Forever Thuy

So the party this year was held at my cousins house down in Huntington Beach. Here's a picture of the tree that greeted us as we walked through the door.

Isn't it funny how just because you carry a camera, everyone expects you to take pictures of them, despite the fact that they'll probably never see the prints? Here's my aunt and uncle, just one out of over a hundred shots.

I love kids. That's one of my nephews there with his dad. He has the brightest eyes I've ever seen and he runs around the house babbling to himself!

After frolicking around the house for awhile we had a huge feast, Asian style! Anyone who's been to one of these can testify to how many people are there and how much noise is stirred!

Some of my cousins managed to nab a good spot on the leather couches as they grubbed. Myself, I found a nice little nook beside the wine bar where all the drinks were located.

After satisfying my hunger I went around looking for my niece Katelynn. I found her enjoying the pleasures of the spiral staircase. Kids can be so easily pleased.

She laughed so hard as I was swinging her back and forth on the rocking chair that I thought she was going to puke. How she's grown so fast. It seems like just yesterday when she just came into this world.

Here's a couple of my cousins striking a pose for the camera. Can't think of much else to say, so blah.

See, I told you that you could find me in here somewhere. Here I am with my sister and everyone was passing around my camera and snapping away. The benefits of not having to pay for film.

My cousin receiving a little gift from our niece..

... I wonder when I'll ever have a daughter as sweet?

So here's a small family picture before going home. There was less than half of my family there and still had problems fitting everyone into this picture. To think, this is just my mom's side, and this doesn't even count all my relatives in Vietnam. LOL, I feel for any future girl that has to deal with such a huge family =)

Afterwards we all brought in gifts and exchanged to everyone else. I kept the gift giving to just my immediate family, cousins within my generation, and any younger nieces and nephews. Even with such constraints, I still spent in about a grand on gifts, and that's not counting what I got myself, hehehe!

In one big rush of fury, all the kids ripped into their presents and seeing the eyes light up at all their new toys was satisfying enough. Materialism be damned, this is what Christmas is really about, spending time with your family and loved ones and bringing joy into their lives!

So you must be wondering what I got myself later on eh? For some reason I have this reputation of being particularly good to myself over the holidays! Well, at least I'm not nicknamed Sir Spend-A-Lot like my cousin in red up there! Anyway, I ended up buying myself a Gamecube along with a few games, several new computer components like a DVD-R burner and a Firewire Bridge, and several DVD box sets including the original Transformers! Am I a kid? Heck yeah, love me for who I am hehehe.