Happy Birthday Hamunee!

Yesterday we celebrated my grandma's birthday, she turned 91! As usual it was a big pig out fest at my house with all the usuals, kalbi, chicken wings, noodles and lots and lots of kimchee. We also had tons of yummy desserts thanks to my cousin Mad and her kids and Hanna who brought her famous chocolate WOW cookies. They were awesome. Mad's son Michael who is 6, had the stomach flu and wasn't allowed to eat any of the goodies but you could tell it was so hard for him... he brought us a Turtle he found and asked if he could just "hold it". Then that turned into, "can I just squeeze it?", then it turned into "can I please just have a bite?" (answer: no), then "can I just lick it? Just one lick?" and then finally his mom caved and gave him ONE bite. It was heartbreaking to see him have to put it down after that. He kept asking me where it was so he could look at it later.

After pigging out (twice) and 5 hours of family fun, Gerwyn and I decided to head back to his place. I was exhausted but one of his friends was having a get together so we decided to head back out around 10 to say hello and watch UFC (blech... I read a cookbook instead.) We ended up staying til about 3:30 am (the latest I've been out in AGES) and then slept in today til 1pm. It feels so weird to get up so late. Something I used to back in university days but not anymore. Well, my body decided it didn't like it either and gave me a nosebleed, something I also haven't experienced in a looooong time.

Now we're on our way to my uncle's (hanna's dad) for a sushi party with all my cousins. That's right, more pigging out. Gotta love the holidays... family, food, fun!!

Christmas Recap!

Its hard to believe that Christmas is already over... it went by so fast! I barely had time to finish my Christmas shopping! Here's the recap of events this year: (pics to come, whoo hoo!)

Christmas Eve: Spent most of the day with Gerwyn doing last minute shopping and then having dinner with his mom. I gave his mom the slippers I bought and she gave me a scarf. The card said "thanks for taking care of Gerwyn." 'Bout time I got some recognition!! Later that night, we went to my mom's house for another dinner (apparently Gerwyn "wasn't hungry" but he couldn't resist the kimchi and my mom's special Shake'n'Bake ribs!) and then we Scrabbled! My cousin Carol, my sister and Gerwyn and I all played and guess who came in last place... ME! Hard to believe considering the wordsmith that I am however my cousin Carol is like our family Scrabble champion and Gerwyn kept making up his own words... apparently "bumlady" is another word for a female transient... uh huh! Too bad Webster didn't think so!! He's still upset he didn't get points for "quib". (Yet another word Webster didn't recognize... at least not in 1988.) Ended the night with my sister coming in first place, followed by Carol and then Gerwyn. Wait until the REMATCH!

Christmas Day: Woke up after sleeping beside my snoring sister in a squeaky bed to open all of our presents. My brother and sister in law brought Charlotte down and my cousin Jun-Seok participated in his first Canadian Christmas. We each took turns opening our stockings and then all of our presents. Since I got my brother a Tassimo, I quickly finished off our present opening party with Lattes all around. YUM! Later in the afternoon we went to my aunt's house for a big fat dinner and then games with the cousins. We played Cranium Cadoo with my niece and nephew and then did our family Kris Kringle followed by a "gift steal" game. We quickly realized that in order to "steal" the gifts, there has to be something worth stealing! You should have seen all the "callat" everyone brought!! (My filipino vocabulary is expanding...) It was hilarious, I, at least brought a Starbucks gift card (who doesn't love lattes?). Luckily I ended up with a Cineplex movie gift certificate. But I was this close to a box of yucky chocolate and a dvd of the one of the worst movies I've ever seen "Stuck on You". (That was my sister's gift.)

Boxing Day: Shop Shop Shop! Too bad I didn't buy buy buy! The deals were scarce and I couldn't find anything I liked (at Bayview Village anyway,) so my sister and I headed downtown and met my cousins Hanna, Jenny and Jun-Seok for dinner and then a movie "The Kite Runner". Then they all came back to my house for a big sleep over. I've never had so many guests! Too bad I had to work the next day. I missed breakfast at Eggspectation...

Tomorrow is my grandma's 91st birthday so we're throwing a big party for her. Another big family shindig, those are always the best. Then there will be one more party at my uncle's on Sunday and then its time to figure out how to ring in the new year...

Oh I almost forgot, this year Gerwyn bought me a new Sony Digital Camera. Yep, its the one I wanted, JUST LIKE MEL's!! (I'm still trying to figure out how to use it, hence the lack of photos in this blog post.) Anyway, first resolution for 2008: more pictures!!!

Meet the Flintstones...

This weekend was our annual Christmas get together with the girls: Ev, Sally, Mel, Mae plus partners. Its strange how now there is almost a boy for every girl. (And soon when Stu comes there will be! So hard to believe!!)

We fought through Toronto's biggest snowstorm to make it so Gerwyn could get his coveted Kris Kringle gift. That boy is worse than a little kid, he couldn't stop talking about his gift all week. Luckily he got what he wanted, his Colibri wind proof lighter. As for my gift, Sally was my Kris Kringle and she got me all of my favourites, comfy pjs, a board game (Taboo) and the best gift of all, The Flintstones on dvd. Most people probably don't think the Flintstones are a very good cartoon, in fact, its pretty cheesy. But the Flintstones were always my lunch time show when I was a kid. At 12 noon, I'd leave for home and my grandma would meet me halfway. Then when I got home, she'd have lunch ready, either a mini frozen pizza or an egg sandwich or if I was really lucky, a beef patty and then I'd watch the Flintstones. It was the best half hour ever. When the show was over I always knew I had to get ready to go back to school and then Grams would walk me back.

Its a simple memory but those are always the best ones. When you're an adult you forget how great it is not to have a care in the world. I miss those days with my grandma and I hope that watching the Flintstones will help bring some of those memories back.

A look back..

I just took a quick peek at my blog at this time last year. Apparently there was no snow? Well, that's definitely taken care of this year, its been snowing all day! (however, most of it seems to have melted...)

I still have Christmas shopping to do but I have no idea what to get people this year. If you think about how much people spend on gifts every year.... sometimes I wish I could just pool it all together and give it to someone who really needs it. After reading about Hanna's experience in Nepal, it really puts life into perspective.

Last year at this time we were still into the thick of Wednesday dinners, I was reading over my menu back then and I don't even remember making half of that stuff! We really should be keeping better records of that stuff, its so interesting to remember what foods I was into. I usually pick one ingredient and then make it all the time. Back then it seemed it was polenta, I remember the "polenta" days... then there was the "rapini" days and the "brussel sprout" days. These days I've been eating a lot of mushrooms. That's right, I'm finally starting to like them after 32 years!!!

I'm looking forward to all the family parties this year, I forgot how much fun it was last year until I read about it all over again. This year will be even more fun since my niece will be there, I plan on hogging her as much as possible. She won't be so little for very long afterall...

This weekend is the first of the fun parties with our annual Kris Kringle at Mae's. I wonder who got me? I wonder what Ev will get us??? (hee hee, too bad she doesn't read our blogs...)

What's to expect for next year??? For one thing, Ev will be getting married. I wonder what else? Who's lives will change forever next year? Time just flies by so fast, makes you wonder what some people are waiting for...

Breakfast with Raadia

This weekend we had Saadia and Raju over breakfast and by "we", I mean me while Gerwyn watched. (Ok, so he DID remove the bacon from the oven and put it on a plate.) Raadia, as they like to be called, needed to kill some time while their townhouse was being shown so they both came over for breakfast and then Saadia and I went to the gym and baked some Christmas cookies.

We made Ginger snaps and Chocolate Snow Caps and for once they didn't taste like cupboard! (The icing sugar was used was questionable but luckily, it turned out ok.) Gerwyn needed to finish his Christmas shopping (for a certain someone who shall remain nameless,) so he spent the day on his own and we met up again in the evening to watch The Golden Compass (it was good!) Then we went for sushi on Queen and walked all the way to Yonge before deciding to take a cab the rest of the way.

Sunday I went to visit Grams and my niece Charlotte (who I am finding are more and more alike... ) and then came back downtown for a quick pitstop at the gym before heading to Gerwyn's for our Heroes marathon. We intended to watch the football game but ended up getting super engrossed in his Season 1 of Heroes. We stayed up til 2:00 am watching them! Needless to say, getting up this morning was extremely difficult. Thank goodness I don't have to work until 10, that extra hour made all the difference...

Weekend with the moms...

This weekend Gerwyn and I ended up unknowingly spending a lot of quality time with our moms. Saturday we met up in the morning to go to the gym and then headed back to Gerwyn's place for what was supposed to be a "quick" snack and then off to start Christmas shopping. When we got home, Gerwyn's mom had lunch ready for us, she even set two places at the kitchen table and put out two eggrolls. I felt like I was in a restaurant! We had baked chicken, squash, rapini salad and potatoes. It was yummy! During lunch she started to talk about her trip to Miami to visit Gerwyn's sister. You could tell she had a good time cause she didn't stop talking! Usually our conversations are quite short but this time she had lots to say and she got all excited when she talked about her grandson, it was great to see.

After we got ready, we were supposed to drop her off at her party but when we got there it was still dark and the doors weren't even unlocked! Turns out she was 2.5 hours EARLY but she wanted to help decorate. (Clearly Gerwyn didn't get any of her punctuality skills...) So we ended up all going to Fairview Mall for coffee and a walk around the mall. Later, we dropped her back at her party and we headed to Yorkdale to get started on our Christmas gifts. A few hours later, we both came out with 2 pairs of running shoes and only one gift. (I got an extra pair for my sister.) By the time we got home we were so exhausted, we ended up just vegging out in front of the tv.

Sunday we were supposed to go to my mom's house so Gerwyn could meet my niece Charlotte. During breakfast my mom called to let us know that we should come over later since the weather was so bad. So we decided to take Gerwyn's mom grocery shopping first and then head to my mom's for dinner. It was actually quite a long day with all that travelling, I felt bad that Gerwyn had to drive all over the place in the terrible weather but I'm glad he got to meet Charlotte. She was so cute. Unfortunately my paranoid brother only let her out for 2 minutes but we got to give her a little squeeze and pat on the head before she disappeared. Then we ate a huge dinner with my family and headed back home to catch Sunday Night Football.

It was a long day but I'm really glad we got to spend quality time with both of our moms. It was my first taste of having two families... can't wait!!