Twosday 2-22-22

 

It's Twosday today! I just had to mark the occasion on my blog!

I typed "twosday" into Google and this is what happened...

Fun stuff!!!

Valentine's Weekend Recap

You probably already know that in our house, holidays and celebrations never really last for just one day. We like to extend things out a bit - heh. And that was the same regarding Valentine's Day. 

{Before I get into posting about our Valentine's Day festivities, I need to say that Valentine's Day itself was melancholy. I had a loss in my family that day, so the day was very bittersweet. Doug, Bri and I managed to have happy moments that day, but there was an underlying sadness to the entire day.}

 Valentine's Day and CNY intersected this year, and my house was obviously decked out for CNY. I gave Valentine's Day its own little corner this year...

I spotted the retro Valentine's Day pillowcases online and fell in love with them. I just had to have them!

Saturday, Doug decided to make an early Valentine's Day feast for me and Bri. He and Bri made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting from scratch that day. Then he grilled steaks, poached lobster tails in butter, baked potatoes and made biscuits for dinner. Everything was so delish...

The next day was Superbowl day. Not very romantic but fun nonetheless. Doug air fried us up some wings and we watched football and the halftime show that evening. Bri wasn't interested in the halftime show at all, but Doug and I enjoyed it thoroughly...

Valentine's Day was on a Monday. Bri got up to go to school and put on a pink sweatshirt and jeans for her outfit...

It got me thinking about all her Valentine's Day outfits over the years and I put together a little collage...

Speaking of memories, this Valentine memory popped up for me (it was 11 years ago)...

Look how little she was! I remember her walking down that aisle filled with Valentine's Day stuffies like it was yesterday. I'm pretty sure she got a white and pink unicorn from that aisle on Valentine's Day that year!

Doug bought me some candy and a really cool laptop desk (I got him some candy too)...

I had some fun V-Day goodies for Bri when she got home from school...

We ordered a heart-shaped pizza for dinner...

Our whole weekend was very sweet and loving, but as I said earlier, included some sadness. Hope you all had some special moments on Valentine's Day as well.

Chinese New Year 2022 (Lunar Year 4720)

Happy Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year/Spring Festival everyone!! Happy Year of the Tiger!

We have had another quiet Chinese New Year this year (began on February 1st and ends February 15th) - Doug had to travel for work during the first part of it and with the pandemic is still around (though numbers are going down again thank goodness), we decided to be cautious just a bit longer - so no big celebrations. Hopefully things will look more "normal" for us next year.

 

Per usual, I decorated our house for the occasion...

 

I found another very pretty qipao dress for Briana and she was sweet to let me take pictures of her wearing it...

Previous years of qipao dresses/outfits...

We did eat Chinese takeout a couple of days before CNY because Doug was going to be out of town for the start of it. When he got back home, we decided to do a small family "non-traditional" CNY celebration at our local Melting Pot...

CNY with Mei...

On CNY Eve, I gave Briana her CNY gifts (including a red envelope)...

 

 

My parents sent Briana this really pretty pillow for the holiday (it says "Fearless)...

 

It was fun to see Google celebrating CNY as well - when someone searched certain CNY related terms, fireworks would pop up on the search engine screen...

So again, happy spring festival to all that celebrate! Valentine's Day usually (not always) crosses with CNY - and that is what is happening this year. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so "Happy Heart Day!" early to you all. I'll be blogging about that next!

New Year 2022/January

Finally ~ I can start blogging about the new year!

 

Since I was still recovering from my bronchitis episode and with omicron really starting to kick up, D, B and I just had a quiet evening at home on New Year's Eve. We ate steak and lobster, watched "Tick Tick Boom!" on Netflix and then watched the ball drop on TV...

Despite the fact I struggled with laryngitis most of January (my voice is back now - about 98% I'd say - it still cracks/is raspy every so often), experienced big time fatigue (and still do a bit) and had a number of friends and family members come down with Covid (which has been quite stressful), we had a pretty good January. I still don't know how Doug, Bri and I have escaped Covid so far, but I know there is a really good possibility we could get it - even being boosted and masking as much as we do.

It took me about a week into January to get all my Christmas stuff down. I had to do it slow but surely - my fatigue hindered me a lot from getting it down sooner. I was emotionally mixed between being ready to get rid of the Christmas decorations and missing the Christmas trees and twinkling lights at the same time.

  Mei was not happy the trees were gone...

January brought some very pretty sunrises...

Bri started a brand new semester of school in January - which meant all new classes, teachers and classmates. She is doing great though adjusting to it all. She has theater and drawing this semester and that makes her quite happy...

Bri drew this super cool drawing for her drawing class (she had to choose three reflective or transparent items to draw [she chose a mirror, glasses and eye shadow case] and incorporate several different line drawing techniques to draw them)....

 Honestly, I am so relieved Bri has adjusted to an extremely crowded high school so well (while wearing a mask!). I think about her spending over a year at home trying to learn virtually. Basically learning a lot of 9th grade on her own. Being so isolated from kids her own age. This girl has bounced back. I'm proud and very, very grateful.

 

Doug celebrated his birthday in January...

We had a nice dinner at our favorite Cuban restaurant, I bought Doug a very cool Star Wars picture from a company called "Frome" and Briana drew Doug a very sweet picture.

The company Doug works for received another huge round of funding and they announced it in January. It will help the company grow even more! Nasdaq then congratulated them in Times Square!

We had our "Mei Mei/gotcha day" anniversary in January. She joined our family 7 years ago and is such a happy, important part of our lives...

January also brought snow (January 16th). It snowed most of the day (and was very pretty), but it didn't stick in our neck of the woods...

About two weeks later, it snowed a little bit overnight and I woke up to a tiny trace of snow...

We also finally watched "The Eternals"...it definitely was a bit slow and long, and there was a lot of (almost too much) information packed into a two hour plus movie - but I didn't hate it. I actually did like it. I know some people really didn't...

Doug and Bri saw Spiderman 3 in a movie theater (Bri couldn't wait to see it anymore). I did not go because I still had a nice cough and didn't want to have some coughing fit in the theater. They went at a quiet time and had no one sitting around them. They felt quite comfortable there. It was their first movie in a theater outside the house in like two years.

And we are now into the month of February, and on February 1st, the CNY began (year of the tiger). I'll be blogging about that soon!