It's Always Something

xoxo

(above: Birthday girl) With Cassie back in town, it was a great night to celebrate Miss Jessica's birthday. Commencing with a champagne toast, followed by a light-hearted dinner, and capping it off with a little club hopping between Etiquette and The Ambassador. Very rare occasion, I got to play DD for Jess. I was only so happy to finally return the favor she has many times done for me.  Happy birthday, Jess! 

Thanksgiving this year was perfect. A nice intimate lunch at home. Everything was prepared from scratch as we sipped on wine and listened to mushroom jazz in the background.  Brooklynn prepared the mashed potatoes, Jeff took care of the honey glazed turkey and green bean casserole, nana brought the gravy and cranberry, and I took care of the asparagus with hollandiase sauce and pumpkin w/ cream cheese frosting cupcakes.  Brooklynn and I set aside 7 cupcakes- 5 for the girls and 2 for some buddies. (above: Sparkling apple cider for the Brookie Bear) After Thanksgiving lunch, Brookie and I headed to a Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. An eclectic mix of turkey, chicken, ribs, fried rice, pancit, chicken salad, lumpia, and pot stickers.   Once we were stuffed little turkeys, we headed to the Thanksgiving after-party at the Chen's. Here we dined on scrumptious food, offered our cupcakes, danced, played High School Musical trivia game, and had an all-around good time. As it ...

In keeping with the world culture tour, we decided to expose Brooklynn to authentic Indian cuisine. We dined at Shiva's in Mountain View where we all wore modern bindis (dots) on our foreheads. B liked the beautiful bindis so much, she wore them to school the for an entire week. Namaste!

The Gee Wedding was very emotional. Not because of the newlyweds, but because Mama San was moving to New York.  This will be one of our last events together in San Francisco for quite sometime.  Moving to a big city like New York can be quite scary- a new job, new surroundings, etc.  Thankfully, Ro is out there and will be taking extra special care of Case. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Love you, Cassie!

LA was definitely our R&R spot this year. It seemed like we were there every few weeks. Since I haven't been out in quite a bit since becoming a mommy in 2001, the frequent trips to LA this year have meant so much to me. Although extremely tired and often needed the work week to recover from the weekend, the trips were well worth it. (above: On occasion, Lib will partake in a Jager shot with me. I love her!) These girl trips became a time for me to find myself again. To learn to make friends again and open myself up to meeting new people. I've been working so hard for so long at work, parenthood, and marriage that I lost sight of what made me happy. Although I did many things in 2007 that I DIDN'T like, it definitely helped me find out what I really enjoyed... ... being home with Brooklynn. Go figure.

We celebrated the summer birthdays by heading to Los Angeles a couple times.  We visited friends/family, ate good food, and partied it up.  Classic moments like strip lessons with Case vs. Ro, Party Like a Rock Star video on Melrose, Paris Hilton sightings, and much more!   Brooklynn came on the second girls trip and hung out with baby Gavin a couple of days.  (above: Sketchers body guard) As we cruised the beach looking for AAA batteries, we stumbled upon the house of one of the guys who owns Sketchers.      As always... 4 shots of GG chilled with a squeeze twist + 1 glass of wine. xoxo