The time has flown by since my sister got engaged last August. I cannot believe her wedding is in four months! This past weekend I hosted a bridal shower for her at my home. I was in charge of the champagne brunch and her other three bridesmaids, her best friends from college, would handle the games and cake. It was a lot of work planning, decorating, and cooking, but all worth it because it was a wonderful celebration and most importantly, my sister had a great time.
Preparing for this party was definitely a family effort. For the party favors, my Grouchy Husband helped me personalize glasses that my youngest sister, later planted her home grown basil plants in.
The girls helped my Grouchy Husband put up the canopy in the backyard. With his special helpers, this thirty minute task took over an hour. My mom spent three weeks getting the yard ready and planting flowers. My dad took a week off of work to fix the fence, paint the bathroom, put up the blinds, paint the front door, and a whole bunch of other jobs to get the house ready for the party.
My youngest sister juiced 100 oranges for the fresh squeezed orange juice. This made a lot of juice.
I made dozens and dozens of paper flower decorations to decorate the house.
Kimbie and her fiance, Mike, have put a lot of time personalizing their wedding not only for themselves, but also for their guests. Kimbie wrote a special note to each of her guests on how they have influenced her life. We hung the notes for everyone to read. This is what my note said:
“As a kid, sneaking into your room to read your diary defined sisterhood for me. Now as an adult, I realize how much more fulfilling it is to be connected not just as sisters but as real friends. You are a smart and totally committed mom and wife. As is common for younger sisters to copy older sisters, I would be so lucky to follow in your footsteps.”
Really special, right?
All the food for the brunch was homemade. This was A LOT of work, but the food was all delicious and everyone enjoyed it. The menu consisted of shrimp cocktail, roasted tomato and mozzarella caprese salad, garden salad with my mom’s homemade dressing, salmon nicoise salad, my sister’s favorite potato salad, Aunt Alice’s baked manicotti, Dumpling Mama chicken and vegetable dumplings, my father in-law’s ribs, fillet mignon sandwiches, and fruit. For drinks we served bellinis, lemon-cucumber infused water, fresh squeezed orange juice, Pellegrino, and wine. I had a helper that day, Alix, and he plated everything so beautifully.
The games the other bridesmaids planned were so fun. This was the wedding themed pictionary.
The last game was very special. My sister was asked questions like what was her favorite color, favorite restaurant, etc, and her bridesmaids coordinated with Mike to send in a video of his response to the questions. It was very touching to hear his answers to questions like when did you realize my sister was the woman you wanted to marry. The whole room was teary eyed.
The cake was from Lulu’s Bakery in Scarsdale and it was beautiful and delicious. My mom made her famous pecan tarts and my Aunt Alice made her world famous creme puffs (that didn’t make it into the picture).
Kimbie and my mom are here with Mike’s mom (next to my mom), Mike’s Auntie Joyce, and our Aunt May.
Here is my sister with her three best friends. They drove all the way from Boston for the party. One is seven months pregnant, one just had a baby a month ago, and one is in residency. They are such great friends to her.
My girls had a great time at the party. They had lots of attention and had so much fun playing the games with everyone. I was so busy hosting, my mom had to mingle and take care of them at the same time. I don’t know what I would do without my mom.
My Grouchy Husband helped me make this sign for the party. Kimbie was a little upset that I didn’t ask if she was changing her name before I made the sign, because she wasn’t…oops. But besides that little mishap, the party was a huge success! I was so busy hosting the party I never had a chance to take a picture with my sisters at the party so the next day we all dressed up in our party clothes again and took the picture. Can you tell we aren’t wearing makeup?!
I wish my sister a wonderful life with her soon-to-be-husband, Mike, and am so happy I was part of giving her an amazing bridal shower. I could sleep for days, or until one of my babies needs something to eat or go to the bathroom.
A very excited sister and Matron of Honor,
Chrissy xo
I just finished celebrating my 36th birthday. My birthday is a time of reflection as a check-in to myself, my goals, and all that I want to accomplish in my life. Mama to two little girls, wife to a Grouchy Husband, proud sister/daughter/granddaughter/cousin/niece, trying to be a better friend, doing work that I love. It still hasn’t settled in that I am 36, but I am exactly where I want to be in life.
My brother and sisters have started a tradition to treat me to a birthday dinner at a swanky restaurant in Manhattan. It makes me remember some of life before being married and having babies. This year we went 
We started dinner off with a champagne toast of Billecart Salmon Rose, yum!
Le Philosophe is a French bistro, one of my favorite favorite foods.
We ate most of the menu and everything was delicious. The muscles were the biggest I’ve ever seen and they were in a sauce that was a little spicy, yum! Pate was perfect, I really liked that there was a little sweetness in the sauce. Bone marrow was light and lemony. Duck a l’orange was beautifully cooked. Bass had a great sauce and the morels were amazing. Steak frites, veal, salmon, all delicious. Of course I had to try everything.
My brother brought Chateau Pavie and Brunello di Montalcino. You must drink wine with French food.
The perfect way to end a French birthday meal, a candle in an apple tart tatin.
Thank you to my brother, sisters, and Grouchy Husband for making 36 feel fabulous.
I have always thought that people who dress their children in matching clothing were so tacky. This Easter, I could not help myself, the girls had to wear matching dresses. They looked so cute in their matching polka-dot dresses. I am the newest member of the tacky club and I’m proud of it! I love that they are holding their Easter eggs in this picture.
Our Easter family photo.
The girls and my mom.
The girls and my sister. I love those polka-dot dresses.
This is what it was like in between photos.
The girls had a so much fun finding the eggs at their indoor Easter egg hunt.
They each received Easter buckets for finding all the eggs in the hunt. My Baby loved the wind-up toy dog in the bucket.
My Princess looked so cute in the bunny ears from the bucket.
The girls loved watching Yeah Yeah (paternal grandfather, 爺爺) wear the bunny ears. They almost thought he was the Easter bunny.
The room quickly became an explosion of Easter presents.
My brother brought a bottle of 2008 Chateau Montrose. Bordeaux and pizza bread. Mmmmmm.
My brother took the girls outside to swing. They always sucker him into swinging them both at the same time.
He built a wood fire to cook the steaks in the fire-pit-now-kids-outdoor-kitchen. The girls were wondering why there was a fire in their kitchen.
I was skeptical about cooking the steaks on the wood fire but they turned out perfect.
Our Easter dinner. Wood fire grilled steak, grilled lamb chops, ham, mashed potatoes, baked beans, green bean casserole, sweet potato fries and salad. I ate too much and will be full till Tuesday.
Our last day at Steamboat was a mountain day. My Grouchy Husband rented a ski bike for the second half of the day. I was very skeptical about this since we would be with my Princess on a trail with lots of kids and beginner AND he decided against the free lesson.
After almost crashing into seven people on the mountain and crashing himself, he figured out how to ride the bike.
He wasn’t quite as fast as my Princess.
My Dad, my Princess, and my Grouchy Husband on his bike.
He had a lot of fun on the bike. While riding, he ran into two people who had their own bikes that were were customized with after-market parts and it made him want to buy one also. Only my husband…
In the middle of the afternoon, it started to snow and the visibility at the top of the mountain was really bad. I really wanted a picture of the moose teepee on one of the trails at the top so I talked my sister into going with me. When we couldn’t see the chair in front of us on the chair lift, I knew this was a bad idea. We could barely see the trail signs and almost accidentally went down a diamond mogul trail! Luckily, we found our way to the moose teepee.
And now I’m being silly.
The snow was a winter wonderland. And it’s suppose to snow into the morning. First tracks tomorrow will be very nice but we’ll be packing for our trip home.
A fire is always started when we get back from a day on the mountain. I think men and fire have some primal connection. The fire starters are never used, only paper, wood, and a match. My brother and Grouchy Husband started the fire today.
Once it gets started, they show it off to my Baby.
One of the other things that we do after skiing is make dumplings. It’s all hands on deck to wrap.
My brother came this trip and of course shipped cases of wine and champagne. It definitely made apres ski more entertaining.
Today we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Today my Grouchy Husband and I took a break from the mountain to take the girls into the Steamboat base area and see the Ice Castle.
The plan was to spend the morning at the condo and then head out after my Baby got up from her nap.
The girls spent the morning drinking milk.
Then the girls did some morning yoga stretching with my Grouchy Husband. My Baby was showing them how to do downward facing dog.
And exchanged lots of morning kisses and hugs.
The 
There are beautiful icicle formations on the aches that connect the different rooms of the Ice Castle.
The caverns inside the Ice Castle had icicles that covered the ceilings.
My favorite were the icicles that had pom poms on them.
The girls sat on the ice thrown.
My Grouchy Husband sat on the ice thrown with his two princesses.
My Princess and I stood in front of an amazing ice wall.
The girls love their Pau Pau (婆婆 maternal grandmother), I think sometimes more then me! The sun was in my Princess’ eyes so Ka Yee Yee gave her sunglasses. They are almost straight on her face.
My Princess said this was my Grouchy Husband’s and my room in the Ice Castle.
We had a great time walking through the Ice Castle. Now time to find some ice cream!
We walked into the Steamboat base area to find some ice cream. It was super crowded because of the nice day and it was close to the time the mountain closes.
Finding ice cream was not an easy task. We ended up getting some from a bar!
Near the entrance of the gondola is an old gondola cabin.
Steamboat is a beautiful mountain. It’s laid back and has a great ski school. It just needs an ice cream parlor.
When we got back to the condo, Ka Yee Yee made roast pork buns (叉煾包 ,cha siu bao). It was her first time making them and they were delicious.
My Dad and Uncle Billy have on their “Old Guy Rules” shirts. This is their uniform during ski vacations.
At the souvenir store I let my Princess pick out one thing and of course she chose the rubber band gun. My Grouchy was supposedly one of the best shooters in the police academy but could not hit the target. He claimed it wasn’t shooting straight. Haha.
Dinner tonight was rib roast, asparagus, salad, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato fries. I was full just looking at the food.
We woke up in the morning and it was snowing. A perfect day to ski and ride fresh powder. The visibility was not good at the top of the mountain so we stayed on the lower trails. My Princess came out with us after lunch. It was her first day skiing with the group. Crazy Ka Yee Yee (crazy because she’s always off the trails in the woods, Yee Yee means auntie in Chinese) wanted my Princess to do tricks so she taught her to hop on her skis. This is the prelude to hitting jumps…yikes! I caught the air of one of her hops. The hops are so adorable.
My Grouchy husband followed my Princess down the trails. We took her on a intermediate blue square trail because she did so well at ski school yesterday.
Ka Yee Yee riding next to my Princess.
My Princess took a little tumble and Ka Yee Yee dusted the snow off her legs and helped her up.
Then gave her a hug for confidence to go and ski like a rock star.
My Baby is too little to go skiing but she came out to see us ski down the trail. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to put her on skis.
Day two in Colorado was a mountain day. We got up early in the morning, ate breakfast, and then headed to the base lodge to pick up our lift tickets and drop my Princess off at ski school. I never take my goggles off on the mountain except during our lunch break because they will fog up the rest of the day so all of the pictures of me I am hidden behind them and it’s great! Sometimes I’m not even looking at the camera for the picture but you would never know it. The morning was beautiful, blue sky, sunshine, cold but no wind.
It’s been a few years since riding out West. After having two babies, I’m not as fast as I use to be (and I wasn’t that fast to start with), I don’t have the courage to ride in the trees (and I only use to ride in the trees closest to the groomed trails), and wouldn’t even consider going out on the mountain without my knee pads and wrist guards. But today I’m proud to say I did a few diamonds, wasn’t always the last one down the mountain, and followed my crazy cousin Karyn down some powdery, ungroomed terrain that I mostly regretted half way down.
By the middle of the day, it was overcast, but the mountain still looked amazing.
My crazy cousin Karyn and I in the gondola.
My Grouchy Husband and I in the gondola. Love that I’m behind my goggles in each picture. The gondola is a great time to take pictures and I can remember pictures of us before two kids, before two mortgages, before the hot dog shop, before getting married, boy does that feel like forever ago.
Right after lunch my Grouchy Husband, Karyn and I caught up with my Princess (orange jacket, off-white pants) heading to the gondola with her ski school class.
Coming off the gondola with her fellow orange vest schoolmate. We found out that everyone in her class was five and six years old. It was a great feeling to know she could ski with the older kids.
Snapping into her skis. Watching these little ones is so cute.
Taking a break to snap a picture with her Mama.
She might be a skier during the day, but at night she turns into Red Riding Hood.
Today we left for a ski vacation at Steamboat in Colorado. My Aunt Alice puts together a ski trip every year out West. We haven’t gone in a couple of years because I was pregnant and then my Baby was too little to fly to a cold place, but now that my Princess has learned how to ski, we are excited to start attending again. This year there is a big group going, sixteen adults and two little ones. Besides my Aunt and Uncle and my parents, another Aunt and Uncle, my sister and brother, and a bunch of my cousins are going. It’s going to be a really fun time.
I’m not going to lie, the first leg of the trip was tough. Isabella was awake the whole three hour ride and needed to be entertained. She did some drawing and played with her stickers, played with the iPhone, but mostly ate. She ate almost all of my snacks I had packed for both flights of the trip!
Thankfully, she slept the whole second flight. She fell asleep right after eating my last snack.
We flew into Hayden, Colorado, a small airport near Steamboat. The great thing about flying into a ski town is that almost everyone on the plane is going to do the same thing…ski or snowboard! Everyone is excited so the plane ride is filled with conversations of where people are staying, how many times people have been to Steamboat, what are the best trails, great ski stories, where to go apres ski. I love listening.
We finally made it to Colorado! The girls were so excited. Coming from New York where there are three major airports, I really appreciate small airports. It took us three minutes to walk off the plane and get to baggage claim. We had our baggage in the next ten minutes and were ready to leave the airport.
This is the view from the condo. I can’t wait to see someone hit that jump.
We got to Colorado around 1pm. My Princess wanted to ski so badly so my Dad and Uncle took her out for a little while. She has only experienced East Coast snow and trails so the fresh powder and long trails in the West are new for her. She had a blast and now wants to get her skis waxed so she can go faster! After skiing, my Grouchy Husband took the girls out to play in the snow. He used a sled to make a path from the condo to the trail so we could ski right out and avoid the lift. My Princess had a good time sledding with him to make the path. It got pretty fast after a few times and she loved it.
My Baby was busy playing in the snow and making mini snowballs.
She saw how much fun her sister was having so she wanted to sled down also. She took a turn with my Grouchy Husband and had a big smile on her face. They didn’t want to take turns sledding so my Grouchy Husband tried to take them down together but they didn’t like being squished. I was relieved, the path was already pretty fast, the weight of three of them would have made it even faster.
My Baby loves to eat. She was just walking around the condo pouting her big lips so people would give her food. One time she had her eye on my Uncle Billy’s beer! See those dumplings on the table. They are a part of all my family gatherings. These were my Mom’s pork and chicken recipe. Delicious!
My Uncle Davy just got a new computer and he did not know how to turn it on so my sister and Aunt Martha are trying to help him. Who doesn’t know how to turn on a computer?! Haha. My Uncle Davy is one of my Dad’s brothers, most of the brothers including my Dad are engineers, he is an accountant, maybe that’s where his short comings come from…haha.
My Dad loves playing with the girls, not usually at the same time, but here he is keeping them both busy with Elmo videos and a game of Uno.
My Aunt Alice and Mom go to the grocery store everyday to make sure the refrigerator looks like this everytime you open it.
I just got here and I already ate too much food. Beef stew for lunch, dumplings for snack, then peas and chicken with a fried egg for dinner, and then more dumplings for dinner. I heard the word dessert and just had to upstairs and hide.
Today was the last day of ski school. Boy did these six weeks fly by. Words cannot express how happy I am with the experience. My Princess can now take the chair lift and ski down the mountain by herself. As a mom, it is such an amazing feeling to watch your babies learn something new and be so proud of themselves. My Princess loves to ski and I know it has a lot to do with allowing her to pick whatever she wants at the snack bar after her lesson and download any app she wants on my phone and play it on the way home. It doesn’t matter how painful it has been to buy a bag of potato chips after each lesson, she loves to ski so it was all worth it.
First run of the day. Taking the chair lift like a pro.
Coming down the mountain all by herself. No 
Looking tired after ski school. Her instructor Katherine carrying her skis out for her.
Relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day before changing out of her ski boots.
Getting a big hug from her little sister for doing such a great job at ski school.
We just finished a weekend of celebrating Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is my third favorite holiday, after my birthday and Christmas. I love seeing family, eating, and all of the exchanges of good fortune for the coming year. Here are some of my favorite moments.
When we celebrate with my family, we go out to dinner at my (paternal) Grandfather’s favorite restaurant in Chinatown in memory of him. There are always two tables reserved, one for the elders, and one for the elder’s children. My Grouchy husband and I still sit at the children table even though we have children ourselves. The elders threaten to move our seats to their table, oh I hope that never happens.
Dinner consists of all our favorites and good luck dishes like long life noodles, whole chicken and lobster. There is always too much food. This is a picture of the table at the end of the meal when we were all full. It looks like we didn’t even eat.
My Baby worked hard to eat her long life noodles. She’s just 17-months old, she’s got a lot of life to live.
One noodle got stuck on her nose and she couldn’t figure out how to get it off. It was so cute!
My dad and his brothers. This is the one holiday they are all together so I was happy to get a picture.
My dad and uncles always celebrate the New Year with a bottle of whiskey.
This year our celebration was the same day as my brother’s birthday. He’s over six feet tall. This picture of him blowing out candles on top of a Carvel cake (his favorite) makes me laugh.
My girls were dressed head to toe in good luck pink. My Princess wanted them both to wear their tutus.
We celebrate Chinese New Year with my Grouchy Husband’s family at his aunt’s apartment in the city. At most family gatherings the girls are usually the only little ones which is ok because they get to play with their adult uncles and aunties. But at this gathering, Jeff’s cousin comes with his two kids so the girls have a blast playing with other kids.
Desserts are a big part of Chinese New Year because their sweetness symbolize a rich, sweet life. There were so many delicious desserts at my Grouchy Husband’s family gathering. My Baby is crying in the back because she wants one of the cupcakes badly!
My sister-in-law brought these cupcakes from