this is 15

almost as soon as my birthday was over, it was the bean's turn.  and this is the only year like ever that we were able to use the same number balloons, and i was pretty proud of myself when i realized it.  and yes, i do realize how nerdy that sounds.

they kicked off their day with - what else? - the just-released BTS concert movie streaming on disney+.

the hub had instructed me to take the bean and MIL out for a nice brunch and some shopping, keeping us out of the house for a few hours while he prepped for some birthday shenanigans.  he'd chatted with the bean during car rides to and from school over the previous month or so to get some ideas as to what we could do for their birthday, and used the information he'd gathered to plan out the day.

we headed out to pasadena and grabbed a table at great maple, where the bean indulged in a plate of chicken and waffles.

and then when we got home, we walked in to find fresh new birthday balloons and presents.  i'm looking over my camera roll from the day and it seems that i took more videos than still photos that day, oops.  anyway, as a result of the conversations he'd had with the bean, the hub had booked a personal chef to come to the house and teach us how to make fresh pasta.  we'd invited the bean's BFF to join us, so they were surprised when i answered the door and she walked in with her mom.  

because of crazy weekend traffic coming from the west side, our chef arrived a few minutes later and brought in a shitton of grocery bags full of all kinds of good stuff.

he got right to work unpacking those bags and setting up a lovely charcuterie spread for us, which we were all more than happy to dig into.

he'd also brought in this giant bowl of seasoned ground beef and pork, which he instructed the bean and BFF to roll into golf ball-sized meatballs.

while we were all munching on the meat and cheese spread, chef had put together the fresh tomato sauce and had it simmering on the stove.  and instead of baking the meatballs (which is what i would normally do), he dropped them into the sauce to slowly braise and soak in all that lovely flavor.

he also showed us how to make the pasta dough - a simple mixture of flour, water, eggs and egg yolks.  it was mixed in my very own kitchenmaid using the dough hook, and then he turned it out onto the lightly floured countertop and kneaded by hand until he was satisfied with it.  then it sat tightly wrapped in plastic wrap to rest for about an hour until it was ready to be rolled out.  he portioned it out to make it easier to work with (which also made sure that everyone would get a turn), and then he took the first chunk of dough and showed us how it's done.  

first, he kneaded it a little more and then flattened it out into a neat rectangle and sent it through the pasta roller.  once it came out, he folded it in half and put it through again, repeating the process about four or five times until it was finally ready to be cut into fettuccine.  a quick toss in flour to keep it from sticking and we had the first portion:

the bean and BFF each took a turn:

the dogs were in and out of the kitchen the whole time, and BFF's mom threw stevie a bone and let him sit on her lap while we all watched everyone make pasta.

the meatballs were done, and they looked and smelled amazing.

here's all ten portions of pasta, freshly rolled and cut by the bean, BFF, the old lady, and BFF's mom.

to cook the pasta, it only took about 30 seconds in the pot of boiling salted water.  chef pulled it out of the water and dropped it right into a warmed sauté pan, ladling some tomato sauce on top and then plating it with more sauce plus those meatballs and some freshly grated parmesan.

it may have been her sister's big day, but the old lady is probably the biggest pasta lover i know.  she was a very happy camper.

although we were all stuffed from all that amazing pasta, chef got right to work on the next course: chicken piccata.  so yum.

a little later, we gathered again in the kitchen to light candles on the cake - a gorgeous chocolate cake filled with mousse and topped with a luscious ganache.

along with tickets to a "stranger things" experience from BFF, the bean happily opened gift bags that contained several new button-up shirts and two highly coveted pairs of crocs.  one was adorned in BT21-themed jibbitz - which had sold out quickly, but not before i'd managed to snag a pair.  it had been hard for me to stifle my laughter when they showed me the "sold out" notice online a few days prior, and that's why they cracked up like this:

when we were at the airport in cabo on our way home this summer, the bean had pointed at a pair of crocs on some kid's feet that were lightning mcqueen-themed.  i'd immediately searched online to see if i could score a pair only to find that they'd been discontinued a couple of years ago and the only pair i saw was going for $400 on ebay.  eek.  

and then a month or so afterwards, probably thanks to big brother watching and listening to what i search for on my phone, i got an email that said they were going to do a limited release of those crocs with purchases available via a lottery.  and so i entered my information, hit "enter" and hoped for the best.  

you know what came next.

and that's how i got this picture:

balloons, delicious italian food, scrumptious cake, fun presents and loved ones.  i'd say it was a pretty fantastic way to spend one's 15th birthday.

together at last

after a really long hiatus, the getalong gang reunited to celebrate mini cee's birthday.  the venue?  korean bbq, of course!

mini cee, by the way, is literally her mother's mini-me now.  so grown up!  she and the bean loved being together again, taking selfies and showing each other their favorite apps on their phones.  or at least that's what i'm assuming they were doing.

well, at least i was taking selfies.  like this.

dailygluttony had brought party favors, which were appreciated by pretty much everyone.  BTS branded cold brew, anyone?

but once the food started rolling out it was serious business.  we had two grills, and i was perfectly happy to sit back and let the girls take over the cooking duties.

and we managed to get our server to take a halfway decent group photo of us - well, most of us.  miniDG decided it was funnier to crouch down behind his mother and stay well out of camera range.

it's okay, though.  when we headed outside we corralled the three kids for one of our favorite forms of torture - recreating old photos.  here's the original:

and the 2021 version.

after a lot of craziness, we moms managed to score a photo too.

the birthday girl's actual birthday was the very next day, and she spent part of it in the best way possible - snagging her first dose of the pfizer vaccine.  

ah, the joys of life during covid, amirite??

SFAMily shenanigans

a handful of the SFAMily managed to get together over the weekend for a very abbreviated version of our once-annual holiday hoorah.  it was a pretty small group that included a few members of SFAM 2.0 as well, and while we didn't do any gift exchanges like we used to, it was still fun to see each other and share a meal together.  of course, we somehow managed to completely forget to take any group photos and so it's almost like it didn't happen.  but it did!  i swear!

and then afterwards we met up at nearby mitsuwa market to grab some treats that are usually only available in hawaii - mochi donuts by modo.

they're doing a temporary pop-up shop here that started a few months ago and i think it was actually supposed to finish up at the end of 2019, but lucky for us they extended their stay.  they're really popular and there was already a line when we arrived.  this was totally okay though, because it gave us more time to chat as we waited.

we were all amused at this sign, which was apparently quite a thorn in mitsuwa's side.

i mean...it's not easy to juggle two dozen fresh donuts (which is the per-person limit) in open containers while still trying to do some grocery shopping.

it was pretty mesmerizing to watch the guy pour the dough into this contraption that he then used to dispense perfect little rings of dough bubbles into the hot oil.

because they were selling these things as fast as they could make them, they were even more fresh and delicious here than they were in waikiki.

we exercised some restraint and went with just half a dozen - two of each flavor, which for that day were black sesame, mango and strawberry sugar.  the bean loved the mango ones, while i was pretty partial to the strawberry.  and we were pretty neutral on the black sesame - it wasn't our favorite flavor, but it was still pretty tasty.  and the texture of that mochi donut...oh, so yummy.  let's just say that by the time we got home only one donut had survived the trip.  heh.

and then yesterday i met up with dailygluttony and lilcee to cash in a groupon we'd bought together, for spa access and a massage at the langham hotel in pasadena.  when i pulled in, i noticed a whole lot of security milling about and as i left the car with the valet and headed towards the lobby i realized why:

the television critics association was holding their winter press tour at the hotel, and it turned out that we'd just missed ABC's turn by a day.  bummer.  still, we were all excited at the prospect of possibly seeing some celebrities at some point during our day at the langham.

but first - spa time.

that hour goes by SO fast.  man.  but my massage tech was particularly good and while i kind of wanted to cry from parts of my treatment, i felt great afterwards.  she'd commented on how tight my muscles were and that she was finding lots of knots in my back and shoulders, and even though i was scheduled for a swedish massage - light and relaxing - i ended up with more of a deep tissue massage that helped loosen a lot of that tension.  she'd also gotten me to throw in a 10-minute reflexology upgrade, which was pretty fabulous.

we decided to stay at the hotel for lunch, knowing that finding parking somewhere else in the pasadena area would likely be difficult, and as we made our way to the restaurant lilcee whispered "i just spotted nick offerman!"  i'm going to go ahead and admit that i likely saw him but hadn't recognized him because i've not seen anything he's been in, but i did at least know that he's married to megan mullally from "will and grace."

it was a lovely afternoon, and i'm hoping that maybe i can snag a couple more of those groupons and take the old lady on one of her mondays off.  after all, neither of us has ever been known to turn down a spa day.  duh.

surviving the holiday hustle and bustle

oof, it's been a busy week.  we've had so much going on and every morning i'd think "ooh, i really need to blog!" and then i'd get distracted with something shiny and it just wouldn't happen.

surprisingly enough, unlike previous years i actually had several requests for cookies.  i find that most people like to make their own at holiday time, so it's usually quiet on the cookie front.  luckily, the majority of the cookies i was asked for were pretty simple designs, ones i've done plenty of times before:

although these were new - done for a friend whose two daughters performed in their dance studio's production of "the nutcracker."

and i finally made good on a promise i'd made to the bean a long time ago...chocolate crinkle cookies.

i adore these "my first christmas" jammies i found at petsmart and made cocoa and teddy wear for the last couple of weeks.  despite the look on teddy's face, i think he secretly loved them.

for the bean's last day of school before a two-week break, i made her this fun pullover that matched one i'd made for myself a couple of weeks ago:

that last day was just a half day, and so of course we squeezed in one last trip to disneyland before our passes are blocked out for two weeks.  i was hoping that it might not be too busy since a lot of schools were still in session, but of course as we got to the security checkpoint the lines were pretty long.

no biggie, though, because we weren't really counting on much besides grabbing some lunch, enjoying some seasonal treats, soaking in a little disney magic and doing a little last-minute christmas shopping for the old lady.

the next day, i busted out some pajamas for her to wear to her cheer team's christmas party.

for their white elephant gift exchange i'd picked this up, which she was happy to report was stolen to the game's limit.  isn't it always fun to see that people actually like the gift you bring?

we braved the mall the next morning, hoping to knock out the very last bit of shopping we needed to finish off our lists.  it's not her favorite place to be anyway, but bribing her with some sushi at her favorite spot did the trick nicely.

we got to spend the weekend with stevie while his mom and dad went out to palm springs to celebrate an early christmas with the old lady's special friend's dad.  he and teddy are BFFs.

teddy got one more pair of christmas pajamas, although he really only got to rock 'em for a day.

do you know what a VSCO girl is?  i was asked to make these keychains for a friend's daughter by christmas, and totally took it down to the wire as i finally sat down to stitch them out two days before.  thank goodness she loved them, because i don't know if i would've had time to redo them.

and my friends and i managed to find an evening to meet at the crack shack in pasadena for our annual GTG with the getalong gang.  it was surprisingly uncrowded in there, although we figured people were probably finishing up their shopping or home wrapping gifts - and it was cold and rainy, which probably didn't help.  this meant we were able to have them take seats at the bar for their annual group photo:

and it was fun to watch them hang out together like no time had passed, even though this group really only sees each other once a year, at these outings.

while we took our same spot in front of the giant chicken, like last time.

although this one is a way better shot, with a couple of photobombers.

gotta love the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, amirite??