to Oregon, we stopped first at Mt. Rainier. My sisters have never been there and wanted to see it, and because it was such a beautiful day we decided that it was worth the extra time. I’m so glad to share this special time with my family (got to enjoy God’s creation). Mt. Rainier didn’t disappoint! My hubs took the pictures and I think he captured the beauty of the place.

Oregon Trip!

Hello friends! Last week (days before Mia’s Bday) we did a quick road trip to Oregon. We visited Portland, Cannon Beach, and Seaside. Originally we wanted to see Multnomah Falls, but due to the fire that happened recently, it was still closed to the public. It was still fun spending time with family ( it was more of a food trip! HA! we ate too much) despite that it was a very hectic schedule. We ate at PokPOK thai restaurant (everybody loved their famous fish sauce chicken wings and thai iced tea). We enjoyed the ice cream at salt and straw, had doughnuts at Voodoo, shared sandwiches at St. Honore Boulangerie Cafe (Zach’s fave every time we visit Portland). We had seafood at The Crabby Oyster (food was Okay, nothing special) in Seaside.

What a quick yet fun road trip with family! It helped that Mia “cooperated” the whole time. She was such a little trooper!

*pics overload