Lily & Leo

This Christmas is a very special one because it’s Lily’s first Christmas and our first as a new family!!  I’ve always wanted a real Christmas tree because I never had one before.  So Khoa and I made a deal awhile back, that when we have a baby, we can get a real tree!  So, it’s time to cash in on that deal!  We went to Home Depot and picked out this 6-7 feet Noble Fir beauty!  We got brand new Philips LED Twinkling lights, (it was a big search to find then since there were sold out in 3 different Targets!), a Martha Stewart snowflake string lights we got on sale after Christmas last year, and bought new colorful ornaments and a bright changing color star tree topper!  We decorated the tree with all our past ornaments as well.  We originally had the tree where we normally keep our fake tree, right by the couch, but since this is our special first real tree, I didn’t want it to be stuffed in the corner, I wanted it to BREATHE and be free to show off it’s beauty, so I got the idea to move the love seat to the dinner area, and put the tree in it’s place!  Now everyone can truly enjoy it!  Lily loves to look at all the pretty bright twinkling lights as well.  She’ll stare with a huge smile on her face and bat at the tree!

We started out festivities the night before Christmas Eve by letting Lily open her very first Christmas present from her mommy and daddy!  You can see the video of her opening her gift below!  Lily did really well and I was able to help her open her gift, and she pretty much did exactly what we all thought she’d do, which is put the wrapping paper in her mouth haha!  We got her a floor mirror toy with a textured caterpillar and bee on it for her to play with!  She seems to like it, so yay!  We also got her a Bright Start Clack and Slide activity ball and a little froggie security blanket!

 The next morning, Jennifer took our family pictures at the George Washington Park just a few minutes away from our house in Anaheim.  It started to lightly sprinkle a little bit, but she managed to capture a lot of great shots for us within 20ish minutes, and then it started pouring!  Such great timing we were able to get those photos done!!  I was then able to use these photos for our Christmas digital card!  For more pictures from the photoshoot, click HERE!

We went to our usual Christmas Eve mass at St. George’s Catholic Church in Ontario, and then went back to Fontana to my uncle’s house to eat dinner and open presents!  My parents made Bun Bo Xao and my aunt made Bun Bo Hue!!  Such yummy foods; it was very satisfying!  They also made a green bean and aloe dessert!  Yummies galore!  We then gathered around and opened presents, and the tradition is always youngest opens first!  This year, Lily and her cousin Tracy got to open their presents first since they are the babies of the family!  The evening was filled with lots of fun and we all enjoyed laughing at each others silly gifts.  I think the winning gift this year was the back scratchers our cousin Tiffany got everyone!  However, the most fun gift were these flying led toys that Andrew got my dad from Garden walk!  They were a big hit and we all played with them outside.  My dad was a natural pro with this toy!  We then headed back home and I made winter macarons (vanilla penguins and snowman, and chocolate gingerbread men, click HERE for more info on them!) and then we played some card games (Dutch Blitz and Sabatuer) with Jennifer and Andrew.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes to Jennifer and Andrew =(.  My parents came and took them to the airport at LAX.  We got ready and headed over to Chi Hai’s new house in Portola Springs and did our annual Secret Santa Exchange!!  Chi Hai and Anh Hai Mike made some REALLY good spam bowls, so we all gobbled that up and then had the secret santa exchange!  I drew Chi Ba, and since Thai Anh wrote her a poem last year, she was expecting another poem this year in iambic form…so I tried REALLY hard to come up with a poem, so I wrote one about her new precious baby Connor!  Khoa just had to show me up though and say this whole long winded touching speech about Anh Hai Mike and totally stole my thunder.  Thanks a lot Khoa!  Haha.  Either way it was loads of fun!  We then ended the festivities by singing 12 Days of Christmas, each having a verse while Chi Tu played the accordion!!  We were short on people so An had to sing verse 9-12 haha!  What a good sport!  After this, we went to Di Anh’s house to visit Ong Ba Ngoai since they wouldn’t be there later tonight.  Then we went to Khoa’s parents house to eat dinner with the family.  His parents grilled Omaha Steaks, baked potatoes, corn, and mashed potatoes.  There was also yummy chocolate cake too!  After dinner they all came to our house to open presents, since we have a Christmas tree and it’s more festive.  I also made some homemade apple cider for all of us to sip on as well!  Lily is so cute during all of this, she tried so hard to stay awake, and be with the party, but she pooped out and we made her nap.  When she wakes up, she always has a smile on her face and ready to party some more!  That night we ended the whole celebration at Di Anh’s house and celebrated with the family there.  We are so blessed to have so many people who love and care about us and Lily.  It’s tiring to do so many things for just one holiday, but we are so lucky and grateful that we have all these events to go to in the first place!  Hopefully next year, we’ll be able to have time to squeeze in our own traditions as well.  For now, we have all the way until new years to have our little intimate family quality time, so we will make every moment special!  Click HERE to see our Christmas Album!

Lily’s auntie Jennifer surprised us with this super sweet video of Lily’s 1st Christmas!  It’s so wonderful to see Lily’s face in all these shots and just see her personality coming through.  Thank you so much Jennifer for capturing these special moments that we will cherish forever!  I can’t wait to show Lily this one day! Enjoy and Merry Christmas everyone!

Lily’s 1st Christmas from J.N. on Vimeo.