Who falls asleep on New Year's Eve?!

New Year's was short and sweet as well. We originally had plans to go to LA to spend it with some family down there but plans changed, bills needed to be paid so we stayed home and broke haha.

We made dinner and dressed up a bit.

Self timer captured us once again!

This time we didn't get in place in time haha

We loved the individual mini Martinelli's we found at the 99c only store.

After dinner we tuned into our much loved Andre Rieu on PBS

Dinner and the music of the Johann Strauss Orchestra were very satisfying and relaxing but I fell asleep!!  & it was not barely even 11pm! So my brother thought is would be funny to adorn me in party poppers and garlands, take a picture and have me discover it later!

How embarrassing! Anyway They woke me up right at 11:59pm for the countdown and party popper time. As I sat up I was like woahhh where did all these poppers on my lap come from haha

We made a lovely mess and hugged ourselves into 2011.

Christmas Magic?

My brother loves the Christmas Magic Snowman from that commercial for Best Buy. Anyway we had a bit of Christmas Magic. Lets go a little bit back in time..


One more Christmas tree picture which no lie just came down today.

My mother and I next to our Nativity. Oh yeah and we've got another one out on our front lawn.

So after attending the midnight mass at church, we all went to the very quiet Hyatt Regency by the Embarcadero for some magical Christmas decorations. The bro was amused by the light up and moving nutcrackers' height.

There weren't any people around at 2am of course so we had to alternate photographers, never having a complete family picture.

I love my dad's Michael Scott-ish head tilt here! Oh and I wish we had a carousel horse!

Here we are at the base of the gigantic tree..

Last year I took a picture with this same bear, block and tree but this year I'm older and uhh yeah just older. Which one is better? I like this year's.

Let's appreciate the smile on my brother's face.. and the Christmas Magic wannabe snowman behind us.

Of course I sang for the lovely guests of the hotel.

The sight of the thousands of Christmas lights always amazes me.

We originally wanted to visit the Hyatt Regency for it's cute and very large Christmas Village as seen in this photo from 2009. What's shown here is only like 20% of the whole thing. Sadly the person who dedicated their spirit and love to the Hyatt by decorating with the village passed away so there was nothing but a memorial plaque this time.

For a few years now we have made it an unnamed tradition to always eat at Denny's on either Christmas or New Year's. We usually go to the one of many by our home and even have the same waiter but this time we had to go for the much more expensive San Fran Denny's.

After all the magic ended at around 4am.. we crashed at a friend's house rather than risking driving an hour home in the foggy drunk driver prone hwy. T'was a truly lovely short and sweet Christmas. Though I do miss these kinds of Christmases...

In Loving Memory

Today was a year anniversary from my Grandma's death. I can't believe it flew by so fast. It was difficult to imagine how life would be without her because I knew everything would change. Things always do. I will always love her and hold her in my thoughts and prayers forever.












Miss you Abuelita Rosa Maria
July 4th, 1920 - January 8th, 2010

mini quake..

Am I alone in loving mini earthquakes? They are a little jolt of fun, they make my heart skip a beat and put a smile on my face. Thank you 4.1 quake at Seven Trees, CA for making your way to the Headlands to say hello.

Happy Christmas Eve!

I wish everyone a beautiful Christmas! but enough on that.. let's gaze at my beautiful Christmas tree my Dad and I decorated. Disco balls and even pink ribbon bows made it on there this year!











Feliz Navidad!

A Sweet Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving started with an evening shopping with the bro. I had promised to buy him a peacoat like two Christmases ago so it was super past due haha. So we went on Wednesday to the Vacaville Outlets and finally found the longly wanted peacoat at Gap and Old Navy and discounted too. He was terribly excited! Not for my picture request though..

I also got him other stuffs. We ended the night being jolly and fat by enjoying delicious ice cream at Fentons and quenching the post ice cream thirst at Five Guys plus the cajun fries. Heres the pretty cardi I got him at Nautica also.

So to get ready for the real Thanksgivingness I had to paint my nails an appropriate color. Always a tough decision. Anyway this is my right hand with my Thanksgiving inspired colors.

By the time I got to my left hand I was out of Thanksgiving mani creativity so I couldn't resist looking at my new China Glaze Party Hearty box any longer. So I went for a Christmas themed left hand. Only that this picture was taken on Friday haha.. 

I decided to try a new hairstyle inspired by Busy Bee Lauren's hair tutorial. but my layer goofy hair was a bit crazy with the pins. 

Anyway don't use these bags.. the one we used exploded mid turkey cooking.. it was a saucy & smokey mess. 

Mami and I cooked all day pretty much. & my Dad tried distracting us once he got home from work.

I made my first pie! Apple pie from this very vague recipe in some latin desserts cookbook but I survived. 

Oh and we have this random Weight Watchers cookbook and we decided this looked yummy & went for it. It was delicious!

Here's my freshly baked pie! 

Dinnahhh is sehhved!

We say Dad semi burnt the top of the turkey.. as he usually burns things often nowadays.. todo lo deja carbonizado.

I couldn't stop staring at my festive nails. Oh & thanks Mami for the pretty thrifted ring. 

It has always been a tradition to have a camera on a tripod watching us eat during the holidays. My dad always set up the video camera but not this year. I bet we have tons of tapes with us laughing, crying and of course eating. 

but this year the self timer on my camera had the honor. Oh by the way we had real champagne this year! Even the brospice! Gasp! Of course we all had like two glasses of Martinelli's afterward. 

Aren't you jealous of my pie? hmm? mmm!

Well I hope your Thanksgiving was just as lovely as ours.