We cleaned up the house and had a big meal on CNY eve, and we are ready for the new year!  The boys love their red envelopes as usual.  I found an old picture of them; they have grown a lot.

   Buddy turned 3 on 1/25.  It was a weekday, but I managed to make him some cupcakes and he enjoyed the treats on his birthday.

    Now that he is older, Buddy is definitely better in posing for pictures.  We also noticed that since he turned 3, Buddy is more into playing balls.  In addition, he has learned to turn corners better; when he runs around with us in the house with his ball, he is much harder for us to catch him now.

       A couple of weekends ago, I had two get-togethers with my friends.  I met up with a few current coworkers on Saturday morning for a hike.  We met up at a beautiful hiking spot in Saratoga.  The hike was a great length for us to enjoy the scenery and catch up with each other. It was nice to talk with my coworker friends as we had not seen each other.  We continued to talk for quite awhile at the parking lot before we finally parted our ways.

     On Sunday afternoon, I met up with my girls at Thuy’s house in celebration of the belated birthdays for Michelle, Kathy and mine.  Thuy volunteered to make us a big dinner; she made some of her specialties, crabs and spicy noodle soup.  It was so awesome taking our time to crack the crabs, eat and talk. Then wrapped up with a bowl of hot spicy noodles in the cold weather was satisfying.  We later enjoyed a spread of different cakes too.  We had a wonderful chitchatting and laughing for a few hours before it was time to go home.