After our packed NYC trip, we decided to relax at home for the rest of our Christmas break. To prepare, we stocked up on groceries, and brought leftovers home from Asian Pearl, including a variety of new foods for Westley to try like conch, geoduck, and frog – just in time for him to start forming 2-word sentences like “more…conch” and “more…seaweed”. On Friday, we took him to the local Explorit science center, which kept even us adults entertained with interactive hands-on exhibits like wind tunnels, rotating tables, ferromagnetic liquids, and nanotube models. The trip left Westley tired enough to resume his usual sleep schedule, and we were able to embark on a mini-marathon of Big Little Lies over steaming bowls of bun rieu. Despite the soap-opera feel of the HBO show, the excellent acting and deep dive into issues of domestic violence kept us engrossed throughout. We invited the in-laws over on Saturday for board games, video games, and Japanese take-out, then took a trip down to Stockton on Sunday for dim sum with the grandparents. Westley woke up on Christmas day to a new Radio Flyer wagon and a Mr. Potato Head, along with other goodies from Hape, Brio, and Melissa & Doug. Still recovering from our recent cold, we spent Christmas weekend mostly binge-watching the second season of Stranger Things and gearing up to finally rescue princess Zelda (after clocking more than 150 hours). Despite spending nearly a week vegging out at home, it’ll still be difficult to return to work this week.

It did not bode well that all three of us came down with a sore throat a week before our trip to New York for the holidays. We had made the daring decision to take a red-eye for Westley’s first flight, so we were ready for the worst. Annoyingly, the flight kept getting delayed and ultimately got canceled. So we were forced to bring the baby back home after getting him all prepared in his sleep sack and car seat at the airport terminal. After regrouping for the daytime flight, Westley did surprisingly well on the plane, and we landed at JFK just in time for dinner and bedtime. On Sunday, we met up with my college friends and their kids for brunch at their upper-east-side apartment, then returned for a family reunion with my cousins over a Chinese banquet-style seafood dinner. The next morning, we awoke to dim sum and a visit to my parents’ senior center, before taking Westley on his first subway ride into the city. We walked along the High Line through SoHo, met my friend John for lunch with matzo ball soup, then stopped by Murray’s for a grilled cheese for the subway ride home. In the evening, we left Westley with my parents to enjoy a movie and dinner date. After watching The Last Jedi from our reserved recliner seats, we went to Le Bernardin for Eric Ripert’s tasting menu, which featured fluke, langoustine, monkfish, snapper, and meluza – all cooked to utter perfection in classic French-style, drenched in their respective sauces, and served in a newly-renovated dining room that evoked fish scales and ocean waves. After dinner, we walked past bustling Time Square to the iconic Rockefeller Center, where the Christmas tree was unfortunately unlit. We spent our last morning checking out the popular Holiday Train Show at the NYBG with Westley, then headed to Flushing’s New World Mall for lunch, where the Siblings potato noodles outshone the beef noodles from Lan Zhou Noodles, the duck noodles from Yoz Shanghai, or the cold noodles from Old Luoyang. We also got some dumplings from Golden Shopping Mall for the return flight, but Westley had a rough time on the flight back, even though we tried to keep him on West coast time throughout. Luckily, we have a week to recover from our action-packed trip!

We spent Thanksgiving this year relaxing at home with Westley and the in-laws. With the weather getting colder, we opted for hot pot over traditional Thanksgiving fare, followed by adventuring through Hyrule to discover new shrines and hunt more lynels. Holiday shopping continues to begin earlier each year, so I went to Target after dinner to get in on some of the doorbuster deals. The next morning, we took advantage of Westley’s early wake time to partake in Black Friday in Vacaville. The crowds seemed more manageable this year, probably due to many shopping online, but our loot was equally underwhelming. Melody focused on cooking instead, preparing an alternative Thanksgiving meal for a lab party at my house. She spent Saturday preparing a charcuterie and cheese platter with homemade cranberry apple relish, hummus, candied pecans, egg salad, creamed corn with gorgonzola cheese, and roasted carrot white bean dip, along with a wild mushroom bread pudding, kale and turnip gratin, sweet potato tots, and an impressive braised turkey dish. The nerds of the group, including my wife and I, embarked on a Ticket to Ride, while Westley chose to hang out with my lab technician instead of his biological parents. I burned off the calories over the following week running busy clinics, preparing a grant, submitting several ARVO abstracts, and surviving our first round of residency interviews. On Saturday, we danced the night away with my new labmates at our department’s holiday party, which left us with little energy on Sunday to enjoy the weather at Pioneer Park or more holiday shopping in Roseville. With my new foam slippers, a new batch of marzipan, and more hot chocolate, I feel like I’m ready to hibernate for the holiday season.