Happy (Belated) Leap Year!

I'll skip the usual apologies and excuses of the general busyness of life. But life has certainly passed by quickly!

I've been at my semi-new job for nearly 3 months now! It's been super busy-I've had to work almost 65 hours per week (including Saturdays, which can be miserable). But such are the joys of a tax accountant! The great thing is that I love my job! And I especially love the people and positive environment! My firm believes in home-work life balance and maintaining relationships. We do things like take Wii breaks in the afternoon to reconnect. The firm also caters dinner on Thursday nights for everyone + spouses/significant others. I feel truly blessed!

It's somewhat belated, but Happy Leap Year! It's super special for me because T is a Leap Year baby-so this year he turned 8!!!

Happy Belated babe!

 

Also, Happy belated Lunar New Year!  It was such a treat, this year T's grandparents were in town during the Lunar New Year to escape the cold/rain of Vancouver.  Since Grandma was here, a couple of his other aunts & cousins decided to come down as well.

The oldest cousin with the youngest cousin

Happy 2012!

I hope you've had a great holiday season and blessed Christmas with people you love.  I'm thankful for the week of special time with family in beautiful British Columbia!  And I went ahead and carbo-loaded for all of 2012! 

Speaking of 2012, it's off to a great start already!!!
I got a job doing tax work with a small CPA firm in the area - so here's to employment!

It was super sweet, T's entire family was very excited and supportive of my new job!  Grandma even got me a special cake!

AND, T took me out to a special congratulatory dinner - Suika.  I would say Suika tops Momofuku in NYC!  It was that amazing!  (pictures to come...)

I've never been a 'new year's resolutions' type person, but this year I decided to set some goals for the next 2 years.  I feel overwhelmed when I think about accomplishing these goals, but I know I'll get there!

• Become a homeowner
• Take & pass the CPA
• Do yoga more regularly
• Gain elite status on Yelp

6 more days 'til Christmas!

When you were a child, do you remember eagerly counting the days down 'til Christmas?  Or maybe you still do it (like me)?  ;)

For the past 5 yrs, since T&I have been together, we do a holiday trek.  My parents are still out in the MidWest, and his family are all up in Canada.  So we take the last 2 weeks off of December and spend Christmas in one location and then New Year's in another.  Sadly, this year we will be only going to Canada, so my parents will be spending Christmas alone.  :(  BUT, I'm excited to spend some quality time with his family!

Vancouver has the FRESHEST & BEST sushi!

Yes, those are 5 Costco-sized Vodka bottles

T's Cousins

Christmas cake from Anna's Bakery

The best part of Christmas time are the yummy treats!  I'm crazy about these-

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving went well!

Mine was certainly relaxing!  :)

It started off with watching 50/50 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogan & Anna Kendrick @ the $3 Theater!  On Wednesday nights, they have a Date Night Special for $10 which includes 2 movie tickets, 2 popcorns & $2 sodas!  Great Deal, Great Movie!  :)

T&I don't have family in Cali - all his family is up in Vancouver, and mine is back in Chicago.  So Thanksgiving can get kinda lonely.  But we're so blessed to have amazing friends who welcome us into their homes/families to stuff our faces with food!  =)  We ended up having TWO Thanksgiving Dinners!

Pumpkin Pie, Coconut Cream Pie, & a mix of American and Vietnamese Food!

This year, we didn't do any Black Friday shopping, so it was nice to just sleep in and chillax!

Today, we decided to do take part in a "serve others" day, so we handed out care packages to ppl in the community in need.  I'm not normally comfortable doing stuff like that - it's definitely out of my comfort zone!  But I was so ENCOURAGED by this opportunity!

Deal of the Week!

As I've mentioned, I've been really into couponing (especially since I'm unemployed and have student loans to payoff!). 

At Target (technically a couple weeks ago-so deal of the month really), these babies were on sale for $2.99, I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.50+a Target coupon for $1.50 = $3.00 off!  Basically, I got it for FREE!  SCORE!  =)

Drive

Over the weekend, T&I watched Drive at the $3 Theater!

It was a lot more gory than I expected it to be.  And it wasn't the typical action movie either.  But I thoroughly enjoyed it!

And we finally got to try Bruxie-YUM!!  Buttermilk Chicken-so light & fluffy!  With vanilla cream soda & nutella+banana waffle for dessert...

292 N Glassell St
Orange, CA 92866

Thanksgiving is just around the corner!  What're you thankful for?

One hand in the air for the big city

Back to NYC updates (2 months later of course)-

We went to the 9/11 Memorial - very somber, but very well done!  Of course, as a business/finance person, I felt I needed to see the charging bull & NYSE.  At the charging bull, we encountered the rudest Chinese tourists! 

9/11 Memorial & Charging Bull Statue

Anyways, there were obviously so many pizza places to choose from, but we chose Lombardi's.

Of course we did some SoHo shopping!

One of the best egg tarts in NYC @ Tai Pan Bakery!  Having lived in Hong Kong for 4 yrs in high school, I can vouch that this place is LEGIT!  They had soooo many other HK goodies that I sooo wanted to try, but was way too full!  Next time we're back in NY, we're definitely heading back here...

Tai Pan Bakery

Finally, The BEST meal/dessert in NY:

Momofuku Noodle Bar

Cereal Milk & Creamsicle (not pictured), Crack Pie-truly addicting!