Last Saturday, we had a Christmas family gathering hosted by the Ines household. We had a Secret Santa of sorts amongst cousins and aunts and uncles which was exciting (and cheap!). Marlo put together an Elfster.com exchange, where the website picks names for us, and we can put post wishlists and things we don’t want for our Secret Santa to see. It worked out perfectly for me because I asked for bananagrams and The White Tiger which is exactly what I received from my Secret Santa! :) It didn’t work out so well for Kuya Bernard because he hadn’t updated his wishlist from like 3 years ago, and got gifts he needed for architecture school. Oh well.

Anyway, the highlight of the PAARTAY were the nieces and nephews. Christmas is SO SO different with little kids around. It is so much about them and making sure they are enjoying their time together.

In the picture, Brielle (1.5 years old) has swollen eyes because apparently she has a hardcore peanut allergy! That stinks! I can’t imagine being allergic to food.

Aiden (2.5 years old) is probably the most entertaining/energetic of the bunch and he is so so adorable! He talks so much and just loooves to run around and play. For example, he got into a wrestling match with one of my parent’s dogs!

Landon (2 years old), is sporting that pimp pink shirt. Quiet, but you can win over his love by feeding him. What more can you ask for.

Hope (8 months), is the youngest and bright eyed of the bunch. She’s still a baby, which for me, isn’t as fun as a toddler or talking age - 10years old. But she’s cute.

Its definitely a different sort of holiday spirit with young young kids. I can’t wait to see them grow up and celebrate more Christmas holidays and I’m kind of excited to see how reflective it is of how my cousins and I grew up. In the future, I hope we can provide them with more happy and supportive holiday memories.

Happy 3 year Anniversary Celebration: Gift Edition

For our anniversary, Simon surprised me and took me out to my first show on Broadway! We watched Rock of Ages which has to be one of the more fun and funny, engaging musicals I’ve seen. The narrator of the show was entertaining, the music was familiar, and the story line, which is set in LA in the 80s, was interesting — typical rock&roll love story, good guy falls in love with small town girl who sleeps with a rockstar — but I think what caught my attention was the story on economic redevelopment of sunset strip in the 80s. The American Idols were really good in it; it kind of made me wish I knew who they were. Oh well. Overall, a great first Broadway experience :)

For my gift to Simon, I made him a book. Inside, there was a timeline with our pictures, and other things like 3 things I like about Simon, 3 things I’ve learned from him, 3 quotes from All About Love by bell hooks, etc. etc. you get the idea. He seemed to really appreciate the book so that makes me happy.

For the last two anniversaries, Simon and I were located in different states so this was the first anniversary that Simon and I celebrated together in the same place. It was really nice to be able to do that and enjoy each others company in celebrating our first date. 3 years. Go figure. Cheers to more Years!

Christmas in New York

Because I’m spending Christmas in LA, Simon and I “celebrated” Christmas on Wednesday, Dec. 16. Since we’re both kind of low on the funds, Simon and I decided to individually find 5 recipes and then share them during our celebration. Simon found five recipes for dips — like garlic paste, baba ganoush, chutneys. I LOOVED IT! I looove dips and snacky things :) He knows me so well. I found recipes I wanted to cook and eat, which was kind of selfish, but I’m sure will be delicious.

I also put together a Christmas “stocking” for Simon as a little surprise. I couldn’t find a stocking (they were all sold out or ugly at my local stores), so I bought socks instead and stuffed them with a few little things.

That night we cooked french fries (per my request), and since we were deep frying things and we had some bananas, I decided to make turon. Nothing too exciting, but very homely which definitely brought about a sense of Christmas. I can definitely say my first Christmas in New York was fun and filled with love.

Happy 3 Year Anniversary Celebration: Food Edition

For our three year anniversary, Simon gave up being vegetarian for a night, and ate some sushi with me. (He’s so good to me). We went to Sushi Ichimasa in the Theater District, a small semi-mom&pop sushi restaurant. We ordered a sashimi platter (don’t ask me which fish is which, because I’ll be honest, I really don’t know), and a sushi combo plate with spicy tuna rolls, salmon and avocado, and eel and cucumber — my favorite three basic sushi rolls. Wasn’t too crazy about the spicy tuna rolls (they weren’t bad though), but the salmon and the eel stole the show as far as the sushi goes. Good fish:rice ratio for both rolls, and I just want to mention that the cucumbers were quite fresh so they added a great crunch to the eel roll. As for the sashimi, it was sort of hit or miss — some were too fishy, one was quite delicious, and the others were as expected. I’ve never really had that much sashimi in one sitting, so that was a first for me, so hopefully, w/ more sushi outtings I can figure out which sashimi I like and why.

For dessert, Simon and I went to Serendipity3. I’ve been really excited to go to Serendipity since moving to NY, because I’m really a tourist on the inside. Simon ordered a chocolate blackout cake and mochaccino (Serendipity’s own brew of rich chocolate, and aromatic espresso, with a topsy turvey whipped cream pear), and I ordered an Ice cream Sundae with a maple walnut topping on a 30something degree night. Everything was SO RICH, DECADENT, and DELICIOUS as it should be. Not that — this is so decadent, its gross — but OMG-THIS-IS-SO-GOOD-I-WANT-TO-EAT-MORE-BUT-ITS-SO RICH-I-DON’T- KNOW-IF-MY-STOMACH-CAN-HANDLE-IT delicious. My tongue is tingling just thinking about it. The ice cream, which had a soft creamy texture, went PERFECT with Simon’s soft chocolate cake and I thought the mochaccino had a good balance of bitter and sweet in one gulp.

What a great food night in the city! and I am so grateful that Simon shared the experience with me. I hope we have many more food adventures together :)