Christmas Day 2011

I'm not quite sure what T's huge sock is doing in the picture but here is Sonoma's first gift on Christmas! She lovada presents!! :-) NERD!

We first decided to open only one gift before my mom and I went to church, but then the impatient girl in me wanted to open them all! Seriously, who waits to open gifts? Not ME! Gee, I can't believe I'm having a kid when I still feel like a kid myself..

This was by far the greatest and most thoughtful gift this year- a calendar made with some of our pictures through the years. My mom and I both LOVED it!

Some collarstays for T that had the city skyline of Paris, London, and New York.

I got T these cufflinks since it seems to be the familiar story in our household-he's always right AND never wrong :-)

Our baby finally got a new collar!

my gift this year!!

I spy a mini bump! (and boy have I gained a lot of weight; it all goes straight to my chubby face!!). While T started cooking, my mom and I dashed off to a 10 a.m. service at St. Pancras church on Euston road. http://www.stpancraschurch.org/. The service was pretty dull and not very uplifting but I guess I didn't expect TOO much since Christmas services aren't too busy.

eggplant parm

the duck being prepped to cook

mashed potaters and creamed spinach

lamb

She loves when guests come to play with her! She was zonked out by the time everyone finally left.

We had an awesome spread of two proteins, mashed potatoes, biscuits, mushrooms, creamed spinach and T's sister brought over two delicious kinds of spiced rice. Oh, and don't forget dessert- T made us hummingbird red velvet cupcakes. I was S-T-U-F-F-E-D!

the inside of the duck filled with lots of spices, apples, and pears.

yuum.. the lamb was really tasty!

our last year opening luxury Christmas crackers... this is probably the only British tradition I'll miss when we go back to the States.

Christmas cake made by Jad

What a great day to spend with family :) Off to spend a few days in Prague!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas.. EVE! I've definitely been on a Korean food kick lately; whatever the baby wants, the baby gets!

Thankfully I have my mom here to do all the cleaning and the yummy cookin!

 

Someone else has been getting pretty spoiled with long walks, big bones, bath and cuddle times!

a bone as big as her face!

O-jing-O bokum- octopus stir fry in spicy sauce. The seafood was a bit chewy but the flavor was delish :)

more soup.. I could eat soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner these days..

My mom made homemade japchae last night with some oven baked salmon and white rice.

veggies- red onions, carrots, spinach (we were missing the mushrooms!)

marinated beef

all the veggies and beef were combined with clear glass noodles, sesame oil, roasted sesame seeds, black pepper, salt, and brown sugar for a tinge of sweetness.

Almost all the presents are under the tree prior to Christmas eve (a first in my family!) I'm feeling happy but sad that the rest of my family can't be here to celebrate with us. Sending all my love overseas to my dad and big bro!!

Time to make a mad dash for the rest of our stocking stuffers..

"Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect." -Oren Arnold

Something about a boy..

My sweet baby boy chose not hide anything during our scan earlier this week. In fact, it took less than a second from when the ultrasound tech put the jelly on my stomach and when the probe touched my skin to find out what was hiding between my baby's legs. I couldn't believe my eyes, I swear it was a hand or another nub!!! Te he he he..

The appointment lasted literally 10 minutes and we were out of there in no time. I sort of wanted to stay in there and watch the baby forever, but alas, our time was up! Not only did we find out the sex, but it was sort of a mini check up to see how he was doing. His growth measures up to par from our last scan at 12 weeks. He is now 17 weeks and 7 days.. :-) Our next scan AND last scan is at 22 weeks before we head off to the states. Sweet home Chicago here I come!!!

Feelings about the gender:

While growing up, I definitely thought about having kids one day. I always babysat kids when I was younger, and I can say that from an early age, I felt a strong maternal calling. I feel very very very fortunate to be in this position I am today, because I know how unlucky some women are. It's a lot of heartache, but SO worth it in the end to get such a beautiful, clear picture of a growing baby. So my initial preference was having a boy first so I could (hopefully) have a girl second after a few years but after some thought, I reevaluated what was important and decided that I didn’t care which gender I had and this was my feeling up until my scan. Now that we have the gender figured out, I'm super excited to start doing some shopping- baby clothes are the cutest!

Prior to my scan, T picked us up some lunch- a falafel salad for me and my mum (as the Brits would say). Hers included eggplant and mine had guacamole.

For dinner, my mom cooked me a really lovely salmon and Korean soup dinner.

I didn't think I was craving Korean food but this proves otherwise!!

salmon, brown rice, and spicy paste for my lettuce wraps.

a mix of Korean/Japanese influenced soup- she used red miso paste since she didn't have daenjang, which is a Korean bean paste. The veggies included pak choi, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. YU-MMY!!

scrambled egg and avocado breakfast prior to more Christmas shopping! I'm done w. all my shopping but my mom had a few more things to pick up. Time to do some wrapping! We stopped by the Korean store at Centrepoint to pick up some ingredients for dinner and meals for the week.

bulgogi- beef sweetened with asian spices, honey, and rice wine vinegar with onions, mushrooms, and spring onions.

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tofu-stew-doenjang-chigae

spicy doenjang chigae with the right bean paste, tofu, and veggies.

As usual, T made us a delicious bulgogi omelet with the leftover meat and additional yellow peppers. Excuse the shadow- it was too early in the morning for me to care!!

Time to get my study on... I still have finals to prep for!