Christmas 2015 Recap - Ribs and Dim Sum

The holidays are great because I get days off work and so does everyone else so we can get together more often. There's always good food involved.

Appetizers with cheeses, sweet potato chips, seasoned nuts, oatmeal cookies, and lots of sparkling ciders.

I mean, look at this prime rib.

And these garlic prawns.

And this whole spread.

If you're Asian, there is often dim sum the morning following a big holiday dinner. I don't know why, but it just is. We went to Koi Palace for some yummy eats.

Their main dining area has such a great ceiling art piece

Shrimp rolls

Chicken feet, plain bun, soup dumplings, and sauteed pea shoots

Xiao Long Bao always!

Waited until after Christmas to finally take the kid for a tree photo at Santana Row. Best decision ever. No parking hassle, no lines, no crowd.

My friend made us a very legit lasagna dinner at her place and we got to check out her floor to ceiling Christmas decorations. Ah #homedecorgoals

She still kept some arts and crafts projects that I made for her when we were in 8th grade. It was so long ago, I can't believe I made these! and I'm so touched she kept them.

I cross stitched these Precious Moments characters from a pattern book onto blank cross stitch fabric. I think I had to really count the squares and map it out because this is not a pre-printed pattern. Then I stitched everyone's names, added a decorative border, measured out the fabric to make a book cover, sewed the cross stitch onto the book cover, and then finished wrapping the book. It's a lot of work for a middle schooler.

Another year, I was still in a cross stitching phase and I bought these polar bear ornaments. I think this was a pre-made pattern so I just stitched by colors according to directions.

I'm most proud of this gift I gave her. It's an egg that I poked a hole in at the top and bottom then blew out the egg contents. Then I glued ribbon and flowers on and tied a little bow. So simple but so elegant. Each of my friends at the time got one in a different color. There were only a handful of these in existence and I'm glad she kept hers!