Christmas in SoCal

December 15-25, 2017

Los Angeles is reminiscent of many things to me. Roller coasters from Knott's Berry Farm. Getting Sprinkles cupcakes to eat at the beach. Getting scolded for jumping on the bed at my grandparent's house. Being surrounded by my little cousins and teasing them. No matter how many times my family visits, no two visits are quite the same. 

My mom's parents and three sisters all reside in the suburbs of LA. How my family ended up in Indiana is a mystery to me. Every few years, we gather in LA for a big family reunion of grandparents, 4 sets of aunts and uncles, and 10 grandchildren. This year, Steven and my sister Beth's boyfriend, Michael, joined as well. Wrangling so many people even from my family alone is no easy feat. Steven and I arrived first from Chicago on Friday, Dec 15. My mom, Eunice, and Elijah joined on Saturday, my dad on Sunday, and last but not least, Beth & Michael on Monday (whew)! Let's just say we took a lot of trips to LAX, made possible by our rental van from National.

My grandparents live in Arcadia, CA. Little did I know that Arcadia was the Chinese food mecca of LA -- I always thought LA was simply the place for Chinese food in general. Silly me! We took full advantage of the delicious eats, starting with Sinbala, an amazing and delicious Taiwanese eatery known for their Taiwanese sausage (the best I've ever had) with my cousin, Jeremy and friend, Stephanie. There's always room for dessert, right?! We visited Meet Fresh for taro ball desserts and traditional hot grass jelly & tofu as well. So good!

On Saturday morning, we ventured to Runyon Canyon with Stephanie! Instagram celebrities frequent the hiking trails and representatives of Vitamin Water greeted us at the entrance providing us with free drinks - winning!!

One afternoon, we stopped by Nest Teahouse. My cousin, Joanna, recommended it as the best bubble tea (albeit the caffeine kept her up until 7am). No fear, it seemed to be a Joanna-only affliction ;) I actually thought it was better than Boba Guys - the other bubble tea place in SF & NYC that gets a lot of hype. Stephanie's choice of guava green tea with grass jelly definitely won for best taste!

On Monday, Steven and I headed to Venice to work out of the Google office there and visit the city! Venice features iconic LA sights like Muscle Beach, Venice Beach Boardwalk, and one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen :) 

We spent a full day in Disneyland mastering the art of maximizing Fast Passes and riding every ride in sight on Wednesday. Despite our best judgement, we even rode Splash Mountain, leaving Elijah and I (who ignorantly volunteered as tribute to sit up front in the log cars) soaking wet. Such a fun day with embarrassing photos of us screaming in utter fear...

The majority of our trip comprised eating amazing Chinese food courtesy of our amazing aunts and relatives at restaurants like Arcadia Garden Café, Golden Soup, Sam Woo BBQ, New Fusion, Belacan Grill (Irvine). Warning: you may start drooling or experiencing extreme hunger.

Din Tai Fung gets its own special section given it has the world's best soup dumplings (no bias of course). :)

Always ending the night with dessert...this time, black sesame and matcha swirl soft serve from Matcha Matcha as well as the fluffiest Japanese cheesecake from Uncle Tetsu's!

One of my absolute favorite days happened on Friday when we visited Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro! An international seaport with green plains and ocean for miles, you can't help but smile when visiting. They had an outdoor ping pong area where the cousins competed for a solid 30 minutes. I've decided outdoor ping pong is one of the greatest things ever! We also enjoyed fresh seafood like whole grilled fish and deep fried shrimp next to pelicans and the rising tide.

I have a slight obsession with the winding arching trees of California. They are absolutely perfect for photos and I wanted to photograph them all day. You guessed it - we ended up having a full-blown phootshoot!!!

We celebrated our last night together with our annual talent show. When we were young, we used to recite Bible verses in Chinese or sing a song if we were feeling ambitious. Our younger cousins have totally stepped up the game by performing 8 page piano concertos and exquisite violin duets fearlessly. So impressed!!! Michael even performed on his "hand whistle" and spun a book on his finger. Elijah and I underwhelmed the crowd with an enthusiastic karaoke duet of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" haha.

This year, above all past years, I felt honored to be a part of this family. My grandpa is getting older now and his Parkinson's is more advanced. Knowing our time is limited, it's beautiful seeing everyone make an effort to be there and demonstrate such generosity with their time and resources to make this trip so memorable.

Thank you to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins for all the smiles and laughs! Christmas in Los Angeles was the best of times :)