We celebrate Po (maternal grandmother) and Uncle Donald’s (my mom’s brother, her only sibling) birthdays around Christmas each year. It changes each year because we celebrate according to the lunar calendar. This year Po was turning 83 and Uncle Donald was turning 60!
We celebrated with a dinner at Delight 28 in Chinatown. This is Po’s favorite restaurant.
Everyone was in good spirits for the birthday celebrations. This is a great family photo, everyone is smiling…even Gung!
Dinner was of course too much delicious food. There isn’t much chatting when the food arrives at the table, everyone is too busy eating. We ate lobster, Ging Do Pi Gwut (peking pork chop), fish, chicken, mayonnaise shrimp, and long life noodles.
The fish was especially tasty that evening.
Happy Birthday Po and Uncle Donald!
This is one of the first photos. Besides the glare on the right, not too bad, we thought we were close to “the picture”. For the first 10 pictures we could not get Moy Moy (Isabella) to turn her head. We could not see what she was looking at. It must have been something only her baby eyes could see.
We could only get Mimi to take the picture if we let her watch her YouTube videos on my iPhone. This is what we looked like in between photos when Jeff was setting up the camera timer. Of course Moy Moy is looking at the camera now!
This was our runner-up photo. Mimi’s smile was just terrible, but I was desperate. It had been about an hour and everyone was getting restless.
I finally gave up on having the Christmas tree in the picture. The glare was just annoying. I grabbed a Christmas wreath from the wall and held it in my hand and we sat on the couch for the picture. This picture isn’t bad but I thought we looked too serious.
This was our picture! It’s not perfect. The girls hands are blurry. I sometimes feel like there is no shutter speed fast enough to catch them still. Luckily I was able to hide most of the blurriness with wording on the card.
Then we went inside…Yikes!
Nhi has been a good friend of ours for many years. Before getting married, kids, etc, we were hanging out with Nhi and Frank in Queens, getting drunk, and ordering grilled pork chop. Times are much (much) different now. On Oct 2, Nhi had a baby girl, Nancy. She is such a cutie and he is such a proud daddy. We went to her One-month party at Tao in NYC.
Isabella and Nancy will be good friends. They are less then two months apart. Isabella is already checking her new friend out.
Welcome Baby Nancy. Congratulations Nhi and Ben!
Mimi is one of the only people who can put a smile on Jeff’s face on his birthday.
She loves to get kisses from her daddy.
Olivia sat at a table next to Diego, across from Charles, and diagonal from Mia. Charles’ mom, Joanna, came to the party so it was nice to meet her.
Mia is currently Mimi’s favorite friend. It use to be Melissa, now it’s Mia, in a couple weeks it will probably be someone else.
I had Bet take pictures of Mimi’s art around the classroom.
I (heart) my Mimi!
Our Thanksgiving celebration started out in Long Island at Melissa’s (Jeff’s sister) future sister-in-law, Katie’s, house. Katie and her husband (Joe) have two wonderful kids, Kira and Joey. Though they have only met Mimi once, they embraced her immediately and played with her like she lived down the block.
This was one of the first toys the kids played with. Not the most non-violent…but super fun.
Mimi doesn’t have toys like this at home so she was excited to give it a try.
Mimi loved this guitar. She is obsessed with this YouTube video of a little boy playing a ukulele and wants to learn how to play one also.
We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Martha and Uncle Davy’s house in Long Island. It can be a hard trip out to the Island on holidays because of traffic. It’s suppose to be a 45 minute trip that took us two hours. Good things the girls slept the whole way.
Matty with the baby. He really likes to hold her and talk to her. He will be a good dad.
Group shot. Why are Bet and James so close?
May and my mom. My mom is in the middle of making green bean casserole. The can she is holding is Campbell’s mushroom soup.
Aunt Alice with the baby. Look at those chubby cheeks (on the baby)!
Kimbie and the baby. Moy Moy’s (little sister in Chinese) hair is looking crazy.
My mom and the baby. My mom is the best mom. Not only to me, but to my kids. She is someone I am most thankful for.
It’s always fun to play games on Thanksgiving. Can you guess who is under the table?
Mimi and Artie!
Mimi loves to be a silly goose.
She cracks everyone up. Funny stories and laughing are always a big part of Thanksgiving.
Here is what is left of the turkey…only white meat. We are a true Chinese family.
The day after Thanksgiving, my mom cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for her side of the family. Kimbie and Mimi are making crusts for the pies for dessert.
Gung (maternal grandfather in Chinese) doesn’t leave home much anymore except when my mom invites him to her house. He use to cook all the time for us but hasn’t in a long time. He came out of retirement and chopped the lobster. This was so great to watch. I just learned how to chop a lobster and was going to do one, but decided not to embarrass myself in front of Gung.
His chopping is so precise. It comes from cooking and being a head chef for many years. In China he cooked for a very wealthy family. When he came to America, he was a head chef of one of the top restaurants in Chinatown.
Some of the courses for dinner.
And of course we have to have lobster on Thanksgiving. Would you expect anything less from a Chinese family?
We ate like kings and we drank like kings. It started out with Ruinart.
Then moved to 2004 Cristal.
And ended with 2003 Mouton Rothschild. This bottle is valued at over $900. It was delicious.
We also celebrated Jennie’s birthday because it was just a couple days away. She was turning 25 and felt old…Ha!
We call this Mimi’s skeleton smile. This is one of our hello kitty candles we use for all our birthday cakes. Happy Birthday Jennie!
The mornings are the best time of the day in the Jee home. Mimi and Isabella are fresh and happy from a good nights sleep.
They are two little silly gooses.
I grew up in Upstate New York in a super suburban town called Clifton Park. The activity everyone does in the Fall is go apple picking. There are many orchards to choose from and the apples are the best in the state. Even though we live in Westchester now with orchards nearby, we always make the trip up to my home Upstate to go apple picking. Bowman’s is the orchard we go to every year because it has the best apples.
Mimi picks apples for like two seconds then heads to the children’s play area with my Dad.
This year there was a hayride around the orchard. She thought is was the best thing. Jeff was the lucky one to take her on the ride.
She thought she was the princess of the orchard. Look at that wave…she is a natural.
Now this is something that has never happened ever. This is the first time my brother has pushed a baby carriage.
Sami was a beauuuutiful bride. Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Cheryl were so proud walking her down the aisle.
Sami and Mike were calm and cool under the chuppah.
Their chuppah was so pretty.
Enjoying the cocktail hour. Those lamb chops are still melting in my mouth. I’m still dreaming about the oysters and crab!
Ka Ka and Bet looking so glamorous.
Sami finally makes it to the cocktail hour. Can’t believe she is married!
Artie made friends with a much much older couple so he could sit at their cocktail table near the bar and eat his food. He talked with his new friends for a while. About what, who knows. Finally was able to pull him away for a picture.
Chatting with my cousin Karyn and Aunt Alice.
Great picture of my Dad and me. He didn’t think he would fit his tuxedo, but he did. He felt so skinny that day! He is wearing his new modern trendy glasses. I almost don’t recognize him!
We miss Ka because she lives in Sacramento, CA. Hopefully she’ll move back to the East Coast one day.
A family picture in the dining room.
The newly married couple and their first dance.
The wedding challah. The waiter didn’t like such close contact to the bread and wheeled it away after this picture.
It’s time to party and things are starting to get crazy.
Drunk and confused.
I should have worn black to fit in with everyone. Or maybe they should have worn color to not be so boring.
Kimbie and her boyfriend Mike.
Matty and my Mama.
My Mama and me. I think she hung out at our table all night to hide from my Dad who really wanted her to dance with him. No matter what my mom says, he’s really a romantic guy.
Can you believe this is Bet?!
We didn’t even need to go to the dance floor to dance and sing.
You could barely fit onto the dance floor. What a great party!
Michael (Sami’s brother) dancing to Michael Jackson. Look at him strut his stuff. Love it!
Love was in the air for more then just the wedding couple. Go Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Cheryl!
The three boys that grew up together in the Bronx. Why is my Dad trying to take a picture while being pictured?
Finally got my husband onto the dance floor. I tell him all the time I would practice dancing at home with him to build up his confidence.
Their wedding cake was the moistest chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten.
The dessert was a million layer crepe cake and creme brulee. Delicious. The box of matches didn’t come on the plate.
My BFFTT Michael.
Sami and Mike, we had a wonderful time at your beautiful wedding. We wish you a lifetime of love, luck, and happiness.