A year to give thanks

We celebrated Joshua's first Christmas with a big family dinner at our place. Hue's Mom prepared a sumptuous Vietnamese meal consisting of sauteed clams with basil, fish maw asparagus soup, and lettuce wraps. This was a good year for our family, with some of us celebrating new jobs, new friends, new ambitions, and for us, of course, a new family addition. For all these things, we are all very thankful.

In the group picture (from left to right) are Kim, Hiep, a sleeping Joshua, Papa Huynh, Tran, Hue, Casey, Phil, Momma, and Holly (Hue's aunt). As you can see, Joshua was out for the count, but made up for it by keeping us up most of the rest of the night. After getting stuffed, we played several rounds of the card game Apples-to-Apples, followed by many more ruthless rounds of Texas hold 'em. Holly, a beginner, entertained us immensely with her aggressive betting and bluffing, and actually did pretty well until she went all in against someone with a legitimate hand. Ohh..

The gift exchange went really really well; the gifts were very thoughtfully selected and everyone really liked their stuff. Even Joshua got a little set of winter clothes for his future visits to Grandma and Grandpa Soo on the East Coast. I say we should all do this sort of thing more often.. just to see the smiles on people's faces. : )