Hills of Hayward

This last Christmas, we made a trip out to Texas to visit Harrison’s parents in Laredo, TX, and Christine’s sister in Houston, TX.  Christine’s youngest sister flew in from UK to join us as well as Christine’s mom came in from Taiwan to join in on the festivities.

Our trip was split into two parts, the first half in Laredo, and the second half in Houston.  Some of my memories of the Laredo:

• The gang of 3 geese in my dad’s townhouse complex attacked me and Anders.  I kicked the lead geese in the body and he improved his disposition.
• Christine, Mom, and the kids went to a Christmas party at the complex, and proceeded to win a bundle of prizes from the drawing.
• Mom and Dad watched over the sleeping kids as Christine, I, and Shine-May enjoyed Avatar in 3D.  I loved that movie.

Other memories from the Houston leg of the trip:

• Really enjoyed the Oyster Po-boys in Houston.  Sooo delicious.  Christine loved the etouffee and the gumbo.
• Steve and Michelle’s new MDX was beautiful.
• Steve cooked his pot-roast dinner and green bean casserole dinner.
• I picked up some bread pudding from a place Steve recommended.  It turned out to be an African-American only type of place.  The pudding was awesome, but the minority on minority discrimination was not.
• We exchanged gifts including germs, and almost everybody wound up a little sick and feverish at the end.  Germ summit 2009.

Any other memories that you all remember from back in December?  As many of you now, my memory is spotty at best!

After having two kids, I never thought of celebrating my birthday anymore. However, Stonebrae sent me a dinner invitation so I showed it to Harrison two days before my birthday. Harrison said, “Why did they send it so early?” I didn’t have any doubt but just thought that he forgot which day my birthday was again.

So he scheduled a last minute dinner at Kiss Seafood Japanese Restaurant, though now I don’t know if he just played like it was a last minute reservation or it was really a last minute thing. Unfortunately we had to miss our dinner because Arden started crying for feeding while Anders was fussing and not going to sleep. We could only feel at ease if we calmed Anders to sleep before we headed out so our nanny could focus on the little one. I guess that you can never predict your schedule when you have two young kids.

Luckily, thanks to my dear husband, who is great at finding new and nice restaurants. Instead of Kiss Seafood, we had a great time of a late night dinner at this nice cozy restaurant, Izakaya Mai.

I thought that was nice and it should be it! I never thought that Harrison had planned for tonight for a while. It was the first time I hang out with friends for a movie after Arden’s birth. I enjoyed Star Trek a lot and have been craving for Tea Station. I was happy but not surprised to run into Nancy, Chuang and Wei at Tea Station since they live close by; didn’t have doubts when Nancy asked to combine the tables. I didn’t suspect a thing until the birthday cake was brought to the table. I started laughing out loud since normally I was the one planning surprises!

Harrison’s plan was considered a total success. Thanks, Nancy, Chuang, Wei, Duc, Howard and Paul for coming out. Of course, thanks to Harrison for always thinking for me.

The house feels so much more lively when there is a relative visiting.  We were fortunate enough to have Christine’s mom over to help with Arden’s first month.  Thank you again mom!

媽媽今晚回台灣了，心裏很是捨不得。但我猜爸爸和小妹在台灣也巴不得媽媽趕快回家吧！

這一個月多虧了有媽媽在身邊，好多事情不用操心，Arden 也幾乎都是媽在餵的。媽，您辛苦了！

自從大學離家之後，第一次有機會能在家長住是拜 Cisco 的 flexibility, 讓我在台灣遠距上班了一個多月；第二次是托 Anders 的褔，媽來美幫我坐月子住了一個多月；再來就是這次生 Arden，又讓媽辛苦了，但我也才又有這個褔氣能再把媽給請來一個月。下次就真不知是何時了！

真希望台灣跟美國能近一些……..

I have been seriously falling behind on posting all of our photos.  Late last year, we wanted to make a trip to Taiwan to visit family before Arden arrived.   Both Christine and I think that traveling internationally with two young kids in 2009 would be unlikely, so we made an effort to get out one last time.

Christine’s mom helped out by taking care of Anders for a week.  This freed up our time to visit our good friends Andy and Tim who had both left for Asia from the SF Bay Area.  Andy was so accomodating in figuring out our hotel, itinerary, AND feed our ramen fetish with his top ramen picks from his own ramen otaku adventures.

Both Christine and I had a great time in stomach and soul.  I fell in love with the orderly nature of Japanese culture.  We both want to visit Japan again more thoroughly in the future.