Faceys – Page 2 – thosecoolkims

Christmas 2012 Highlights

As usual, it was a big year for Christmas in the Kim household. We love Christmas, and now that Ruby’s two years old (!) she is really starting to get into the spirit.

One thing Ruby wasn’t so into? Santa Claus. :(

(See past Santa visits here)

On the other hand, we’ve got a full-blown Frosty the Snowman obsession going on over here.

This was the last year that Christmas Eve services would be held at the Crystal Cathedral. We’ve been going to Christmas Eve services there since I was three years old, so this was a big deal for my family. I’ve missed the past 7 or so since I’ve been married (instead, we’ve shared lovely Christmas Eves with Ed’s family), and this was the 1st time we got to take Ruby. She was very excited to take it all in, sitting in her very own seat next to her cousins.

Then it was back to our house to host Christmas Eve dinner! No dishwasher this year, so it was paper plates and recyclables for all!

Fun times with Grand Uncle Luke

Ruby got very spoiled by her Halmoni, Grand-aunt Grace, Grand-uncle Luke and “Great Uncle” Wonil. Grace and Luke even got Ruby a special new hanbok made custom for her!

After Ruby went to bed, it was time for Santa to get to work …

Santa made it to our house!

Grandma + Papaw came over in the morning to watch Ruby open her presents. She loved her wagon!

Mommy, Daddy — look! Alice got me some Minnie Mouse puzzles! Thanks, Alice. :)

Grandma + Papaw got a special book from Ruby

Mommy got a special present, too!

Time for Christmas Morning Brunch with Harabuji and Grace!

Test drivin’ the new wheels!

After a nap and a little down time, it was off to Grandma and Papaw’s house for Christmas Dinner and time with the Facey cousins!

Dad went all out and made mini 3-tier cakes for EVERYONE! An epic way to end an epic holiday!

Merry Christmas! We hope yours was wonderful, too!

Ruby turns TWO

We seriously can’t believe that Ruby is TWO! She had a very busy day to bring on her brand-new year. To start things off, she awoke that morning to find she had her very own kitchen — in red, of course!

Then, we headed off to the park for a playdate with the regular crew. I couldn’t resist making some cupcakes for the gang in honor of her birthday.

Then we came home and prepared to celebrate with our families that evening. After last year’s shindig (which rivaled the size of our wedding reception!), we decided to scale back a little and enjoy an old school party with finger foods and a great big birthday cake. I really wanted to make it this year, and with the help of my mom, I did it!

I knew that I wanted to make a cookie for the top of the cake, so I purchased a special cookie cutter. And, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for my dad to teach me how to do royal icing. He and my mom made 150 bride cookies and 150 groom cookies for my wedding, so I consider my dad a pro! I had fun working on them with him.

All in all, I think the birthday girl enjoyed her day! We love our girl more than words could ever say.

Tennessee Super Kitschfest! Day 2, Roadtrippin’ to Pigeon Forge

Today was another whirlwind of a day, this time we drove 3.5 hrs east of Nashville to Pigeon Forge. The main reason for the trek is to visit Dollywood (which we’re doing tomorrow), but today was full of more fun Southern surprises. We were very grateful for a sticker book during this long drive — it kept Ruby busy!

Since Dolly herself is from Seviersville, which is in the Smoky Mountains, we decided if we really wanted a different experience, we’d rent a cabin in the Smoky Mountains instead of a regular motel on the Parkway. Boy are we glad we did! It’s just too bad that we don’t have more time here … there is an enclosed porch with a swing, a hot tub, a full kitchen, a whirlpool bath tub and a jacuzzi! We could easily stay a week here, it’s very quaint and peaceful.

After getting settled we met up with our Michigan relatives Kay + Dave, and had a Southern style dinner at Huck Finn’s. This place was COUNTRY: the menu lists “fixins” and “vittles”. Dad even ordered Fried Frog Legs, and I saved enough room for Banana Pudding!

Now it’s bath time and off to bed to be ready for a BIG dose of awesome kitsch overload at Dollywood tomorrow!

More pics here:

Tennessee – Day 2

Christmas 2011 Highlights

Oh, Christmas – sometimes its just so hard to recap after such epic events! And epic they were this year … we hosted our 1st annual Christmas Eve Open House (which was super fun by the way), and then we spent an awesome time with all of the Faceys on Christmas Day.

Here are a few highlights!

Because I am a perfectionist, I had to manually apply my fancy holly leaf sprinkles with tweezers to impress my guests at the Open House.

The effort was totally worth it, I think they turned out darling!

Christmas Eve wouldn’t be the same without my mother-in-law’s fabulous salad. I’ve tried to replicate it many times, but it’s just not the same. Spinach, red onions, craisins, blackberries, toasted almond slices, pomegranate arils and a very special vinaigrette are all part of the magic. I must’ve had atleast 3 plates of it!

Great friends showed up to share the evening with us!

Ed’s dad and new Stepmother arrived to celebrate

And even Ruby’s future boyfriend Ollie was there!

Ruby got a new baby doll from Halmoni and lots of other very special gifts from her and Grand-Uncle Wonil

And Uncle Lewis & Aunt Mary got some serious quality time in with Miss Ruby

Finally, it was time for Santa’s newest Elf to get started on gift assembly after the party was over …

Nice work, Daddy!

And here she is … awake on Christmas morning!

I love my chair!

Obsessed with her new toy puppy from Santa Alice at AutoPacific!

Grandma + Papaw even came over in the morning to watch Ruby open her presents. Here she is helping Papaw with one of his

After all of the excitement, Ruby took a morning nap … and Mommy + Daddy got to enjoy a Christmas Morning Mimosa.

That afternoon, we headed over to Grandma + Papaw’s for more food and fun. At my baby shower, my parents gave me a few of my baby dresses that they had been saving over the years for my own daughter to wear one day. One of the dresses was a red velvet one that I had worn on my very 1st Christmas when I was 10 months old. (I need to scan a picture!). Here is Ruby wearing that very same dress 35 years later:

We scored an awesome red Cuisinart dutch oven! Can’t wait to use it!

Ruby with Grandma + Papaw

Eric’s family arrived and we all shared a scrumptious dinner. Mom cooked TWO geese and a ham this year … not to mention all the other traditional family sides!

It was a fantastic year – I love Christmas!

Handmade and Homemade just for Ruby

This post is sooo tardy, but it’s a week later and we’re still recovering from Ruby’s 1st birthday party! Of course, it was a lot of fun, but a huge reason it was so special was because of all the loving preparation that went into things from both sides of the family! This post is to honor all of the handmade and homemade special details of Ruby’s birthday party!

#1: Go-ims

Go-ims are traditional decorative “towers” that are usually trimmed with hard candies and/or beans for a Korean 1st Birthday Party (dol). Ed, his mom, and dear friend/”grand uncle” Wonil lovingly spent days and hours working on these for Ruby’s party! They used white beans, black beans, kidney beans, red/white/pink chocolate spree, black m&m’s and mentos to decorate all 3 of the go-ims. Ed designed all 3 of them first – he found an awesome tiger template to use in honor of Ruby being born during the year of the tiger, and he then he put together a retro-looking one with Ruby’s name and starbursts. Finally, he mapped out a patterned design with all red, pink & white candies to look more pop-ish and modern.

Halmoni decided she’d like to work on the tiger and Wonil worked on the one with Ruby’s name. Here they are hard at work!

As you can see, each individual candy and/or bean was glued to the paper towel roll (which was covered with poster board to make it smooth) one at a time. Patience and determination prevailed! I wish we had remembered to take a picture of the back of Halmoni’s, because during her quest for perfection – she couldn’t get the mentos to line up evenly in the back! So, she decided to use the beans and m&m’s to put Ruby’s birthdate (11-02-10) on the back to even things out.

This is the only pic we have where you can see part of it – but it looked great!

Proud and happy here on evening #2 as more progress is made:

The go-ims were beautiful, and we’ll always have memories of special bonding time with Ed’s mom and Wonil during the time these were made. I love this one of Ruby with her Halmoni on the day of her party:

#2: Cherry cookies

I wanted Ruby’s party to have a “retro cherry” theme. I saw a birthday party online that was a big inspiration, and it had these perfect cookies with cherries on top that I was dying to re-create (with my own spin on them of course). Since my parents are known for their masterful baking skills (they made 150 bride cookies and 150 groom cookies for favors at our wedding!), I asked if they’d help me out. Mom baked 48 sugar cookies and whipped up a batch of her own buttercream fondant, and Dad set out to cut out leaves and cherries to decorate each cookie.

This was at the beginning when he was using royal icing to “glue” the fondant base to the top of each cookie.

Moving on to adding the duo of cherry pieces …

Then, he took the extra leaves that were left over to cut stems for each cherry (he’s meticulous!). It really made them look all that more polished … and they tasted as good as they looked!

I can’t thank my parents enough for this … there’s no way I could’ve pulled off this impressive array of cherry-themed treats without them!!!
Red Velvet cupcakes with a cherry-on-top:

Mini-Cherry Cheesecakes and Chocolate Cake Balls:

The entire spread in all of its glory!

#3 Favor jars filled with Cherry Sours

I had been saving baby food jars for awhile in hopes of using them somehow and decided to use them for favors at the party. Pretty simple, but made with love nonetheless. What can I say, I’m a stickler for a theme …

#4 Ruby’s Retro Tunes Playlist

Ed & I sorta have a reputation when it comes to mix CDs. However, since the actual process of burning CDs seems so wasteful these days with folks using MP3 players and all, we decided to ditch the actual CD and just post our compilation for download (You can download the playlist here, if you want). The mix is simply songs that make Ruby smile, with a retro slant (of course!).

More party blogging to come – but all the details deserved their own post!