This year for Christmas we are heading west to my state California. I have a T-shirt that reads, “I left my heart in California and that couldn’t be more truel. The rest of my family resides in California and they are definitely a part of my heart. Ray and I flew out on the 21st and we’re coming home on the 28th. That’s a full week with my family. I’m so excited!

We’re staying with my older sister and her husband in Walnut Creek, about 20 minutes from San Francisco. I love Walnut Creek. Did a lot of partying there in my younger days and every time I come back it seems like the town just gets better and better. The first night we went out for some Vietnamese and then headed to a dive for for drinks.

Ray and I have this favorite sushi restaurant called Nara. Every time were back in the bay area we always meet up with a bunch of our friends for sushi there. It’s nothing fancy, just really good and affordable. Also, I have fond memories of that place because when Ray and I first started dating we use to go there often. Tonight Lana and Kevin came out with us and the funniest thing happened. Lana was talking to me in Chinese, thinking that no one could understand her but hello, we’re in San Fransisco, where the Chinese dominate.  and Soo Hoo is sitting right across from her who happens to speak fluent Chinese. It was awesome. After sushi we headed to a nearby bar.

Ray and his best friend Chris. I know Ray misses him. Oh, and tonight we got the news that Marci, Chris’s wife is preggo. I couldn’t be more excited and jealous.

These are the guys that Ray use to work with when we lived here. I totally wishes I would have called my friends to come out to play tonight too but I figured there would be plenty of time, us being here a whole week and all, and let Ray have tonight for his buds, but there wasn’t enough time and now I’m regretting it.

One last photo before we say good-bye.

My parents will be in town later tonight so in order to mentally and physically prepare for them we went out and got massages. I already made it tradition to get massages with my parents every time we visit them in Southern California but I think after today I’m going to extend this traditions to all the Chung’s.

After massages we got pedis.

And then we stopped by the building. I wonder how Mel is doing?

We retired back home where we awaited for my parents and Selena’s arrival. Kola can’t wait to see them too.

My mom and her daughters minus my oldest sister Lien, she was in Vegas with her family.

Dinner time.

My dad brought us back these sexy pj’s from China.

My dad literally flew in from China yesterday and the next day they drove up to Walnut Creek to see us. Talk about jet lag. I was so so excited to see him.

This is my mother. My heart misses her everyday.

We definitely drank a lot of wine on this trip.

Well that concludes the first half of our trip. It was an amazing Christmas Eve. Hope you all are having as much fun as I am.

The holidays have arrived and now it seems as though every time I turn my head there’s a new event to go to and I’m absolutely loving it. No need to make excuses to be drink and be merry anymore.

Here’s a video of my friend Pepe singing in Spanish. I don’t know why but I thought it was hilarious. I think because at the time I thought he totally just winged it without knowing the words, which is something I could totally see him doing but turns out that it’s actually one of his favorite Spanish songs. Well regardless, kudos to him.

And this is his girlfriend, Michelle, singing Black Velvet. She’s got an amazing voice and together they make the cutest couple, well, almost the cutest couple. Ray and I are pretty fucking adorable. We’ve been known to make people throw up.

And this is my buddy Kippers. He’s a cool ass dude. He’s like a boy version of me, only with a smaller dick. Not that I’ve seen his dick, but I’m pretty sure if I were a dude I would have a kick stand for a dick.

Guess what, I’m going on my first ever Santa Crawl. How fun. Ray and I went out in search for Santa suits but when word of a Santa Crawl got around there was no suits to be found. I guess that’s what we get for waiting till the last minute. In despair I called Lauren and she came to our rescue and went out and purchased a couple suits for us, one size fits all my ass. We all met up at Laurens and from there we headed out to our first bar to meet up with the rest of the Santas.

We were seriously like one of the first to get there but soon more and more Santas trickled in and before long there were a shit ton of Santas drinking and being merry, the way Santas should be. I even found a couple of Santas with their dick in a box.

Seriously, look at all the Santas, it was so crowded and I was getting antsy. I wanted to get the party started and parade down to the next bar but who ever put this event on obviously wasn’t an event planner. We spent half the night at the first bar and none of the bars were informed of our Santa Crawl. So rude. Talk about a surefire way to get pissed off bartenders. So finally we were tired of still being at the first place so we decided to head out ourselves and sure enough more Santas slowly followed our lead.

Now get this the second bar we went to shooed us away. Missed out on a lot of money. Good thing too because it was a super small, swanky restaurant type bar. 150 Santas would have been so out of place and all of us just wouldn’t have fit. Again, bad planning. So we hiked our happy asses to the 3rd bar. When we walked in the one and only bartender goes, “I think I’m about to get my ass handed to me.” Why yes you are.

And slowly but surely the Santas stumbled in.

So finally we all left the 3rd place and headed to the 4th bar, which also happen to be a really nice, restaurant/bar, too small to fit 150 Santas. Seriously, who planned this event? It wasn’t long before we quit that place and decided to take a detour next door for a quick bite to eat. Apparently we we’re the only ones who had this bright idea because a few Santas had already beat us there and then soon more and more Santas deserted the last place for this place and before we knew it the place was packed with Santas.

And looks who decides to show up, Matthew Mellinger.

The group.

And soon all the Santas telepathically knew to just meet up at the first bar. That was really the best bar for all of us to be at.

And there Eric met an icky girl.

And that was enough for all of us to call it a night.

Because of the Seinfeld we have so many fun terms and labels like Soup Nazi and Festivus Party. I almost feel bad that I wasn’t a Seinfeld fan. I could have learned so much. I mean, before today I would have never known what a Festivist Party was, hell I thought I was going to a sushi rolling party; I could have sworn that’s what Lauren said it was. I even got on FaceBook and boasted the news to everyone, “delicious, fun and entertaining,” I said.

Nope, not a sushi rolling party. Awe well, not the biggest fan of working for my food. But there was a lot of delicious food, even sushi. And I even got to roll my one, my first one ever.

And I finally got to meet Chris, Amy’s man. Yes, he exists. The whole time I thought he was just a figment of her imagination.

Me and the girls.

And yes there was even a pole, but instead of passing it around to bitch and gripe to our hearts content we put it to better use and used it as a stripper pole, so much more productive.

What a great night. Happy Festivus to you.

SocialFly is working the Central Market, Deck the Halls with Delicious Event tonight. The event will be taking place upstairs and not in the exact grocery store. I’m excited because Central Market is centered around food which means there will be lots and lots of samples of scrumptious, decadent treats and an open bar too. Yay!

My girls finally arrived  which is good because now I can leave the boys to work while I roam around and explore.

As always the booth is jam packed.

But we still manage to make it in for a couple rounds of photos.

It was a good night.

Thanks Central Market for having us.

Every year for the holidays Ray and I will switch off. For example, one year we’ll spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with his and the following year we’ll spend Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine. We timed it perfect to where Bea and Guav end up being in town too because they do the same switcheroo but only with Christmas.

Christmas in Dallas goes for several days and holds many events. Since marrying Ray I’ve seemed to have married into several other families as well and we have to manage our schedule accordingly so that we’re able to fit everyone who’s anyone in. It was the first Christmas in Dallas where Ray didn’t get to spend with his BFF Chris Miller. However we did spontaneously run into them at the Gallery Mall and ended up having lunch with them.

Shane Semmler was in town from Hawaii. Yay! I happen to miss Shane very much and have never met his parents but he use to always speak very highly of them so I was looking forward to meeting them along with the rest of his family. He was in Austin during the time I was in the hospital and paid me a visit then. After several attempts of trying to reach Shane via phone while we were in Dallas we decided to pay him a surprise visit. We got there at the perfect time because as soon as we arrived was the exact moment that they were planning on going out to eat. So of course we joined them and then went back to the Semmler’s home and watched a video his parents put together every year of the family for the family. There was even a photo of Ray and I in the video. Yay, see we are family too! We also played Rock Band where I failed miserably at singing Living On a Prayer by Bon Jovi.

The Semmler’s loved me so much they invited us to join them at what would be my first Mavericks game the very next day. It was so exciting at first, the stadium was so big, lights were flashing, and music so loud with the hot dancers shaking there ass on the court below. Yes, yes Go Mavericks!

I think Shane is a spitting image of his dad.

A little blurry because I was trying to find the right setting on my camera but here is Ray and Shane being a goof ball.

Mavericks fans.

It was a sad game at first, so sad that I was embarrassed to be a Maverick fan but then I remembered that I was at home stadium. Luckily they ended up winning in the end, not by much though, it was a close game.

The next day was the Eve of Christmas and what better day to shop and what better place than Wal*Mart. Yeah, especially when Christmas at the TalPlacido’s was going to be that night. You know I wasn’t the brains of this operation. I have two words, Kuya Ben. Bea and Ray are testing out the bikes Santa’s gonna get for Cloe and Lyric with Ben’s money. Speaking of Santa, Cloe came up to me earlier and said Santa wasn’t real. I asked her who told her that and she said I did when they were down visiting us. I did? Oh, yeah, I did, didn’t I? Let this be a lesson to all of you. Think twice before you have Aunt Doe babysit.

This is Chrismas at the TalPlacidos.

Christmas At The TalPlacido’s from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

LEGOS! He was real excited about his present.

Christmas is all about the kids, it was no different here.

Look what Santa got the rug rats.

Look What Santa Got the Lyric and Cloe from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Even Nyny got a present, and if you look in the background Papa’s got a brand new plasma.

Ny Ny We Got You A Present from Doan Chung on Vimeo.

Me and Bea. Photo by Guav Gauvin.

Christmas day was spent at Aunt Dora and her husband Todd’s home. I was a bit disappointed this year because there was no pineapple cake. I’ve been looking forward to this cake all year long and the maker of the cake happen to be sick. Sheesh, the nerve.

Aunt Dora is truly one of the nicest people I know. Every time I go over to her house she has several presents for me. She’s the type that goes Christmas shopping the day after Christmas and then every other weekend just for presents for the fuck of it so when some one comes over there will be a present for them. Look at how many presents she bought for her brother Ray alone.

Dad’s got a brand new jacket.

Nick’s got brand new money.

Aunt Dora got an angel.

Todd and I are the photographers.

Aunt Dora made sure she had several presents for everyone that arrived. Nick bought his girlfriend and his girlfriend brought her sister and she brought her boyfriend.

Uncle Ray brought his new girlfriend and her son.

Aunt Dora and Todd take time to pose for a photo.

Ray looks handsome wearing a tie.

Grandpa was there too.

The next day we went to Guav’s favorite store in Texas, Fry’s, home of anything and everything electric.

That night Ray and I toilet papered Kuya Ben’s car as payback for the last time he and Bea toilet papered our car on Random Ass Day.

Our first attempt was a failed disaster so we merely drove back to 711, bought some more toilet paper and a gallon of water and just threw wet bombs at his car. The funny thing is, no one cleaned it up the next day and they just drove off with it like that and let the wind blow it off.

Bea and Guav drove back to Austin with us in Ben’s car to help unload the washer and dryers we bought off Kuya Ben and a bunch of random other stuff we got for free. We grabbed dinner at a local Indian Vegetarian place I’ve been meaning to try out. Ray didn’t like it but it’s okay because all the non-eating meat folks did. Ray also got a ticket that night, two actually, because he was driving Kuya Ben’s car which happens to be expired on inspection and registration. The next day we headed back to Dallas ready to celebrate the New Year.