Christmas Time 2013

Merry Christmas!!

Haha what baby loves Santa?? I'd like to see it.

This was at the Winger's ward party in Tustin. Sadly, I wasn't there to witness her first and only sitting with Santa :( because Zach and I got to go to a dinner & movie with Aaron & Kristen so we left her with Nana & Papa. Poor thing looks absolutely terrified!

On Sunday night, we drove down to Riverside to look at the famous Mission Inn lights. It was crazy packed with people! But so beautiful. I was not happy that the line for funnel cake & hot chocolate was a mile long.

On Christmas Eve we made our way down to our favorite Newport Beach and hung out with Ryan & Julie's family and Cathy & Frank. This babe sat in the sand for the first time! And I was surprised she didn't even try to eat it once!

It was the most perfect weather I could've asked for...made me so sad I don't live here anymore!

I love how much Georgia loves the water! She's obsessed and could play for hours.

Love this girl so much.

That night, I missed the Winger Christmas Eve Party waiting to skype with our Sister Missionary Caitlin! I may have shed a few tears of panic (I blame the hormones) that I might not be able to see her but we finally got it working. We only had 45 minutes with her and it FLEW by!! But what a blessing to be able to skype these days! Amazing. She looked beautiful as ever. Can't believe she'll be home before next Christmas.

This little booger didn't know what was going on Christmas morning...just grabbing at other people's presents and the tree ornaments. But she got lots of toys again and some clothes from Nana & Papa!

This was her present from Zach and I.

And obviously she couldn't be happier.... exciting stuff -____-

All in all it was great Christmas! Zach spoiled me with a workout top & snow jacket and he got to go play with his new golf birdie balls that I surprised him with. 

Cathy & Frank gave us money towards a grill we want to buy for the house as well as a book they really like and the Romney family cookbook! Perfect since I am delving into the world of cooking and baking these days. It was a great Christmas day and I loved spending it with family. Almost everyone was there including lots of the Sistrunks this year! This year I made Cathy's creamed corn recipe - which calls for multiple sticks of butter and pints of cream - who doesn't love that?! After filling up and lounging around we went to go visit cousin Julie in the hospital with their newborn babygirl, Haven Noel! She is so beautiful and I fell in love with newborn baby girls all over again! It brought me back to that peaceful time last year that I gave birth to Georgia. It is still so weird that I'm having a boy. I wonder how different it will be when he is born and can't imagine what it will be like, but I'm excited for him to be here already.

Staying at the Winger's house always guarantees me one thing - shopping time with Cathy! We hit the malls the day after Christmas and it was so much fun! It's been a long time since I have been able to just browse at the mall and look around. It started out the red carpets of Nordstrom with happy faces:

And ended back at the same place with a very different face:

We spent a good few hours there, missed her morning nap, but she was a trooper through it all! Zach was so nice to let me have a day at the mall after Christmas (not sure that he ever really approved, but either way, he was nice about it).

Over the next few days, we spent more time at the beach and with family.

Love these two so much... they make me so happy! 

Doesn't matter if the sun is setting and it's chilly, she'd dive right in if we let her. 

On Saturday, we said some goodbyes. Julie & Ryan love Georgia so much - they have 4 little girls of their one and Georgia would just fit right in to the bunch of them, old fashioned name and all!

 Julie's the best :)

 Her and Georgia spent some time taking pictures with the flash and laughing. Sure love how they turned out.

 Then it was off to Laguna Niguel to have dinner at YanYan & Uncle Matt's house with all my mom's side of the family and my Grandma! And I was SO excited to have a full blown Asian feast - a tradition of my childhood. They also had all of our Christmas gifts from my parents that they had brought home from Taiwan for us!! And that included this denim and sequin hat that my mom said was "sooooo Kaari". 

So apparently she thinks I haven't changed since high school. Haha thanks mom! Also included was a red tie with Chinese symbols on it for Zach, a ceramic Tree of Life tile, and some small bowls for holding soy sauce, which I asked for. Loved it all! It was a fun night aside from chasing Georgia up the stairs 75,000 times. It was the only thing she wanted to do! 

Me & my pregnant sissy... we stuffed our faces to our hearts' content. My time with her was too short!

The next morning we took our time, packed up, and were on the road by 8:30am. It was a LONG but pretty smooth drive. For the 3-4 hours I drove, these two were passed out in the back:

No fair. Georgia woke up any time we stopped the car so I mostly entertained her. I do not want to make that drive again any time soon. Even the worst flight is better than the drive. It was so nice to be back home again, but I felt a tiny bit sad to get back to our quiet lives... I enjoyed being around so much family all the time! It was such a memorable Christmas for us and I am so grateful we were able to spend in California with the people we love!