Mom's 70'th Birthday Celebration

No one can believe mom's turning 70! I'm lucky to have half her energy level and sometimes have to remind her to slow down?!

Fred and I arrived in LA Friday evening and my brother Klein took us out for a wonderful sushi dinner. I haven't had uni (sea urchin) in years! I never dare unless I'm assured it's absolutely fresh. It's quite a unique flavor. Fred's favorite was the monk fish liver. (Fred: mmmmmm liver!)

Saturday was the big night for the banquet. Somehow creating invites for mom's shindig turned into creating table favors. My "brilliant" idea was to make boxes with photos of her through the years. I have to admit it turned out pretty cool. But making 56 is a labor of love! Thank goodness for all the extra hands (Fred, Albert & Greg) to help fold and ultimately stuff sweet buns into them.



Dinner was to start at 6 at Hop Li's. But with my family, that's the "suggested" arrival time for the early birds. The usual suspects from my mom's side of the family were there (about 36) and the remainder (7) were my dad's brother's family and a friend. Also as usual, it's a lively noisy group.

Mom put together a wonderful 10 course meal, the highlights being a fillet mignon pepper beef, shark fin soup with crab, lobster, 2 steamed rock cods, a mushroom medley over sweet pea greens, and seafood shitake rice. The cake from Kelley's Bakery was once again amazing - a layered cake with chestnut and buttery Napoleon. Yum!

Here's a few photos but cousin Kenny took loads more so I'll add them to the blog later this week.



Mom's photo album by Kenny & Ida
(Unable to view the slideshow? Click here.)

Ave's Wedding Extravaganza Weekend

What a weekend! My youngest girl cousin married this last weekend and it was quite the whirlwind affair. We flew in Friday evening, we're picked up by Uncle Albert, and immediately headed over to the Mandarin Chateau in Chinatown for dinner. We were a bit early but we met other early birds and got to know some of the other out of town guests. It was a lively and fun dinner with good Shanghai style cuisine.

The next day, we headed over to see the Seyffert 5 for a bit before heading back and getting ready for the wedding. It was held at a beautiful old Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Blvd, just down the street from the old Bullocks-Wilshire (for those LA-ites in the know). The ceremony was catholic and presided by a dear family friend of the Schodorfs, Doc. They also had several performances/interludes performed by family and friends. All wonderful personal touches.

The reception was at Vibiana, the former Catholic church in downtown LA. It was compromised during the big Whittier earthquake in the early 90's (the new church is now right off the freeway). I used to work up the street from it when I was interning at CalTrans. It's was built in the 1800's - quite a stately mission. The renovations are wonderful. Below, we have some fun pictures of us messing around with the old confessionals.

On Sunday, we slept in just a little and headed out for Dim Sum. We even coaxed my aunt and uncle to come over to the house for a couple of rounds of mah jong. I had a great game and actually won for once! Maybe it's sort of like beginner's luck when it's been so long since the last time I played. By 4:30, the "get dressed" recommenced. The Chinese banquet was held at the Emperial Palace. The dinner was lush and delicious. The favorites at our table were the the fresh steamed rock cod, lobster over noodles, abalone, and shark fin soup.

It was wonderful spending the whole weekend with family. I spent most of my time mingling than taking pictures. Actually, except for a couple...the pix were taken by Fred. I guess that's why I'm actually in a few! ;)

Xmas in LA

What a great visit to LA for the holidays! Thanks to everyone who took time out to lunch or dinner with me! Sometimes you go along during the year and feel like you really don't have too many people but close family in your life. Then the holidays come around and what can I say but feel loved and honored by everyone who went out of their way to see me. I was booked solid for the week! On top of spending Christmas with famliy (both sides of the famliy), I got to see my best friend from high school, my photo teacher from high school, my ex's daughter (who is now 21! OMG she was 3 just yesterday!), my friends from Countrywide, and my new friends from the China trip this year. What a blast. I still can't believe it's nearly 10 years since I moved out of LA. The ties and memories are still strong though. There's no "home" like the place you grew up.