Happy Chinese New Year (Feb 17)

Gong Xi Fa Cai to the Year of the Horse!  I guess the first thing I really think of is actually my dad, because he was a "Horse" - born in 1942.  He would have been 84 this year.  

Trying to clean up house is always such a task before the New Year.  I managed to do a little bit and frantically trying to get some decor up too. Ha!

I may have to buy some new decor for next year - just to mix it up a little bit from the decor that I've been using for the last 3 years. Ha ha!

I love this one, but unfortunately, it did not stay up by the front door!

I thought a red light would be fun too.  LOL!

These light bulbs are pretty cool.  You can change it to almost every color, all from your phone!

I bought the boys 2 new t-shirts for the New Year.  This one is super funny and cute for Graham - it's a Horse eating noodles.  Ha ha!

And Charlie's shirt is lion (of the Lion Dance) as all of the 12 Zodiac signs:

Didn't get a chance to cook any noodles at home, but I think ramen these days count :-)

Plus, Charlie really LOVES the sesame balls at this restaurant!

My friend was away in FL, so Bobby and I helped out at her golf studio.  Lunch date with Bobby!

The mural in the background may look familiar.  Yes, it's the one that I did :-D

Lunch date #2!

Thankfully, CNY last for 15 days.  I think it was only by about the 12th day, we were able to finally make some dumplings.

Teaching Charlie how to mix up the meat here.  "Back in the day",... I probably would have used my bare hands. But these days, I'd rather just glove-up. Ha!

And normally, we would put cabbage and onions and garlic into the minced pork. But with these boys, it's just straight pork with some salt and soy sauce, and a touch of sesame oil.  That's it!

Looking for the secret ingredient.  Can you figure it out?? :-)

Still looking pretty good for a once-a-year activity.  I told the boys I've been wrapping dumplings since I was a kid - it's like riding a bicycle. LOL!!

Thumbs up from Graham!

My grandmother used to make the dumpling skin.  However, these days, I would just purchase frozen ones.  I've never really learned how to make them fresh.  Maybe one day, when I'm retired. Ha ha!

YUM...!!  And yup, that is a meal in itself.  We ate all 2lbs of pork dumplings!

Boys' wrapping skills are getting better.  Not a single dumpling filling came out of the wrapper.  Nicely done, Graham and Charlie!

We also did the ceremonial "ang pow" or red packets for the boys.  They have to wish us a Happy Chinese New Year (Xing Nian Kuai Le) before they can get these money-filled red packets:

Figured we'd try and keep up with some other Chinese traditions too during this holiday.  A little bit of fun with a dice game and some quarters ;-)

I just want the record to show that Mommy was the winner in this game. He he!

My aunts were talking about soy milk during this time and for whatever reason, my sister decided to buy me a grinder and boiling combo thermos:

And Graham was so sweet to make me some soy milk from soy beans.  A little bit of sugar and ta da! Yummy soy milk!  It's probably so much cheaper than what we buy in the stores.  Perhaps we just need to buy quality soy beans from now on.  Almost like making our own ice-cream.  You should have seen the big bottle of heavy cream I bought recently.  My waistline is not going to be happy. LOL!!

No pineapple tarts this year.  Maybe later in the year.  Somehow I've been rather busy with all that's been going on with my golf lessons.  And now I just started with my LPGA TEP (teaching certificate) as well.  I haven't been very active in getting more business for painting murals and/or working on my kokedamas (plants in moss balls).  I suppose, in time, like everything else!! ;-P

Random photos for Feb

Some last minute photos from February!

Looks like Graham is down to his final retainers:

We do need to get him to an oral surgeon - to get some consultation on his wisdom teeth.  We'll see how that goes. I need to need to actually set that schedule first!

I came home one day and Charlie is practicing his golf swing in the driveway.  Looks like he's quite dedicated on trying out for the golf team for next year!

A good friend of mine and his wife talked about celebrating milestone birthdays. And so, with a milestone birthday this year for me - it's Year of Cindy! And looks like it's starting early with some fun t-shirts :-)

Love it!!

So, I told Graham to put the dishes into the dishwasher:

Yeaaah, not the first time Graham has done this. This kid, I tell you!

We went to a Mexican restaurant recently.  Such cool decor!

Would be cool to have one of these lights?! :-)

OMG, the churro ice-cream sundae was huge!

Didn't stop us from eating it all. LOL!!

Quite the art installation here:

They are all butterflies!!

Not exactly Charlie's birthday, but it was my sister's!  

I never did get a chance to superimpose my sister's face in that photo. I'll have to try that AI stuff one day!

We walked out of the restaurant and saw this one - America's first avocado-based restaurant?!?  Maybe one day we'll have to try it. But oh wait, Graham actually has an allergy to avocado - hence, this face. Ha!

We have no idea how Graham has an allergy to avocados, especially the extra ripe ones!

Graham has been doing more 3D printing. And he placed this one on the floor. Pretty cool :-D

And my once-a-year facial.  I might have to do this twice a year.  I think the glossy lipstick helped too with the "glow" ;-)

Okay, so I did splurge.  Once a year. Ha!

Bobby, Charlie, and I went to an Italian restaurant recently and tried out Panna Cotta for the first time.  It was quite yummy!

We sent the photo to Graham and he sent this photo back to us.  Haha, quite the resemblance. LOL!!

If you're unfamiliar with this "creature", it's from the Netflix series Stranger Things.  Charlie and I watched the entire 5 seasons. Ha!

It was exciting watching all the Winter Olympic sports this past February. So many stand-out athletes! ... including this ice-skater:

I did hear an athlete speak during a press conference. I wish I wrote down her name and the sport she was in.  But her words were so impactful that I had to write it down!

"You can control WHAT you think. You can control HOW you think. And therefore, you can control WHO you are. I can become exactly WHO I want to be."

Words that we can all live by!!

Trip to ABT

So I've heard about store called ABT. It's an appliance store, or I thought it was.  O.M.G, the entire store is like a mini mall.  It was just Graham and me as Bobby and Charlie were in Florida at this time.

We walked through the side door and find these old dryers. Can you imagine using one of these? I suppose it's still better than actually having to wring-dry everything by hand!

There were also some other old things in this little section - definitely a section Graham enjoyed:

And then, into one of the main parts of the store:

We're looking for another dryer.  How about this one with quarters??! LOL! This one totally reminds me of my college days!

Oooh, wouldn't one of these be nice :-)

Found Graham - in the drone section, of course:

Oh wow, the store even has quite the decent size fish tank.  Look at this eel!

OMG, looks like they stuffed one of the old ones. Ha!

Check out the size of this TV!

And here, we've walked into the "plaza"? And there's like more stores - like a mall!

Here's a quick preview:

The kitchen show-room downstairs was pretty fancy, to say the least:

Check out this TV - the first ever transparent TV. Isn't it so cool?!!

Although, I'm not so sure if it's like $60K cool!!???

Remember the Golden Tee? There were all sorts of games in "The Cave" store:

Upstairs in the showroom section - so fancy!

Looks like Graham has found a chair that he likes:

I liked this one :-)

Wow, what a store!  We spent a lot longer time in that "mall" than I had anticipated.  Okay, time for dinner!

Figured we'd try something new.  Graham ordered a fried chicken but did you notice the bun? It's actually a donut!

A fun outing for me and Graham! :-)