December 26, 2007

• Christmas Pictures Galore!

  Hello, everyone! Thank you for all your Merry Christmas wishes. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a great holiday with family and friends.

  Johnny, Jack and I had a lovely Christmas with my mom, June and Charles. Unfortunately, my dad wasn't able to make it back from Taiwan, due to a really demanding work schedule, but he'll be here this weekend, in time for New Year's! It was very special to have my best Christmas gift of all, my precious baby boy, this year. It's crazy to think that last Christmas, I was only 11 weeks pregnant with Jack. I hadn't even broken the news to most of you guys yet! And now, Jack is a happy five-month-old baby. It's crazy, and definitely quite the adventure.

  Of course, we took many pictures, so I'm going to share just the best of them.

  On Christmas Eve, Johnny, Jack, Atari, my mom and I went to a huge park near my mom's place. There was a big lake with ducks, and several playgrounds. We all loved the walk. Jack looked around, rode on the swings and babbled in his stroller; Atari got to romp with Daddy.

  Jack with Grandma

  

  

  Look at Atari's expression!

  

  My mom, Jack and I in the giant park (and no, I'm not scratching my butt! Just pulling down my sweater)

  

  Jack looooves the swings

  

  Jack's first horsey ride

  

  Relaxing at Grandma's house after the outing

  

  Then, of course, there was Christmas morning. Ever since June and I reached our teens, we've been too impatient to open gifts on Christmas Day. Usually we open them on Christmas Eve, then sleep in on Christmas Day. I personally think this is a great plan for adults -- when I first mentioned it to Johnny years ago, he looked at me like I was nuts. His family does an all-out Christmas -- trimming the tree while listening to Christmas music and sipping eggnog, attending a midnight Christmas Eve service and opening presents the next morning. It's definitely fun, but I'm more for ripping into gifts as soon as the sun sets on December 24th.  However, Jack's arrival unites us in our viewpoint on when to open gifts, because I want to make sure Jack has the same wondrous Christmas mornings I experienced as a kid. (I believed in Santa until the ripe old age of 12, I think!) Plus, this year June and Charles were at a Jay Chou concert at USC until late on Christmas Eve, so we opened presents on Christmas morning.

  We all got some excellent stuff. Jack got some new toys and a new outfit. Johnny and I both got some great clothes from my mom, as well as from June and Charles. Johnny bought me some new books (one novel and one kid-related book), PJs, bath stuff that I'd wanted from the Body Shop, a new diaper bag (picture of it below) and -- best of all -- a digital photo frame that holds oodles of digital pics and displays each one for a set amount of time (10 seconds is what he set it to). It was really sweet, because when I saw the box, I said, "Great! I'll load pics on it and put it at my desk at work." Then Johnny revealed that he'd already spent hours selecting and uploading pictures on it. I was so touched! I have it set to turn on at 9 a.m. and turn off at 5 p.m. each day. Now everyone at work can see all the different photos of Jack. We also have some pictures of our LBJ (Life Before Jack) on there.

  Jack is mesmerized by the Christmas tree

  

  The little family, all in their PJs

  

  Ready to open gifts!

  

  June and I gave my mom an engraved photo frame for my parents' 30th wedding anniversary

  

  Jack with his new "phone" from Aunt June

  

  Johnny wearing a dashing sweater from my mom

  

  This was my big present to Johnny -- Guitar Hero III for our Wii!

  

  Johnny models the guitar from Guitar Hero III

  

  

  The Tokidoki diaper bag Johnny bought me. I feel very spoiled, since I still have (and love!) the Juicy Couture diaper bag that June bought me, but Johnny saw me admiring this one once, and he said that since I love bags so much, I ought to have two diaper bags, so I can color-coordinate with different outfits. This one will be great for traveling through airports (which we'll do in late January) because it has a zippered top and a diagonal shoulder strap.

  

  June with her cool Snoopy luggage from Charles

  

  After opening gifts, we cleaned up and went to lunch at Class 302, this adorable Taiwanese cafe that has a theme of a Taiwanese classroom. All of the tables and chairs are actually desks and chairs from schools in Taiwan. It definitely brought me back to my elementary school days (I attended kindergarten, first and second grade in Taiwan). I think I sat at a desk identical to the ones in the following picture. For those of you who are Taiwanese, you'll see what I'm talking about:

  

  They also have the best shaved ice there. Taiwanese shaved ice is made with condensed milk, not just water, and I'm not sure how they do it, but it's so fluffy. June describes it as akin to eating clouds, if you can imagine what that would feel like, and she's right.

  Our mango shaved ice. That's ice that they've shaved into fluffy layers!

  

  Then it was time to play with our new toys at home.

  Jack with the bongo drums Johnny and I gave him

  

  With Aunt June

  

  I suck at Guitar Hero III, but at least I look good doing it!

  

  And today, Johnny brought Jack to visit me at work! Here's Jack sitting in my cube.

  

  If only I could bring him to work every day!

  • 7:31 pm
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