Our last photos before leaving NorCal were with Santa at a neighborhood home that was voted one of the most festively decorated, and a family photo at home Christmas eve after Melodie arrived. Christmas morning was white, but from frost, not snow making it quite chilly as we loaded up the car for our drive to Sacramento to catch our flight to SoCal.
We arrived at Burbank and made our way to the family home - full for the holidays with two of Paul's sisters, his brother and their families in town as well as frequent visits from Paul's other sister and family who live down the street. The hot pot was still going from an extended lunch and was fired up again for dinner with the family followed by opening presents. We haven't been back at Christmas for over ten years!
Finally got to hold my cute, curly-haired niece, but at six months old, she is quite attached to her primary caregivers.
Played games with Alex, Maggie and my other nieces and nephew - so fun to see how they've changed in the last year and a half...
Including Maggie and Alex, there's a generation gap in this group of first cousins - the older three are age 12 and up and the younger three are three years old and below!
Christmas weekend included family and food, of course, and a karaoke marathon; and ended with a teppanyaki lunch and Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to celebrate Paul's father's birthday, as well as a going away party for Paul's second sister and family who are moving to Japan for a couple (or three) years.
The days leading up to the new year were filled with more food, family activities, and errands. We enjoyed mostly beautiful weather with breezy, cool, crisp mornings that warmed up during the day; perfect for afternoon excursions - walks, skateboarding, picture-taking...
Late on New Years Day we'll be heading back to HKG wrapping up a short, busy, fun break. Maggie still has three weeks of break and hopes to get more driving practice in to prepare for her driving test.
