Happy New Year! 2013 was a tremendous year for us. Lots of laughter, tears, joy, and sadness. It’s real life in all essence of the word “real”, and we are grateful for having gone through every part of it. We all wish for life to be full of sunshine and rainbows, to have smiles and laughters instead of pain and sadness. But the truth is, without the sunset and darkness, we’d never see the beauty of sunrise.
This year, I’m not declaring any new resolution other than to live in the present moment. To start, we’re implementing a “no phone in bed” and “no phone at the dinner table” rule at home. It’s hard, I admit, but 10 years ago we never had these smart phones tethered to us and we were fine. We still got our work done, we still kept in touch with friends, and we stayed alive. Few things in life (and work) really need us that immediately.
Looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead but for now, let’s reminisce on some special times in 2013….
January:
Key events in a nutshell– we celebrated Mimi & Brianne’s birthdays, took weekend trips to Santa Cruz and Monterey, and my sis got her scuba diving license!
February:
Celebrated my birthday, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Bridgette’s birthday, and traveled to Hong Kong for a week during the girls’ winter break!
March:
The girls’ had a joint birthday party for their 6th birthday, Alan celebrated the last birthday of his 30s, went on what’s probably our last egg hunting for Easter (the girls are not that into it anymore!), and took a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe.
April:
Traveled to San Diego for the girls’ Spring Break with Brian, who came to visit for a week. The girls’ kindergarten class had a blast on their field trip to Hidden Villa, and B & B also did great in their gymnastics’ spring performance!
May:
Celebrated Mother’s Day, took a weekend trip to San Luis Obispo + Pismo Beach, and went cherry picking in the rain!
June:
Birthday parties and more birthday parties, the girls “graduated” from kindergarten, we threw a farewell party for Brianne, lots of Giants games, weekend trip to Calistoga, and a memorable treehouse overnight stay in Burlingame.
July:
Farewell party for Mims & Brianne and a family trip down to Big Sur when Por Por and Gung Gung came back to visit us.
August:
Mimi took mom and I to Dining in the Dark for the first time (awesome experience!), Bridgette was invited to be a bridesmaids for MJ Yee Yee and had fun dress shopping with her, and the most dreadful event of all…..sending Mimi and Brianne back to Hong Kong. 🙁
September:
Bridgette started first grade (!!), learned to ride a 2-wheel bike, and spent lots of time with MJ Yee Yee celebrating her wedding to come.
October:
Bridal shower for MJ Yee Yee, spontaneous weekend trip to Universal Studio, took our annual trip to Apple Hill and stayed at the lovely Eden Vale Inn again (thanks to my sis for the gift certificate!), and celebrated Halloween with Bridgette dressed as a “red carpet movie star.”
November:
Two major events this month! Welcomed our lovely niece, Charlotte Leung, to the family, and jetted off to the Maldives for MJ + Peter’s wedding! This was one of the best, most memorable trips I’ve taken and will warrant its own blog post just as soon as I can sort through all the photos. 🙂 Here’s a fun video recapping our Maldives trip!
December:
We spent pretty much the entire December in Hong Kong, and it was great to see all of our family and friends there. The best part, of course, was that Brianne and Bridgette reunited and got to spend lots of fun, quality time with one another. Also, Alan and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a short but wonderful trip to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
I guess that’s a wrap for 2013! Onwards to more adventures in 2014….
