holidays – Page 8 – thosecoolkims

Ruby’s First New Year!

Entering 2011 is very exciting on many levels. We are entering the new year as a family rather than as a couple. As such, we want to make sure Ruby gets to know her family traditions. New Years Day has some special rituals in Korean families, so we started off 2011 doing these with Ruby for the first time.

We started off heading down to my mom’s place, where she had prepared the traditional New Year breakfast of duk-kook, which is a very tasty and nourishing soup. It was delicious! It was Carrie’s first time eating this dish – she liked it a lot!

Afterwards, it was time for Ruby to do “sae-beh”, where children wish their grandparents a happy new year with a bow. Of course, I had to help Ruby out with this as she can’t talk or bow on her own just yet!

Halmoni (the Korean word for Grandmother) gave Ruby the cutest card and a gift!

Three generations!

Ruby loves her Halmoni!

Afterwards, we went to celebrate my dad’s birthday (which is January 1!) where Ruby got to meet her cousins Jeffrey and Luke, and their Uncle Danny and Aunt Janet for the first time.

Ruby did “sae-beh” to her Harabuji (Korean for Grandfather) too!

Three generations!

It was especially sweet just how much Jeffrey and Luke took to Ruby. And vice versa! Ruby kept smiling at them and trying to suck their fingers.

It was a wonderful and very special New Year’s Day, and we can’t wait to see what this year will have in store for us! It’s going to be a very fast year, I suspect, as babies do grow up fast. By this time next year, Ruby will be walking and maybe even uttering a word or two. It’s going to be an amazing year, so watch this space!

Click below to see the whole album.

New Years Day 2011

Christmas Day 2010

After a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration with the Kim family, Christmas Day started out with just the three of us at home in the morning. Ruby had a few presents under the tree that she opened up with Daddy. Maybe she didn’t quite know what was going on, but that’s okay … we had fun watching her!

Since she loves being in her crib so much, we decided to get her a mobile. She is really into it! She loves the little animals and the soothing songs it plays …

She got lots of nice presents … including an awesome retro milk truck from The Shriers, Kitty Cat pajamas from Ed’s co-worker, Alice … and this super cute hat from Kristen!

This year, Ed and I set a $25 limit for ourselves. I got him a t-shirt from the LBC local spot, Joe Jost’s. They have Shiner Bock on tap there and Ed likes to order “The Special”. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a t-shirt so he could represent! :)

Ed surprised me with a gift card to Golden Spoon … my favorite frozen yogurt ever!

After we unwrapped our gifts, it was time to head over to my parents house for the festivities at The Facey’s. We all have handmade stockings made by my dad, and this year – Ruby got hers, too! It turned out amazing. I love the poinsettias …

Ruby was happy to see her Grandma & Papaw …

And the three Kims got a rare photo all together in front of their Christmas Tree!

After the presents were unwrapped, Ruby modeled her special Christmas dress sent to her all the way from England from Joanne!

It was a beautiful day spent with family. Check out Dad’s blog for more pics of The Facey’s on Christmas Day!

Kim Family Christmas Eve 2010

Ask us a year ago if we would’ve thought that we’d be celebrating Christmas Eve in a new house with a new baby, and we probably wouldn’t have believed it! This has been quite a year, and that made this year’s Christmas Eve dinner even more special.
As usual, we were hosting Ed’s mom, dad, aunt and uncle for dinner. We even have a dining room now! We set our modern table in our signature red and white stripes, and for this year’s place settings I decided to do sugar cookie stars in red and green.

Also new for this year, I made a roast …

I loaded up an oven bag with potatoes, carrots and onions and cooked it for about 2.5 hours.

I did it!

The candles were lit and we waited for our guests to arrive.

Even Ruby got dressed up in her special Christmas Eve dress from Halmoni!

Tonight’s dinner consisted of Ed’s mom’s amazing spinach salad with pomegranate, cranberry, blueberry and almonds … My roast with potatoes and carrots, wild rice, roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms, and Ed’s aunt brought the cake for dessert!

Even though we didn’t exchange gifts this year, the grandparents couldn’t resist buying a little something for Ruby. Harabuji bought Ruby two sets of pajamas, and Halmoni bought Ruby a special animal print dress since she was born in the year of the Tiger!

After everyone left, it was time for Ed to read Ruby ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Grandma & Papaw Facey bought us our own copy of the book so we could start the tradition of reading it to her before bedtime each Christmas Eve like my dad did for me!

This Christmas Eve was a wonderful night spent with our family in our new home. It just can’t get any better than that! Stay tuned for part two tomorrow! :)

Christmas Treats!

From Homemade Craftiness

As we’ve done for the past few years now, Mom & I got together to make our annual Christmas goodies. We decided to be a little different this year and try to make some candy! My favorite holiday treat is Peppermint Bark, so I definitely wanted to try making my own, and then I decided to make Peanut Brittle – because its old school and a holiday classic!

(See last year’s cookie packaging or my gingerbread and pumpkin loaves from the year before)

Its a good thing my mom had a candy thermometer. Talk about old school, this belonged to my Dad’s grandmother. The display shows “Soft Ball” & “Hard Ball” stages, as well as “Crack” stage and “Hard Crack” stage. Looking at it, I thought to myself what a lost art candy making is becoming. After all, “soft ball stage”?!? What? (click the photo to enlarge)

The Peppermint Bark was easy enough … just melt semi-sweet chocolate, add peppermint extract, pour in a pan and top with a layer of crushed peppermint candies. Set it in the fridge and let it cool for about an hour. After its hard, just repeat the same step with white chocolate and make a second layer. I love how festive it looks with the crushed peppermint candies on top! (It’s also no secret that my signature holiday aesthetic is red & white stripes).

The Peanut Brittle wasn’t as easy – but it’s something my mom & I won’t soon forget! It’s quite a process, but the end result was some seriously authentic Peanut Brittle! Here are a few shots throughout the process:

First, we had to boil the sugar and corn syrup until it reached 250 degrees (thanks, Candy Thermometer!) …

Then, we could add the peanuts and butter, and had to keep stirring until we hit Hard Crack Stage (290 degrees!) …

Once we added the baking soda, we got a quick, frothy surprise! This is when it really starts to look like the real deal. You have to get it out and pour into the pans quickly though, or else you’ll burn it all up …