THE Dinner

Stacy said it was going to be a 'dinner'. Dinner can be take-out. Dinner can be hamburgers and fries or BBQ. Dinner can even be prime rib and mashed potatoes. This 'dinner' was not just a 'dinner'.

This was the second Kirin restaurant we feasted on during this trip. This particular one was located outside of Vancouver central and was a part of a casino.

The 'dinner' table setting. It's one of the rare times that no dishes were family style and no lazy-suzy was in the middle of the table.

The California family members with the bride and groom and her parents.

The honored bride and groom who have been together for as long as I've known them... 15 years?

Matthew's dad with his younger siblings, Pat and Eugenia. The youngest sibling is always the goofiest... still true here!

Sherman was the emcee and mixed business with pleasure. Feel free to give him a call if you're looking to buy a  place in Vancouver! He'll be happy to help you. Let him know you read that on my blog and I referred you. Maybe he'll give me a cut on his commission!

Matthew's dad gave a short blessing... and No the signup sheets were for the benefit of the emcee, not my father-in-law. But he did think Sherman was funny.

Let's dive into the important part... the food!

Kirin Special Platter with Roasted Suckling Pig: pickled cucumber, jellyfish, tofu, chasu (BBQ pork)

Deep Fried Crab Claw Wrapped with Minced Prawn (it was huge! See how big it was on that little plate?)

Braised Shark Fin & Crab Meat Soup... Yes this was soooooo delicious! And it's not illegal in Canada!

Hannah slurped up hers...

Braised Whole Wild Catch California Mexico Brand Abalone & Braised Pea Tips in Oyster Sauce (super exotic and delicious!)

Crispy Skin Chicken

Live Rock Cod Blanched with Congee

Stewed E-Fu Noodle with tender scallion in abalone sauce

Homemade Fresh Mango Mochi

Wedding Cake Pops... they were so delicious but we could not eat another bite... so I took them home... yep on the plane and everything... waste not want not.

Delicious coconut and lotus seed sesame balls

NOT PICTURED: Love Nest Fried Rice and Sweet Red Bean Soup

This restaurant had THE best service ever! The servers brought out the dish to show us before taking it in the back to divee up to each guest. We got a new plate at every dish and the old one was taken away immediately. Our glasses were always kept filled... with either water, diet coke or wine. I even accidentally dropped a chopstick and a server picked it up before it even hit the ground and gave me a new one. Like he just knew that I was going to drop it.

Of course, I did not realize that the owner of the restaurant was also a guest at this dinner. Apparently, 5-Sook knows everyone that is important! Bottom line, he's a good person to know and have on your side let's say! I am very lucky to be related to him!

NEXT UP: Suspended in MidAir

2012 Messenger

Merry Christmas to you! We usually send out an annual newsletter to family and friends updating them on what's been happening with us throughout the year. But if you follow this blog, everything will be familiar to you. And if it didn't get to you in snail mail form, then here it is for you!

Dear Family & Friends -
We are thankful for your presence in our lives, and we praise God for you. May He bless you and your family abundantly during this Christmas season and in the upcoming year.
We wish you a joyful Christmas!

Cezanne
My lovely wife has been very busy as usual: cooking and cleaning for our family; putting clothes on the kids and being a jr. tiger mom with their school work; volunteering in the girls’ classrooms; scrapbooking; co-leading a Bible study at church; planning women’s ministry events; subbing at the girls’ school; being our travel agent/concierge for all of our ‘field trips’ and vacations; stamping beautiful handmade greeting cards; reading lots of books (primarily young adult fiction); and of course, blogging. She really enjoys writing, and very much appreciates her readers! Check out mamacez.blogspot.com and subscribe if you like. She loves reading all of your comments. Weddings are always special, but it was an especially proud moment for both of us to witness our former Sunday School student exchange wedding vows. Cezanne even came out of retirement to coordinate Crystal’s ceremony. We were also privileged to be able to visit with extended family in Canada, to celebrate the wedding of Matthew's cousin Stacy to Terry. It was a fun time of reconnecting with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Cezanne’s desire for the new year is to continue to build and deepen friendships of old and new. [Update: I have read 62 books this year.]

Mother's Day portrait at church

Crystal & Michael Drane

Matt
Matthew has been very busy at Legacy Partners where he’s going on his 17th year. So busy that he can count on one hand the number of times he’s been able to play basketball at lunch. Business is ok but there’s less people doing more work. Morale is low with pay cuts and layoffs. Matthew commiserates with his coworkers but also realizes that he is called to work as if for the Lord and not for men. In the winter he does make it a point to take time away from work for snowboarding days with his friends. This fall he started a men’s small group studying the topic of stewardship. He continues to play guitar in the worship band and teaches in Emily’s Sunday School class once a month. He says he’s not a very good musician (too lazy to practice) but it’s fun to worship God with music. He also says he’s not a very good teacher (too lazy to prep, see a common theme?) but he loves being involved in our girls’ lives. We love spending time with family and friends, and we also love to travel! We look forward to seeing some dear friends in Hong Kong at the end of the year. It’s been a blessing to be able to visit with some of you this year, and we hope to see more of you next year. Please drop us a line if you are ever in town!

Daddy & Emily at Mt. Rose

Daddy & Hannah at Lake Elizabeth

Emily (12 yrs)
Emily grew significantly this year: 3.5 inches and now over 5 ft tall which means we are constantly buying new clothes for her! Ironically she couldn’t care less about fashion, unlike her little sis. Emily’s strength is academics and she was especially proud to finish 2nd place in the Math Olympics. Another school highlight was her service project where she made lanyards and sold them to raise money for orphans. Entering 6th grade, she continues to play clarinet in the school band, diligently going to band practice 3x a week before school starts. This summer Cezanne and Emily went away for a special mother-daughter weekend retreat; to celebrate Emily’s birthday and also to help prepare her for her teen years. Emily’s #1 passion is still wild birds. She loves to see birds in their natural habitat so we’ve ventured to marshes and mountains to see shorebirds and raptors. Can you believe some of her favorite places to shop are hardware stores? Because they sell bird supplies. Even better are the bird stores. Besides reading, she also enjoys anything creative, especially origami, nail art, and making home videos. Of course playing with her baby sister is on the top of her list of fun things to do! Her favorite memory this year was seeing new and more wild birds. Her desire for the new year is to... see more wild birds!

Bird Sculpture in Canada

2nd place ribbon at ACSI Math Olympics

BFFs... best friends forever

Hannah (9 yrs)
Our little baby struggled with separation anxiety through her 2nd grade but she persevered. We were a little worried as 3rd grade approached in the fall, but so far she has been doing really well! This has been a total answer to prayer. Now she rarely complains of tummy aches and has never said that she doesn’t want to go to school. Hannah loves to talk and will tell us all about her day in detail, including what her friends were wearing (this girl loves fashion). A new thing this year is playing with her friends... online. She can’t wait to finish her homework so she can play on Animal Jam. She started piano lessons last year and after 6 months stated, “I already know how to play good.” Unfortunately the move to learning how to play black keys increased her anxiety to a very unacceptable level, so we (and the teacher) decided she needed a break from piano. Hannah’s favorite memory this year was going to Hawaii for the first time. Her wish for the next year is to go on more vacations!

2nd grade sea life project

"I love swimming" says Hannah.

Matthew's Family (minus his dad and me)

Matthew's cousins: Sherman, Jason and Stacy

My Girl's Group supporting anti-human trafficking walk

Jack and Jill

At Sherman's beautiful community room in his building... Stacy & Terry's friends hosted a beautiful little shower for the both of them. It was a Jack and Jill shower.
I thought it was the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, but apparently I was incorrect. 'Jack and Jill' meant 'coed'. Okayyyy...Must be a Canadian thing... and here I am queen of planning showers... but of course they were always baby showers not bridal showers. And I have never gone to a co-ed shower so what the hey.. something new to experience right?

This was a beautiful and delicious cake! And since they were not going to have a wedding cake (instead it was going to be wedding pops) we had to really enjoy it! It was red velvet!!

Everyone patiently waited for us... we were 30 minutes late.... CA Chinese time right?

With the bride and groom

The girls hamming it in the 'photo booth'

While the boys played race cars.. Timothy with Enzo (Matthew's cousin Jason's son) both are the same age... 4!

You can't have a bridal shower without... Games! Yep... I shuddered as I heard that word... but I tried to be a good sport about it and participated... for the sake of my children... Didn't want them to think their mom was a party pooper... (which I am!). Yes I admit, I am NOT very fun!

First Game was a trivia one... Ok... I can do those. And I got one or two right too! (I'm a good guesser.)

Second Game... create a decorative table topper with only the supplies given. Well... my little creative genius, Hannah, was on my team and she whipped up something that was personal yet creative with a little bling to it to honor her Auntie Stacy and Uncle Terry.

Apparently, her brother's team (that Mathew was also on) did not quite understand the concept of 'table topper or centerpiece'. This was an interesting horse puppet thang.

Can you guess which one the guest of honor liked? (Of course the $20 that Kenny slipped in it as an added accessory was a clincher!)

Another game was... Dances... yep I know... it gets worse for me... Each team had to 'perform' four different dances (written on slips of paper) and the bride and groom had to guess what kind of dance it was.

Emily's team had her Goo-Jeh/Matthea... can you guess what kind of dance they were doing?

Here is our team.. I'm not sure WHAT we were doing... oh yes... it was Beyonce's Single Ladies

Here the young boys were chillin'.

NEXT UP: THE Dinner

The Pre-Wedding Banquet

Gathering a group of 15 of us to eat dinner is a feat.. then find a restaurant that will fit all 15 of us at one table is another feat.. but it can happen (when you know the right people) And yes 5-Sook/Sum do know the right people.

You actually can't call it a 'dinner' when you eat with them. It's more like a 'banquet' ... 10 dishes... fancy dishes I might say... you won't see sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken or chow fun at this table! When you eat with this couple... you eat well... you eat really really well...

Of course, I did not take any pictures of our dinner the first night we were in Vancouver at Kirin.. bummer.. that was one of the best ones during this trip... I guess I was too busy eating and talking (drilling casually asking one of Matthew's cousins about his new girlfriend) to remember to take pictures of the food.  5-Sook actually nicknamed me CezNewsNetwork aka CNN.

So you'll have to make do with dinner #2. Let me walk you through our courses at Tai Tung Chinese Seafood Restaurant:

Traditional chicken soup... with the feet... yum they were delicious! So tender!

Peking duck with wraps not buns as you would see them in the States

Two fresh lobsters...

...that turned into lobster with e-mein with creme sauce

Duck meat (from the previous peking duck dish) and stir fried bell peppers

Steamed black cod with black bean sauce (Matthea picked through this fish until it was bone dry!)

Chicken salad? I don't remember

Large pea leaves stir-fried with garlic

Fresh deep fried tofu and some kind of veggie.. I don't remember

Deep fried pork with a sweet type of glaze.. very yummy and crispy

Beef stir fry with gailan (Chinese broccoli)

I had to include this picture.. Here is Matthew's two cousins (Stacy and Sherman who are also siblings) and Stacy's husband, Terry in the middle all having an engaging conversation prior to the arrival of the food. LOL!

NEXT UP: Jack and Jill