We made a last minute decision and went to LA to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family. Big Uncle drove down with us too. It was a fun and quick visit.

On Saturday morning, we met Grandma and Auntie Vickie in Chinatown. Grandma was heading over there to pray and asked us to join her. While we were there, we got to see a lion dance and two firecracker shows. They were very loud!

While waiting for Grandma, we walked around Chinatown and Nat bought this Chinese dress and quickly changed.

In the evening, we had a nice hot pot dinner at Po Po’s house

3 generations of China dolls

On Sunday morning, we met with David’s family for dim sum. Party of 21 please! We had to split up between two tables. While we were waiting for our food and chatting, I got a message on my cell phone with the news of Kobe Bryant’s passing. I passed my phone to David to not make a scene and the news started to spread around our tables. We were all so shocked.

After dim sum, we headed back to Grandma’s house for a surprise (early) birthday celebration for David.

Jan 17.

We skipped school on Friday and headed up to Tahoe early in the morning. There was lots of fresh snow from the day/night before. We didn’t get a chance to go last year so the kids were eager to go this weekend. I want them to keep up with their skiing and snowboarding so they can keep practicing. It was really cold on Friday. High of 28F! The resort wasn’t full at all. We expected everyone from the Bay Area to arrive at night for the 3 day weekend.

Lunch break

At night, we had dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel. The hotel gave us a s’mores kit, so the kids did that after dinner

The next morning after checking out, we found a cafe near Kings Beach and had breakfast there. Then we walked over to the beach to take in the sights.

And Tyler made a snowman

Jan 4th

We got together Saturday night to celebrate Big Uncle’s birthday at Broadway Prime. The prime rib was pretty good. Even though it was cold outside, the kids got ice cream from an ice cream shop nearby after.

Last day of 2019. After working half a day, we took the kids out for a quick hike to get out of the house and do something. The kids have been holed up in the house staring at their phones and devices since we got home from LA. It was a nice day out and a lot of other people were hiking too. The fresh air was nice.

In the evening, we went over to Yee Po’s house for dinner. Wileen taught the kids how to play mah jong.

Dinner: hot pot

After dinner, the kids played Just Dance. It was funny watching them. We ended the night watching New Year’s Rockin’ eve with Ryan Seacrest and stayed up to watch the ball drop and wish each other a happy new year!

We spent a week in LA over Christmas break and it went by quick! The kids had fun spending time with family, enjoying their Christmas presents, and staying up late.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Uncle Chai’s house. This is our potluck buffet feast.

Family photo. Santa came too!

Christmas at the Uncle Tommy’s house Christmas morning. The Kha cousins.

On our last morning in LA, Big Uncle cooked a big breakfast for us. Pancakes, sausages, and eggs.

Natalie created our holiday card this year. I asked her to help since we’ve been really busy and she was focused on getting it done in time to meet an order deadline for me. She selected a variety of pictures from our 2019 travels.