Maureen, we love you!

The Guest of Honour

Look at all this food! I made the dumplings/mandu.

Desserts...yummy. Claudette requested my Chocolate Pavlova.

Maureen is really the woman who has everything from WS.

But, she didn't have this beautiful copper double Champagne bucket.

Of course, it needs a fantastic bottle to start her off.

Some former employees joined the festivities.

A group shot. Everyone braved -20C to show Maureen how much we love her.

Sunday, on the coldest day of the year, Claudette and Peter invited our WS family to celebrate Maureen. She decided to leave early in December, but due to the hectic holidays, we waited until now to have a "We'll miss you!" party. The food, as usual was fabulous. Desserts were decadent. It was a lovely evening.

Urbana, Maryland.

We made a variation of my mandu/dumpling recipe. Cute little bums:) and Egg roll shapes.

Pulled Pork and Green bean casserole. Can you get more American?

Yummy cornbread and I made my favourite Beef fajitas.

Oatmeal white chocolate cookies, Dark chocolate cookies and Raisin Scones

Gracie pre-perm and post-perm.

Gracie with her new look (so grown up) and Cat (pre perm) and Hosie...what a cutie pie!

Gracie and Hosie had a few days off from school. So it was the perfect time to schedule a visit. Even though the kids were off from school, it didn't mean they weren't busy. They had piano lessons for two upcoming concerto competitions, lacrosse, tennis, swimming, kumon, art classes, Mandarin classes...Wow. Even with all that driving around, we still had time to go shopping...(can we say Leesburg outlet?) and cooking and baking...lots of cooking and baking. I got to eat my favourite California Tortilla twice! 5 guys burgers...delicious.

We had time to give Gracie her first home perm and to give Cat a perm too. That woman can't live without the ajuma bounce :). We went to watch a movie, Megamind...it was very good. The kids loved it. At night, Cat and I watched 4 movies I had wanted to but was too busy to see when they came out, The Social Network, Inception, The A Team and Easy A...all were good.

A great visit...but now I think I need time to relax after my vacation.

New Years Day 2011

These are the dumplings I slaved to make.:)

The rest of the yummy food my aunt prepared. Notice Diana trying to get her face in my shot.

My brother John hanging out with baby Talia

Baby Talia taking a nap. My brother just can't let go of her hand.

John playing with the girls...when I asked him how it was, he said "Boy, those girls just love Dora!"

"Big Guy" Rrrrawr!

Two peas, showing Uncle John and Uncle Gerwyn how golf is really played.

Elijah and Marley just hanging out with Aunt Sooky and Uncle G

Charlotte showing off her traditional Korean hambok. Love that Mona Lisa smile.

Charlotte and Elijah trying to mind meld.

As Hanna said, "It's not a family party until a "John Lee" is passed out."

After all my aunt's hard work, Justin works out the kinks in her back. She went from hunched to straight in a few miraculous minutes.

Mad/Cat/Mark's mom hosted our family's New Years Day. She had asked me a few weeks ago if I could make my dumplings. Quite the honour. So, a couple of nights ago, I made the 120 dumplings (preserved, uncooked in the freezer) and on NYE, before I went out for dinner, I made a Vanilla bundt cake for the festivities. She completely outdid herself with all the food. Everyone ate, lounged and ate some more. My cake was sliced before I even had a chance to take a picture. (My aunt Sandy loves that cake soooo much).

The babies were absolutely adorable. My brother, who usually doesn't come to these throughout the year also made an appearance. He was the one to play with Charlotte and Samara and their Dora, I spy game. He held all the babies. Even letting Talia hold his finger while she slept. He's such a big softy when it comes to the kids.

After dropping my family off at home, I headed to the bar to meet friends and watch UFC. I witnessed a draw, the worst broken nose I've ever seen and a couple of good submissions. Not a bad day to start off the year.