Thanksgiving 2008

It was our last Thanksgiving in Chicago... Our next Thanksgiving will probably be at home! I haven't been home (my parents' home) for Thanksgiving in... 9 years.

Unfortunately, I had to work for most of the holiday, which includes Weds, Thurs, Fri, and Sat. It sucked, especially since I was really sick with a flu-like illness starting Weds. But I got through the work day and I rushed home on Weds and cooked for like 5 hours straight, while doing 2 loads of laundry at the same time. It doesn't sound like fun, but I really enjoy preparing for Thanksgiving.

So Thurs, I also had a full day of work... nothing went as smoothly as I would have liked and I was over an hour late getting out. I rushed home, we packed up the car with all our food and drinks and games and extra chairs and sped off to our friend Dan's place for Thanksgiving.

It was WONDERFUL. We had a special "Heritage" turkey that comes from a line of turkey that has been raised as naturally as possible.
This is the list of things we had on the table:

chickpea crostini
herb-marinated goat cheese
assorted salami/an additional cheese
roasted turkey
gravy
sage and goat cheese mashed potatoes
apple, bacon and carmelized onion bread stuffing
green bean casserole
wild mushroom and chestnuts
cranberry sauce with ginger and pears
roasted shallots
butternut squash soup
fresh-baked bread
cornbread
pecan pie
pumpkin cheesecake

here's a picture of my plate:


we were so stuffed at the end... plus warm apple cider that I got from the Green City Market, which was SO much better than the store-bought variety and worth every penny. Yum. There were 9 of us, lots of heated conversation about everything from the economics of the bailout plan to the very special bottle of Three Floyd's Dark Lord Stout which btw tastes like soy sauce. (i hate beer)

I was so exhausted by midnight, had a huge headache, and so we missed out on the games. But it was still a wonderful night.

Why I'm Thankful in 2008 (a partial list)
1. my wonderful hubby
2. this being my last year of residency!
3. we're moving to california soon!
4. my parents who are dysfunctional but loving and supportive
5. all our loved ones who made our wedding day the best day of our lives
6. the current state of our economy doesn't really affect us since we didn't have money to lose and not enough to spend on anything in the near future!
7. good health
8. my awesome super smart and stylish sister, who also happens to be the best wedding coordinator around
9. my grandmother who practically raised us
10. my privileged life; and hopefully because of that, i can play some small role in helping those who are less privileged.

It's already been a month

We've already been married for over a month! When do you stop being a "newlywed"?

Time to post some of my favorite pictures from our big day. I'll split this up into three entries. Today will be ceremony pictures.

This is the front of our Church- the First Congregational Church of L.A. We had no special affiliation with this church and picked it because it was beautiful, in a great location near our reception venue, and it was available!

This is a great shot of the largest pipe organ inside a Church, in the world. We didn't hire any extra musicians and instead, had the Church organist play pieces that we loved- Ave Maria, Pachelbel's Canon, etc.

At first I didn't want to wear a veil, but my mom convinced me of it. She felt the Church was so large and grande that a long veil would work best. My grandmother's sister made this mantilla veil for me. I loved it!

All my bridesmaids. Three were my oldest friends from high school, and my sister was my maid of honor. My bouquet was all pink calla lillies, with some bling in the form of crystals. The girls had green orchids mixed with various other beautiful pink flowers.

My two grandmothers wore traditional Korean dresses. This is my maternal grandmother getting ready to walk down the aisle with my cousin. Her outfit was so cute! and the colors matched perfectly with our wedding colors: brown, pink, and green.

It was really important for me to walk down the aisle with both my parents. I'm not much of a traditionalist and think the whole idea of being "given away" by my father to be outdated and sexist (my personal opinion!!). The ceremony itself was really emotionally intense. We put together the entire ceremony from an outline provided to us by our minister Kyle Nash. We know Kyle Nash from medical school and she was an extremely pivotal person in making the medical school experience a positive one for us, so we felt really lucky that she flew out to CA for us! I cried and laughed almost the entire way through, while stressing out about black mascara dripping down my face. But our makeup artist was awesome and my makeup stayed perfect the entire night! Thank goodness our photographer was able to capture my non-crying face!Yay, we're married! This is us, feeling very relieved! Afterward, we went immediately into the bridal room with our wedding party for a few minutes together. We didn't want a long receiving line, so we waited until our guests started leaving for the cocktail hour, and then our photographer took just Armand and me to take some portraits. Those are up next...!
All these photographs are by Daniel Chin Photography.

Big Weekend

Halloween. I used to think this was a really weird "holiday" and that it seemed really silly that "grown-ups" would get all dressed up and overdose on candy and/or alcohol, while roaming the streets on a random cold day.

I guess I still sort of think that... but our program director loves Halloween and so every year, she throws a huge party for us. Open Bar. Great Food. Fun Music and Dancing. and so, I've gotten sucked into it. This year the theme was "saturday morning cartoons." We went as Smurfette and Papa Smurf.

I was post-call but having had a light call on heme/onc for once, it was a blast. I was the designated driver but still got to enjoy the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth beef appetizers and donut-hole dessert. mmmm. :)

Post-Halloween, on November 1st, we celebrated Armand's birthday. He's a halloween baby, like so many other people I happen to know! We went to A Tavola, which I had been hearing about for so long, for dinner. It's this small cozy restaurant in a house! (Like Think, but better). Great Italian food with reasonable prices. I had the lamb ragout over tagliatelle and Armand had the grouper. Oh, and their baked apple tart was AMAZING. Maybe one of the best apple desserts I have ever had. I inhaled it.

After dinner, we met up with a bunch of friends at Juicy Wine Company. The first floor of this place feels more like a market, not really designed for lingering, but the upstairs is beautiful. Dark, and airy, with booths lining the sides, and a couch-type seating area along the window. This is the area that we reserved. They brought out a huge meat and cheese platter and everyone ordered their own drinks. I had the Pom Royale, which was pomegranate liquer and bubbly. That was after the mojito. :) Our friend Dan made another kick-ass chocolate cake with cinnamon and chile pepper spice.

It's been a great, relaxing weekend. I'm catching up on some reading. Gearing up for the new week to start, with the Scary Intimidating Attending.

p.s. Good luck Obama!!