Christmas in Vegas

Spending Christmas Day in Las Vegas might have been a little overwhelming with the madness of drunkards and obnoxious tourists especially since I always thought that Christmas would be quiet since the hotel prices were ridiculously cheap. But spending time with the family on Christmas Day in Las Vegas was the best way to deal with Vegas :)

• city center's Halo exhibit •

• art inside city center •

• pretend paris •

Christmas Eve in Disneyland

Holidays at a theme park can be a bad combination...lots of families, little rugrats that you can trip on, crazy tourists and long lines. But surprisingly, Disneyland wasn't that busy on Christmas Eve. It was quite crowded but the line rides were short (average: 20-30 minutes per ride). We even had a park hopper pass so we were able to ride all the major rides at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure (which serves beer which is the biggest bonus). Seeing the park decorated for the holiday was excellent and the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve!

• entering the "happiest place" •

• day •

• night•

• poinsettias brings in the holiday spirit •

• it's a small world magically light up •

Stumbling upon a new venture...

Since September, I have been a happy, unemployed camper (i.e. housewife). It's given me the chance to travel to Europe and South Africa, discover new hobbies (welding, motorcycle riding), build up my tasty cooking skills and challenge myself with my photography skills - which is by far, my favorite when it comes to hobbies (photos)...but that can only last so long.

When the weather started to get a tad colder and rainer here (although it didn't last long), I figured that it was time to do something, I just wasn't sure what. I emailed my fitness trainer and asked if he had anything for available for me to help on. That's all it took for me to have my first client as a freelance producer. For the next couple of months, I'll be producing, shooting and editing over two hundred videos for a mobile phone application. It's nice to keep busy and have something new and creative to do. It was also the best excuse to get the new MacBook Pro, the full Adobe creative suites package and perhaps, eventually a new HD camera to work with.

One of the drawbacks that I am discovering is how to work from home. I spend about two days a week working at the studio and three days a week editing from home. It's been quite an adjustment to try and figure out how to work in my "office" without my pajamas on. What it took was a friend stopping by to fix our keg-a-rator only to have him find me in my pajamas and mismatching socks (I don't have the heart to throw away my perfectly good, wacky socks so the solo ones, I put together and wear around the house :)

It is quite nice to work for myself, especially since it gives me the flexibility to travel and work from anywhere in the world so not having a boss to ask for time off is an incredible experience. I've also had to create my own office although it's sad that I've taken over our dining table since I use two laptops to work. Perhaps that just means that we might need a bigger place at some point?! :-)

Overall Christmas Celebration

Originally, we were going to host our first Christmas in Santa Clara. My parents and sister would come up, we would open presents, make lots of home cooked meals and just celebrate with each other. But of course, things can always change quickly so instead of having our first hosted Christmas, we are now heading out to the Netherlands the day after Christmas to visit Marijn's family, mainly because his grandma has fallen quite ill.

Since our original plans have changed, we've decided to make the most of it. Christmas Eve: Disneyland! Christmas Day: family gets up early to drive us to Las Vegas (only way to fly out to AMS based on miles). Spend Christmas Day in Vegas and then get on a flight for the Netherlands on the 26th. We'll be in the cold, snowy and hopefully not rainy, Netherlands for two weeks, spending quality time with his grandma and family. Hopefully we'll be able to sneak away for a ski trip in Belgium. It also gives us the chance to celebrate New Years in Amsterdam (which I am not sure my liver or lungs will never forgive me for) It will be nice to head out there for the last of the Winter celebrations, it's just unfortunate it has to be under these circumstances.

Lensplaying

I recently bought myself a Canon 50mm prime lens and have been having so much fun with the new toy. I thought that it would be limiting to work with a fixed lens but it's been a learning experience to work with the limitations and learn to be creative in order to get the desired shot. It's a fast lens, perfect for the price (less than a hundred for a Canon lens!) and works really nicely with low light. It doesn't have the best bokeh (like my other favorite 70-200mm lens but that's heavy to always carry around) but it works for me and my playing. Of course, it's only just playing but it's been a lot of fun building up the mad camera skills. There are a few more camera lenses that I'm looking into getting but for now, I'll just keep playing with this lens!

• happy bokeh •

• sitting by the fire? •

• holiday lights •

• two in one holidays •

new itty bitty second cousin!

My mother has a very small family: one older sister who lives in California nearby and a younger brother who lives Vietnam. My mom's sister has no children and her brother has three boys and one girl. We don't get to see our cousins often but every time we are in Vietnam, it feels like there is no distance between us. The middle boy was married earlier this year and just had a baby (the first, second cousin of our family) so it was a great surprise to find that they had named their first baby girl, KimMai! What a wonderful surprise it was to hear that she was named after myself and little sister! We are looking forward to meeting her in June next year!

• introducing the new lil' cousin •

• nguyen thi kimmai - i can't wait to pinch her cheeks! •

Finding the Holiday Spirit

Last year, I couldn't muster up any holiday spirit but I am happy to have the holiday spirit this year! We're throwing a Sinter Klaas holiday party for our friends this weekend and will give them a little taste of a Dutch holiday. For Christmas, instead of dealing with the traffic of heading down to L.A., my parents and sister are actually coming up here so we are also going to host our first Christmas. It's quite exciting to be throwing these holiday celebrations because I think that it gives me the holiday spirit. Now I just have to figure out what to cook!

• our christmas/fourth of july holiday sparkles •

• finding the holiday spirit •

• christmas lights swirls •

• swirling joy •

• model husband •

• holiday lighted angel •