Living An Intentional Life
2001 – 2010
Football (BCS Games)
Pac-10 9-3 (1 of the 9 was vacated)
Big Ten 6-10
Pac-10 Wins. USC & Oregon have been more dominant than Ohio State and Penn State.
Basketball (Final Four)
Pac-10 4
Big Ten 7
Big Ten Wins Michigan State and Ohio State have been more dominant than UCLA and Arizona
BTW: This is our five year anniversary of our blog!
Wow, the past week has gone by so fast. I can’t believe it is already New Year’s Eve and I haven’t posted about Christmas. We celebrated Christmas on both the Eve and the Day at my parents’ house. On Christmas Eve we were able to spend time with our nephew:
I think n likes not being the youngest for once.
On the other hand, k likes having two boys to boss around.
Skater n. This was actually k’s birthday present which we bought over the summer (since her birthday is so close to Christmas, we try to buy her gift for her half birthday). However, n has become quite proficient on it.
Sporting his Christmas present from Hiroshima!
No Christmas would be complete without a piece of my mom’s Bouche de Noel (aka “log cake”)…yum!
Last year, k refused to even go up on stage for our church Christmas program. For Easter, she went up on stage, but didn’t do any of the hand motions or sing. This year, at pre-school and church, she did the hand motions. Maybe next year she’ll sing too! 🙂 This is one of the songs from her pre-school program.
So, last week, n, k and I all (in that order) came down with the stomach flu. D managed to escape. We had to postpone k’s birthday party, which we had planned for Saturday. 🙁 But thankfully, we are better now, and we celebrated k’s actual birthday today. We made m&m cookie pops for her classmates. D also brought home unwanted cupcakes from work. k got so excited about them, but barely touched hers. Probably too full from her chicken curry dinner. Anyway, Happy Birthday to our little k, who is not so little anymore!
D and I watched “Funniest Commercials of 2010”. This is my vote for #1!
I have an advent calendar that I made last year. The idea is to put different verses and activities for every day leading up to Christmas. However, I haven’t been able to get my act together and plan out the whole month. Maybe next year, right? Well, two weekends ago the activity I planned was to go see the Christmas lights in the Nellie Gail neighborhood of Laguna Hills.
We packed the kids up and bundled them in blankets. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived the kids were sleeping. (n just woke up for the picture). 
I have probably seen more elaborately decorated homes (like the ones we saw last year in RSM), but this was the first house to have its own radio signal!
Notice the sign: Tune into 100.1! The music is coordinated to the lights! We just listened from our car.
We drove around the posh neighborhood to look at some of the other homes too. Next year I want to do a drive-thru nativity…hopefully the kids will stay awake!
This afternoon we used our free admission ticket to go to the OC Zoo. We went with really low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. There were Christmas decorations throughout the zoo, which k got really excited about. I think this is the first time that she really showed an interest in seeing all of the animals. n liked pointing to all of the birds and saying his word for bird.
The highlight for us. There are two bears and they are huge!
I enjoy a themed party, and the “Up” party we went to last weekend had a lot of cute details.
Is this not the cutest?
Here are the caricatures of k + n. I think I will hang them over the doors to their rooms.
This past week has been really busy, which is why we haven’t had time to post. Thanksgiving seems like a distant memory already. We had a nice one though, with some really good turkey made by my mom. I went to Target’s Black Friday sale at 4 a.m. I must say they really had their act together…the registers were fully manned, there was an expediter directing people the the next available register, etc. Later that morning I took n to urgent care because I suspected he had an ear infection. Unfortunately, I was right…both ears were infected. He was prescribed Amoxicilin, which he seems to really enjoy. Seriously, I give him his 1 tsp. dosage, and he seems to want more! Anyway, he has a follow up appointment next week where he will get a thorough ear cleaning; not looking forward to that one. D also put up the Christmas tree that day.
Saturday we went to a funeral in the morning where they had an In-n-Out truck! That was unique. In the afternoon, we decorated the tree. It is so cute to see k get excited about the same ornaments that I used to love unpacking each year. Saturday night we went to a one year old’s “Up” themed birthday party. k and n each had their caricature drawn–I’ll post the pictures later.
Meanwhile, D and I have been working hard on our Christmas cards. Plus, my sister and nephew came back to the States and are staying at my parents house right now.
The best part about it being December? No more mustache for D! k says she misses it; I think she got used to it and can’t remember that D didn’t have one before, haha.
I’ve been wanting to try Belacan Grill in Tustin, so when I saw a Groupon ($20 for $40 of food), I decided to take advantage of the deal. D’s dad grew up in Malaysia, so maybe we should take D’s parents here the next time they visit. Malaysian restaurants aren’t that common.
Roti Canai ($3)
k’s favorite. She even liked the curry dipping sauce that came on the side.
Nasi Lemak ($10)
“steamed rice with coconut milk and frangrant screwpine (pandan) leaves served with anchovies, boiled egg, cucumber, vegetables, roasted peanuts and our famous beef rendang” A little too authentic for our tastes. I guess I could have known from the description that it wouldn’t be our favorite, but I was curious. The meat was kind of jerky-like. We will skip this one next time.
Char Kway Teow ($9)
Kind of like pad see ew, but I think I like pad see ew better. Not bad, though.
BTW, D was underdressed, and can I just say again that I really can’t wait until November is over? (Although he did just receive a $76 donation, so that is really nice!)
Hainan Chicken ($12)
D’s favorite. Personally, I can’t get over the fact that it is served at room temperature, but it tastes good with the sauces and rice.
So, it turns out that Groupons apply to the tax, but not tip, so we needed to order one more roti to go to spend our full $40. We ate it for breakfast the next day! It heats up well in the toaster oven. I also put some of the leftover chicken in the leftover curry dipping sauce and it tasted pretty good! We would have probably liked some of the more Chinese-sounding dishes better, but then what it the point of going to a Malaysian restaurant?
