So what’s been up since my parents left? Zachary has started basketball practice/games. I continue to jog and take yoga sporadically – not enough to lose weight or gain much muscle tone, but I probably won’t atrophy either.

Quite of a bit of our family time includes reading, playing in the backyard when the weather is terrific, and doing puzzles and playing board games when it’s not. We also go out to eat as a family as a treat on the weekends. This month, we used our gift cards at Red Robin, and tried Faith’s Crepes through a Groupon deal.

Early January, I had a great time playing Kinect Dance Central with Melissa, Sandy, and Sam. There were clearly two camps … dancers and non dancers. Thanks Sam for keeping me company!

We celebrated Dylan’s 7th birthday – Zach went to see the movie Tin Tin, and we all met up for cake at Nugget Market afterwards. Happy Birthday Dylan! Also this month, I signed Calista up for ballet with her friends Hannah and Hayden (twins.)

Calie went on her first ever playdate without parents – my friend Marissa picked her up from school after nap. Calista had such a great time with Aubrey and Courtney (twins) that the next day she was disappointed when I showed up for her at the end of the school day.

Friday Girl’s Night Out are the best, as they seem to extend the weekend. Melissa, Sandy, Kathy, Rachel, Karen, and I took advantage of the $30 Dine Downtown deal at Spataro.

Great company, but I wasn’t impressed with the menu switcharoo. The online menu clearly said sea bass, but was changed to cod when we got there … and they ran out of 2 of 3 desserts. Oh well, at least the company was awesome and the price was right! One morning after ballet, we went out for Jamba Juice (great deal with $1 12oz yogurt smoothies) followed by ice skating.

The weather was awesome – almost too hot actually! I also took Calista to a nearby park to meet up with her friend Cassie. I’m finally putting in some effort to meet more people with kids Calista’s age – it makes it easier that she’s pretty social (more likely she’s normal, but just compared to the rest of the family.)

While on our playdate, James took Zach on a hike near the lake with JP, Sam, Alex, and Nicole.

One evening, I took Calista to a South Indian celebration, where we enjoyed live dancing, singing, and skits, followed by a vegetarian buffet. I saw quite a few of my coworkers there, and Meenakshi and Anitha performed on stage. Happy Sankranthi!

Midweek, with Melissa in Boise for work, I had Sam and their kids over for a hot pot trial. I purchased a hotpot over the weekend and needed to make sure I knew how to operate it before hosting a weekend Chinese New Year dinner. It worked! And um … I ran out of food. I had to offset with 5 cheese sandwiches. Oops.

Last Friday was the Intel Winter Ball, dubbed the “Intel Prom.” I loved my dress, which my sister Sophie found at Saks marked down from $328 to $35 … and combined with nude shoes I borrowed from Alice and a body wrap the day before at Marissa’s house … I cleaned up pretty well … for my age and weight that is!

Despite the rain storm, traffic, and the crowd (3000 people!), I had a blast. It was great to see Sara/Joe and Lori/Ed again – we’ve been missing each other at our annual Halloween/Christmas parties so it was a treat to catch up with them. And of course, I always have a great time in the company of my girls, Melissa, Sandy, Kathy,and Karen! The dinner was quite good (especially for a mass produced meal) and I really enjoyed the music. They played my request “Baby Got Back” so of course I had to dance. At the end, Melissa, Sara, and I even got up on stage. Had it not been for Sara’s cueing, I probably would have fallen off during the line dance - Good times!

This weekend we celebrated Chinese New Year with Kathy, Marissa, Melissa, and their families. We had hot pot – which required some coordination with kids – but we had enough food and no one got burned, so it was a win. And since James’ birthday was coming up, we celebrated with Coldstone devil’s food ice cream cake covered in chocolate ganache.

I bought some Dragon crafts for the kids, but they had so much fun on their own that it would have been a shame to stop their activities and sit them down. The kids running around reminded me a lot of my childhood and going to my parents’ friend’s house for dinner in Champaign-Urbana … I’m thinking CNY makes me a bit nostalgic.  

Sunday was super lazy. It was rainy, and James had to log into work. So we did Dollar Store puzzles, and I took Calista to the Sacramento Children’s Museum for art. Handpainting and glittering is always best done outside my home.

‘Till next time, Happy Chinese New Year!

So … what’s been going on the last 3 weeks?  To type it all out would take too long and risk TLDR status, so this blog will be light on words but heavy in photos.

First topic … FAMILY

My parents flew in from Maryland to visit over the holidays for 2.5 weeks! My sisters drove up the first weekend, and then for Christmas weekend, they came up again with brother-in-law Eddie. James’ parents also spent Christmas day with us; just a 1 day visit, as we already had a full house.

Lots of fun presents for Christmas this year, with highlights being custom photo books and Thing 1-2-3 shirts!

On New Year’s day, Alice and her boyfriend Rob visited us. It was the first time Rob met my parents, and he made a good impression! We think he might be her best match yet (should she press her luck or cash out?) We definitely had good quality time with family this year, and I’m glad the kids were out of school so that they could spend the whole time with my parents. One of my hopes is that both Zachary and Calista will grow closer to their grandparents.

Second category … FRIENDS

We spent some time with friends over the last few weeks. We went to Alex and Nicole’s pajamas party, where the kids played games and puzzles. We had to leave before cookie decorating, which was probably a good thing since we overstuffed ourselves with their delicious brunch … I can never resist a smoked salmon spread!

James also went to the annual Baco Christmas potluck and gift exchange. And our neighbors organized the annual neighborhood sleigh ride again. They opened up their garage and put tables of dessert out. There was also a craft table for kids, as well as a popcorn maker (yum, so much better than the microwaved variety!) Out on the driveway, they put out a fire pit so that we could make S’mores. And of course, we rode around the neighborhood in a horse drawn “sleigh.”

Right before the end of the year, we had dinner at Veronica and Paul’s house: salad, tri-tip sandwiches, and a delicious dish of scalloped potatoes. For party favors, we took home 2 bags of lemons from their backyard trees – thank you! With holidays are over, our weekends in January (and February!) are starting to book up. While I loved spending time with family, we’ve been missing our friends too!

Third … FOOD

What holiday would it be without food, right? I love to eat, and I especially love my mom’s cooking. There is just something comforting about eating the meals I grew up with. And I hope I don’t come across as a braggart when I say my mom makes the best Chinese dishes ever! AND she can come up with new meals by mixing and matching whatever I already have in my refrigerator. I made four meals over the holidays, and where I lack in talent, I tried to make up by using pricier ingredients. My main courses included king crab legs, lobster tails, and prime rib (x2).

We also went out a few times. My parents treated us to Yummy Kitchen (Chinese food). At one point, my dad craved a burger “in the $6-$10 range” so we went to Zachary’s favorite restaurant, Red Robin. I bought their promotional $50 gift card to get a $10 bonus gift card for free. Anyway, there was a 30-40 minute wait for food, which didn’t seem that bad considering how busy they were. The waiter apologized profusely, and I told him I totally understand they might be understaffed over the holidays. I guess my politeness paid off, because the manager came over and said they took care of the bill for us … all $57 of it! Wow, what customer service. We will definately be back again … obviously, as we still have $60 in gift cards.

I also took my parents to Mikunis – my mom’s favorite was Pepper Fin, and I gorged on Spicy Dream sauce … I can seriously eat that with a spoon. Rob treated our family to Olive Garden when they visited. We ‘got our money’s worth’ of soup and salad. I don’t what it is about their salad – it’s really simple, no extraordinary ingredients, yet so addictive!

Final section … FUN!

The evening my parents arrived, was Calista’s preschool holiday show, where each class sang a few songs. It was very crowded, but I was able to snap a few decent photos (considering the circumstances):

While James and I worked, my parents took the kids on daily walks to the park, where they played and had a small snack. The kids had a great time with my parents, swinging, throwing balls/Frisbees, and climbing trees. According to my parents both my kids are extremely cautious – this is probably due to my threats about falling and “cracking your head open.”

Other fun include outlet shopping with my parents and sisters, getting a massage with my mom, and yoga. I bought a $10 for 10 days yoga pass for myself and my mom. It was not exactly Bikram, but they kept the room warm (~90F). My mom thought it was torture. Feeling motivated by the amount I sweated (releasing toxins, right?), I took both my sisters the following day. Alice learned her lesson, but Sophie and I went the following weekend too … and brought Eddie. So 3 sessions for $10, not too bad.

One big theme to our holiday weeks was games. As a family, we love games … new games Quirkle and Stone Age were huge hits. We also played Bohnanza, Ticket to Ride, Scrabble, Smath, and did numerous puzzles.

The weather the entire 3 weeks has been great – brisk but sunny. We went to the Nimbus fish hatchery one day to feed fish, walk around the museum, and do a very short (1/4 mile) trail walk near the American river. Since it was a light work week, I watched Top Chef at night. I’m not sure why I like watching the show … I can’t taste their food, and it’s not as if I’m improving my own cooking skills either. At this point, I’ve spent close to $100 on downloading Top Chef episodes … with nothing but exhaustion at work the next day to show for it.

So there we have it. This week I took my parents back to the airport. My mom had cleaned the entire house (messy again), did our laundry (big pile now), and peeled 2 kiwis for us (both eaten.) They had a safe flight, and all 25 lbs of lemons made it too. I already miss them – THANK YOU Mom and Dad for visiting! Now it’s back to our regularly programmed schedule, With Calie getting older, wanting play dates and now dance lessons, managing the logistics of 2 kids’ activities is more challenging. I’m going to have to be more selective with what we commit to, and how we spend our time. Hopefully, those of you we don’t see as often will understand. With that said, I hope 2012 is a happy and healthy one for everyone – my friends I see often and the ones I catch up with online!