Inauguration Day and Night

Yes, we were open at work on Inauguration Day.  I polled other businesses and they were going to be open on Tuesday; even the banks were going to be open.

But I knew that Inauguration Day was going to be special and that those of us working (a lot of people took the day off) would want to watch the inauguration and maybe parts of the parade. So at 11:00am, we ordered pizza and settled into the conference room around 11:30.  For the next couple of hours, we marveled at the number of people on the Mall, felt great when Barack Obama took the oath, enjoyed the music and the poems, and listened intently to the new President's speech.  When I got up Tuesday morning, I was a little sad that I wasn't going to be on the Mall, but when I saw the crowds on TV, I knew that I would have felt claustrophobic and lost in the sea of humanity.

I was glad to celebrate Inauguration Day with Maki and other people at work.  This was a day for celebrating with our community and sharing our thoughts about the future.

Around 1:30pm, we all went back to work.  and believe it or not, a lot of work got done.  We have out of state clients and the phones were surprisingly busy.  As I expected, out of state clients were not as in tune with the inauguration and had little idea that DC was basically shut down for the day.  All of our clients in DC + associations in the VA and MD suburbs were closed as well.

After work, I invited co-workers and a bunch of neighbors over for our own Neighborhood Inauguration Party.   We had homemade pizza, enari (tofu) pockets, hummus and chips, BBQ pork and cole slaw, cookies, beer and wine.  We watched CNN for coverage of the parade and the balls.  We loved the President's tuxedo but didn't much like Michelle Obama's dress (it was not flattering, we thought, and not camera-friendly). 

CJ had a ball playing trains and watching a movie with some buddies from the neighborhood.  He's turning into quite the social boy.  He loves it when we have people over to visit and he's very good about sharing his toys, even his trains!

Here is a photo of the entrance to the GW Parkway from Old Town.  Northbound access was blocked and there were barricades the entire length of the Parkway from Old Town to DC.

Here's a photo from CNN of the coverage on inauguration night.

Here's a photo of some of my guests.  The homemade pizza was a big hit!

More Funny CJ Sayings

CJ continues to be a happy, chatty kid. He said he wanted to go to mass today, but when I told him that he had to be quiet for a whole hour, he decided he would stay home. Yup, that's how much he likes to talk.

What's interesting is how he conjugates verbs using standard rules, but the end result is wrong because English has so many darn exceptions. For example, he'll say:

• Mama, dada teached me how to play a new game.
• I breaked the tracks.
• Mama, today, I sleeped in the afternoon.

The funny thing is that he will sometimes use the correct verb conjugations for the verbs above, but at other times, he will conjugate incorrectly.

He is also quite enthusiastic about life. When I ask him a question, he often says, "Oh, yes!" or "Sure!"

Some funny and sweet things he's said recently:

"Mommy, come quick! I have a surprise for you!" (This is his latest ploy to get me to come running or interrupt me when I'm getting dressed or cooking.)

"Mama, I know that you need to work so that you can buy me trains and sushi." (His nanny share really, really hates the fact that her mommy works.)

"Mommy, I don't mind that you go to work because I know that you will always come back." (See above.)

Fire Spinning

My nephew spins fire.  Or rather, he practices fire poi, which involves spinning metal balls filled with kerosene and suspended on metal chains.  He got introduced to fire poi in high school and continues to practice even while studying in Japan.

While visiting us over the holidays, Rusty gave us two command performances: in front of our house and in front of the office.  Thank goodness no neighbors called the police on us.  Rusty is very careful, he has hundreds of hours of practice behind him, he wears a kevlar mask and gloves, and he performs a good distance away from folks.  He is also very careful with how he disposes of any leftover fuel.

Let me tell you, fire poi is unbelievable.  It's mesmerizing, it's graceful, it's frightening, and it's beautiful to watch.  When Rusty was performing in front of our house, some neighbors came out to watch.  During the performance in front of our office, the security guard joined us and seemed to really enjoy the fire spinning.  Here are some pictures and a video.

The photos were taken with my Sony cybershot camera, on night mode, no flash, 3 second exposure.

This photo makes me think of musical notes.

This video was taken with my Sony cybershot in video mode.  I have HD footage but the file is huge and I'm still new to converting HD video to different formats.

When Mama Turned to Mommy

Somehow, over the holidays, CJ went from calling me" mama" to "mommy." I wonder if it's because he spent so much time with my nieces and nephew, who calls their moms "mom." Or if it's a natural transition that just happens.

It's just one of the changes I'm seeing in my little man.

Christmas Eve at Home

No matter how much I plan, Christmas Eve always sneaks up on me. This year, my shopping was pretty much done, my Christmas Eve menu was planned, and I had a plan for the evening's events. I had to work the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas Eve, so I think I robbed myself of enjoying the holiday season. It was nice not to have to travel during the holidays since traveling has become such a hassle these days.

But the tree was up and decorated, the house was clean (thanks to some extra help from mom, Maki and Alex), I had a pressed tablecloth (thanks to Alex) and all my presents were wrapped (God bless mom!).

I took December 24 off so I could cook all day. I love to cook and it's a treat to have more than 30 minutes to get a meal on the table. My Christmas Eve meal was:

• Meatballs
• My famous pesto dip and crackers
• Mexican corn soup
• Homemade stuffing (I guess you call it dressing since it wasn't cooked in a turkey)
• Greek salad
• Roasted sweet potatoes and bell peppers with haloumi cheese
  
• Baked ham with a brown sugar glaze (thank you Dina)
  
• Asparagus (thank you Eve and Karl)
• Leche flan (thank you mom)
• Filipino biko (thank you Dina)
• My famous tiramisu

Our family tradition is to go to early evening mass, have dinner (noche buena), then open presents. It makes for a long night, but it's always a really great evening. The whole family is together and we spend hours eating, opening, eating, opening, eating some more.

Half the family attended the children's mass at St. Joseph. CJ was wiped out and actually napped during mass. It was a blessing in disguise since he had a long night ahead of him. Our friends Eve, Karl and Hans Erik + Seana, Beckett, Peyton and Tanya came over, which made the evening very festive. Back in CA, we always had friends join us and my entire family loved it. The more, the merrier.

After the first round of eating, we attacked the presents. My older sister is always the MC of presents. This year, the focus was on the kids, Jessie and CJ, who got mounds and mound of presents. CJ favorite's presents were Trackmaster Thomas at Action Canyon, The Great Discovery movie, a take along Thomas belt (which makes CJ look like a construction dude) and matchbox cars (a bunch of them).

CJ and Jessie enjoying their presents

Auntie Bambi and CJ

Misty and Jessie; Jessie loved the leopard skin from Misty!

Mom and the boys

The entire clan

Rusty Comes Home for the Holidays

The entire Pineda clan came out to VA for the holidays. Traditionally, Christmas has been in the SF Bay Area, with the main events held at my older sister's house. But this year, we all decided that we needed a change of pace, so mom, older sister and niece, and brother came out to VA.

We were all going to be together except for Rusty, my nephew. Rusty is studying in Japan for a year. It's always expensive to fly to and from Japan, and it was going to be even more expensive to fly Rusty home for the holidays, so we all expected Christmas without Rusty this year. My mom was a little sad because as the kids get older, it will be harder and harder to get everyone together.

But, as luck would have, my sister was able to fly Rusty home on miles. It was going to be a surprise for the entire family but Rusty spilled the beans to Alex and Misty via Facebook. So Rusty's arrival became a huge surprise for grandma, my mom.

Maki picked up Rusty at the airport and brought him home. He sent Rusty to the front door so mom could answer the doorbell. You should have seen the look on mom's face when she opened the door to find Rusty standing there. I think Rusty in the flesh did not register at first, but then she got all excited and hung up on my sister, with whom she was talking. It was just like a Folger's commercial.

That night, we all went out for a sushi dinner, a Pineda favorite. As you can see from the smile on CJ's face, he was happy to be having sushi AND hanging out with Uncle Alex and cousin Rusty. Rusty is very special to CJ because Rusty spent a summer with us a couple of summers ago. For four weeks, Rusty worked at Matrix Group until 4pm, then came home and took CJ swimming.