mac & cheese, mother moo & a minion

the ILs headed back home after a whirlwind holiday week that came and went all too quickly.  seemed like they'd just gotten here and then poof! - it was already time to say goodbye and get them to the airport.  sad.

to soften the blow for the bean, who'd been glued to their side the entire time they were home, i managed to schedule a fun GTG with some of our favorite friends.  the last time we got these guys all together was almost exactly a year ago, which is really hard to believe:

this time, we met up at one of our favorite restaurants - la grande orange.

we also remembered to get a moms' group shot this time.

while we waited for our food, the kids had a blast playing with sets of colored wax sticks.  "look, mom, i made a puppy!" and amazingly enough, it actually looked like one.  sorta.  if you really use your imagination.  right?

the teen opted for a cheeseburger, which was served on the prettiest, shiniest bun known to man.

crab cakes benedict.  this was heaven in my mouth.

look at this perfection!  oh man, i want more.

after devouring their kids' meals, the bean and mini DG got comfy watching something on someone's iPhone.  i die a little at how cute they are together.

because we weren't quite ready to say goodbye just yet, we decided to move the party a little east, to mother moo creamery in sierra madre.  i'd seen dailygluttony post pictures of this place before, so i was excited to finally give it a shot.

i love all of the cute retro decor inside.

the bean decided she wanted to have some of their seasonal peppermint cookies & cream, topped with some housemade marshmallows.

as for me, one look at the "salty butter caramel" flavor on the menu and i was sold.  scooped into a freshly made waffle cone, too?  YES.

after we'd stuffed ourselves with all that deliciousness, we walked back to the cars together.  the kids are really good at following the #1 rule of crossing the street: "hold onto someone!"

and then because mini cee was either playing shy or bummed because the playdate was coming to an end, lilcee got stuck in the middle of the kids' group hug.

we love our friends!

christmas magic DOES exist

christmas at the house of wan was full of love, laughs and fun. you know, like every other year. although it does seem like it just gets more and more fun as time goes by. we are definitely a household of blessings.

because the teen is finally old enough to make her own decisions as to where to spend her time, for the first time in forever (you're singing it now, right?) we were able to enjoy her company on christmas morning without having to watch the clock. we'd always had to get up at the asscrack of dawn to do presents and then speed out to have her at her dad's by 8am. no more! yay!

the hub flipped the TV on and found the most perfect thing:

she and her sister happily handed out the stockings, magically filled to the tops with all sorts of fun stuff. 

the bean dug into her impressive stash o'gifts, squealing with delight over every single one.

the teen handed me a gift she'd bought for me with money she earned during her temporary gift-wrapping gig. she'd even wrapped it beautifully during one of her breaks. 

inside was the fabulous eyeliner i'd been drooling over at sephora for months. 

remember this beautifully wrapped gift?

i ripped that paper off to reveal this:

which contained these:

LOVE. that kate spade, man. she never fails. 

as for the hub, he received all sorts of boring shit like new t-shirts and underwear. and then there was this, from a super-secret photo shoot the girls and i managed to sneak in:

the teen had already plowed through a giant box full of goodies from her favorite stores - forever 21 and urban outfitters. MIL disappeared into the garage to lug in a huge box we'd picked up at costco a few days prior, and the teen opened it giddily to find this:

it's a gigantic bean bag called the "chillax." it's super comfy, and now it's the piece of furniture everyone fights over at TV time. her sister had a great time popping up out of the empty box. 

when she got tired of it at last, we got her to use it as a wrapping paper receptacle. the living room was quite a mess. 

then it was mollydog's turn to check out the stuff in her stocking. 

breakfast was the french toast casserole i'd assembled the night before.

well, also, there was this. duh. 

about an hour after devouring that gut bomb of a breakfast, i decided to go and burn some of it off.

it was a beautiful morning, but really warm. i was regretting those long sleeves in no time. 

MIL picked up these pretty arrangements at the grocery store for half off. 

brother wan took charge of the prime rib, while i tackled the sides. i used a great new recipe for macaroni & cheese that used an embarrassing amount of this stuff:

but look at all this goodness. 

our table looked lovely.

i probably should've held back some, but instead i plowed through every last bite on my plate.  

oh, by the way...the girls and i each  received one of these. 

THANK YOU, SANTA!!

any excuse to celebrate

one of my favorite nights of every year is the one we spend driving down to la jolla so we can have dinner at the very spot where the hub proposed to me.

it was extra special because we had both girls with us this year. 

we were a little surprised to see that a lot of renovations had taken place at the restaurant in the last year. the cozy corner where we'd celebrated our engagement with our families looked completely different, which was a little sad. but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. after all, the food and the service was still as good as we remembered. 

it was a busy night, and while we didn't get lucky with a window seat we still managed to get a decent view of the ocean from our table.

starters: seafood tower and brussels sprouts with bacon and candied walnuts.  so stinking delicious. 

 

the hub's wine sampler. 

entrees: jidori free range chicken breast, surf & turf, and roasted ahi. 

the bean opted for a cheeseburger from the kids' menu, and then agonized over the dessert list. 

little did she know that dessert had been decided long ago - their famous "hula pie." they brought us fun sporks to eat it with. 

we demolished that sucker in record time. 

happy wanengagementaversary 9.0 to us!