end of the year

it's done, son!!! 2010 is coming to a close and i'm happy that i have this blog to read back on all the things that made me happy this year. this year's resolution was a lot easier (and more fun) than the original "365 faces" in 2009. i hope i can keep up the positivity in the new year. thanks for following along. i hope your 2010 was just as happy!

lunch with tina

toni is spending the week in so cal.. so today she drove out to my work in costa mesa to meet me for lunch. what a treat! i took her to daikokuya for some delicious ramen. that was my first time going to that location on a weekday at peak hours, and it took forever to order and get our food. luckily, though, i wasn't very busy at work today. we ended up hanging out there for two hours! we had a lot of catchin' up to do.

big baby

check out this big girl with long hair. serena is getting so big!

pinkberry swirl

mike is in town for the holidays so i asked him to meet up for some pinkberry tonight. we were still chatting when the shop closed, so we moved to the tables outside to chat some more. we were sitting next to a fountain that had a tiny vortex in it. the swirling water kept making funny noises.. kind of like the sound of an animal in pain. haha. but yeah, it was nice to hang out before he heads back to boston in a few days.

nice view

i went to my parents' house after work to see their new computer. i was helping my dad save some files from the old one before we setup the new one. meli kept trying to distract me. maybe she's sad that we're replacing the old bulky monitor with a flat screen. where will she sit now?!

napa rose

today we had our annual Christmas dinner with the homies. we met up at the grand californian hotel in the disney resort for dinner at napa rose. the restaurant was really pretty. after dinner we all took pictures in front of the giant tree in the hotel lobby. this was the only group picture that came out nice. the guys were being really ridiculous while us girls were posing in front of the tree, so all of us were laughing and looking in different directions. haha!! ugly pictures, but funny memories! =P

Christmas

merry Christmas, everyone! i had a fun day. as usual, we celebrated with both sides of the family so we were busy the whole day. we started off the afternoon with the mejia clan in san pedro. all the girl cousins wanted to dress in a theme, so we ended up wearing stripes and bows. nicole's shirt doesn't look very stripey in this picture, but it was in fact striped!


in the evening, we celebrated with my side at my parents' house in carson. my family is not very big on presents (most of the presents under the tree were for sebastian), but the cousins decided to do a secret santa this year. the minnesotans were a part of it, too, so we all opened our presents via skype! ricky was my secret santa and he gave me a super cute hello kitty purse hook! love it!

so yeah, i had a great time celebrating the Lord's birthday with lots of laughing, good food, and spending time with my loved ones. i hope your holiday was just as special!

oh holy night

happy Christmas eve! after anthony came home from golf, we spent the rest of the day preparing for tomorrow. we picked up some chinese chicken salad, stopped by dollar tree and target to pick up last minute things, went to church, went grocery shopping, and then finally came home to wrap gifts and cook some dishes for tomorrow! special preparations for a special birthday, of course! while i was wrapping presents, i tried to take a picture of my messy living room floor. it was hard to capture all of it.. and i look nazz-D, but i like how the cross appeared on the tv. (= a very holy night indeed!

free dinner

many months ago, i won a voucher for a complimentary dinner for two at one of toni's fundraisers. i always forgot that i had it, so when i noticed it in my wallet earlier this afternoon i thought it would be good to use it today before i forget all about it again. so yeah, anthony and i went to the kettle in manhattan beach to redeem our free dinners. i had the pancake breakfast and anthony had fried chicken.

carla

tonight i had dinner with carla at hooters. i've known carla since i was 5, and i think it's hilarious how we can talk about something that happened 10, 15, or even 20 years ago and still find it interesting. haha. what a couple of losers! just kidding. but yes, i've enjoyed growing up with her the past 24 years and always have a good time catching up. (=

dog purse

i love how the malls stay open so late during Christmas time. because of that, i got to enjoy something fun even though i got home from work so late. we didn't really have to buy anything, but just felt like walking around. when we were passing through the purse section in macy's, i spotted some designer purses shaped like real dogs. now you know what i want for Christmas. haha sike! how ridiculous.

tron

since anthony's uncle works at imax, he was able to get us some tickets to the 3D screening of the movie tron at cinema de lux in westchester. i enjoyed the movie, and didn't even get nauseous like i usually do during 3D movies. yay, imax!

norm's

even though today was rainy and gross, anthony still insisted on going out. haha. we really didn't have anywhere to go in the afternoon, but i guess anthony just had cabin fever. so i followed along and we ended up at norm's for some gumbo and hot chocolate. no complaints about that!

caturday

we stopped by meli's house after a long day of running all around town, and meli appeared to be as pooped as we were. i guess being a cat is hard work! haha.

company party

we had our company Christmas party tonight at buca di beppo in irvine. as expected, we were served a ridiculous amount of food and so everyone went hope absolutely stuffed. anthony and i had a good time laughing with my coworkers.

sidecca

i had dinner with anthony's siblings at guppy's tonight. i was telling them about the store called sidecca at cerritos mall. so after dinner when we went to do some Christmas shopping, grace fell in love with the store. seriously, she was in lurve! she wanted everything she saw. haha. so in case any of you ever need to buy grace a present, you know where to go!

drinking tea by the tree

i had a fun night out with gennie! she was craving hawaiian food so we decided to try the coffee shop at gardena bowl 'cause i always heard they had good food. meh, it was alright. haha!! i think i just ordered the wrong thing. it all worked out, though, 'cause we were just right down the street from tea station! we went there after dinner to sip on some milk tea and chat the night away. good times! (=

pretty kitty

what's lovelier than one pretty kitty? how bout two!

Christmas cards

i LOVE getting Christmas cards in the mail! whenever i get a new one, i hang it on the wall in my living room for all to see. anthony and i still have not sent any out this year. eek!!

renegade

jenn and i spent the afternoon at the renegade craft fair in LA. there were so many cute handmade things for sale. whenever i'm around that much creativity i get inspired to get crafty myself! we checked out all the booths even though it was super hot while we were walking around. fun in the sun.

flautas

we had a very busy day. in between appointments, we ate delicious flautas at tacos san pedro for lunch. even though there's nothing fancy about that place, eating there is always such a treat!

barbeque sauce

anthony said he wanted some american food for dinner, so we ended up at chili's where he got a pulled pork sandwich. anthony + barbeque sauce = satisfied customer.

cerritos mall

i went to cerritos mall after work today to do some Christmas shopping. six presents down, eleven to go!

ikea

here i am in my new kitchen! just kidding. you wish, karen. it's always fun to walk around ikea and act like i own the place. a girl can dream.

angry birds

anthony and i are addicted to angry birds (a puzzle game). it's even worse now that anthony has it on his new phone, 'cause now we can play side by side at the same time. i took this picture while anthony was playing earlier, and he got upset that i broke his concentration. hahaha. what a serious gamer.

purple pants

do you dress junky at home? i sure do. my favorite thing to wear on cold nights like tonight are these ugly purple sweatpants that i got on clearance for $2 from target a couple years ago. haha.

decorations

anthony and i went to south coast plaza earlier to try to do some Christmas shopping. i still haven't bought a single present! i can't seem to find anything worth buying. but hey, the Christmas decorations at the mall were quite pretty.

vinegar shots

i'm not really a big fan of taking medicine. my mom has always been more into the idea of natural healing. and so since my throat was killing me late last night/early morning, i looked up home remedies for sore throats and read about apple cider vinegar. supposedly, gargling with a mixture of water and vinegar helps get rid of throat pain because the vinegar kills bacteria on contact. everyone on the website i was reading was saying, "the taste is awful but it really works." but since i happen to LOVE vinegar, i skipped the water and just drank my vinegar shots straight up! haha. apple cider vinegar is supposed to work best, but this white vinegar is all i had in my cupboard. i did it every hour, and i felt noticeably better each time. after the fourth shot, the pain was completely gone. amazing!

fake birthday

december 3 is my mom's "fake" birthday. i guess when she came to the states, somebody messed up on her D.O.B., and so she didn't legally turn 60 until today. my dad, rianne, and i wanted to throw her a surprise party this year since 60 is a big deal, but we thought it would be a good idea to have it today instead of her REAL birthday, because she would less likely suspect it. the surprise was a success and the party was fun.

p.s. i was really afraid of being around everyone (especially the baby) since i've been coughing so much, and so i wore this stylish face mask for most of the night. you can't really see in this picture, but i even drew some lips on it. i think this is the start of a new fashion statement. haha. yeah rizzight.

super soup

my sore throat is now in full effect, and it hurts everytime i swallow. anthony bought me my faaaavorite soup for dinner tonight, but once i opened up the bag i saw that the lid was not properly closed and so a lot of the soup spilled all over the place! what a mess. anthony called the restaurant to complain, and so they told him that he could go get one more bowl of soup! yee!!!! my one bowl of soup turned into two and half (anthony let me have his, too). haha. woohoo!

Christmas shopping for myself

how did Christmas shopping for others turn into ME trying on clothes in the dressing room? haha. what the.