This year, Kevin and I traveled to New York City to celebrate the holidays with my family in Brooklyn. Holidays in New York City are absolutely amazing. You can feel the holiday spirit just walking down the streets. Christmas music is playing in almost every store. People are out and about enjoying the views of the city. There are endless activities available to enjoy every day of the week. You can ice skate at Rockefeller Center underneath the largest Christmas tree, watch one of the hundreds of shows on Broadway, enjoy pastries and coffee at local bakeries, or shop at one of the many retailers throughout the city. I’ve done all of these activities many times growing up in New York City. Even though I don’t live in New York City anymore, I always try to visit at least twice a year. Christmas time is one of the times during the year where I make an effort to travel back to New York to enjoy the holidays with my family.
Flying to New York City during the winter can be tough. Fortunately for us, there were no delays or cancellations. Before we even landed in New York City, I already made a game plan for everything I wanted to accomplish this holiday season. I still had to wrap gifts (which I arranged to have delivered to my parents’ home in Brooklyn), pick up ingredients for baking, and meet up with family and friends. I was delighted to be home, but I also knew there would be a lot of activities packed into a short amount of time.
Day 1: We arrived at my parents’ home in Brooklyn around 4:00 p.m. Both Kevin and I were hungry at this point. We met up with my younger brother, Yu, for a late lunch/early dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered my usually summer rolls with peanut dipping sauce and grilled shrimp over vermicelli. Right after dinner, Kevin, Yu, and I stopped by a local supermarket and picked up some ingredients for baking. We dropped off the ingredients at home and I went straight to wrapping gifts. I had scheduled time to meet up with my two close friends, Ada, and Colleen later in the evening, but I was still wrapping gifts past 7:30 p.m. I finally made it over to Ada’s parents’ home in Brooklyn around 8:00 p.m. Ada and Colleen had picked up New York style cheese pizza and a salad for dinner. We spent some time catching up, exchanging gifts, and spontaneously headed to Williamsburg to try crack pie at Milk Bar. I had always wanted to try crack pie ever since I heard one of my friends talk about it. Ada drove the three of us to Milk Bar for crack pie and ice cream. We had such a blast trying new desserts and reminiscing about the good times we’ve had growing up. I didn’t get back to my parents’ home until past midnight.
Day 2: In the morning, I woke up to a rainbow bagel with scallion cream cheese from a local bagel shop. No, it isn’t from The Bagel Store in Williamsburg, but it was still a very good bagel. I do have plans to make a trip to get an original rainbow bagel from The Bagel Store later this week. Right after breakfast, Kevin and I took the train out to the city to meet up with some college friends in Manhattan’s 32nd street. It’s always great to see Xin, and Pat, a mutual college friend of ours whenever we are all in town. Xin brought along her husband, Winston, while Pat brought along his girlfriend, Jessie, and former high school friend, Paul. We ended up choosing a Korean restaurant in Manhattan for lunch. We all had a great time eating, chatting, and sharing updates. Later during the day, Kevin and I returned back to Brooklyn and stopped by a local barbershop to get haircuts. We were both in dire need to get haircuts as both of us had not gotten haircuts since our wedding in July.
Day 3: It’s Christmas eve! The day before Christmas is the day where I have to finish wrapping, labeling, and addressing any last-minute gifts. I also had to put finishing touches on our family’s Christmas tree. I started off my day preparing my pumpkin spice gingerbread house cookie dough. My parents needed to pick up some fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats for Christmas the next day and were planning to finish their shopping in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Kevin and I took the train with my parents out to Chinatown to have lunch at Joe’s Shanghai. Chinatown has not changed much since I moved away from New York City. A lot of my favorite restaurants were still in operation. We even stopped by the Sunday school where I went to study Chinese as a child. We made our way through the heart of Chinatown until we arrived at Joe’s Shanghai. Despite the long line outside of Joe’s Shanghai, we waited less than 20 minutes before we were seated inside the restaurant. We ordered scallion pancakes, Shanghai thick fried noodles, and three servings of soup dumplings. The food came fairly quickly. We all devoured the dishes within 30 minutes. After lunch, my parents stayed in Chinatown to pick up groceries. Kevin and I headed out of Chinatown towards Little Italy and Soho to finish some last-minute shopping. Once I arrived home, I made homemade bubble tea. I also watched a couple episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Christmas Day: Christmas day finally arrived. Today, all of my favorite people in the world gathered together to celebrate the holidays. I woke up early to begin rolling out half of the gingerbread cookie dough I had prepared the day before. Yu headed out to Manhattan to pick up Audrey. She planned on arriving to my parents’ home early to help roll out, bake, and build a gingerbread house. Building a gingerbread house and bonding over hot drinks was a tradition we started a couple Christmases ago. We continued (and improved upon) the tradition this year by making the gingerbread house pieces from scratch. You can read more about my pumpkin spice gingerbread house here. While I was waiting for little one to arrive to assist me in the kitchen, I made some holiday drop cookies using the white chocolate chips, cranberries, and pistachios I had left over from making holiday bark. Little one arrived just after 10:00 a.m. She helped me roll out and bake the gingerbread cookies. All of the pieces for the gingerbread house cookies were then left out to cool. While we were waiting for the cookies to cool, little one and I headed out to a local nail salon to get manicures. Peter, Steph, Baby Aiden, Mr. and Mrs. Hui (Steph’s parents), Matt, and Chris all stopped by later during the day to enjoy the holiday festivities with our family. We all ate wings, spare ribs, snacks, and holiday treats throughout the day. My brothers, cousins, and Kevin played Call of Duty and Spiderman on the PS4. Little one and I built and decorated a gingerbread house. The rest of my family took turns playing with Aiden. Right before dinner was served, I made a batch of biscuits using flour, baking powder, salt, butter, and milk to serve alongside the prime rib roast Yu was preparing for dinner. The entire day was filled with general merriment, great conversations, and delicious food. At night, after dinner, we gathered around the Christmas tree and began opening presents. We started off with the oldest member of the family and then ended with the youngest member of our family. This year was an especially special year because it was baby Aiden’s first Christmas. Baby Aiden is only a couple months old, but he has brought so much joy to our entire family. He was the last person to open gifts and was definitely showered with the most gifts.
Day 5: This is the first day this week where I was able to relax after all of the holiday festivities. I woke up early to do some light reading and writing. Later in the day, my older brother, Peter, brought Yu, Kevin, and I to HK Tea & Sushi in Brooklyn. My cousin, Chris, also joined us for a late lunch/early dinner. We ordered Hong Kong style French toast, cheesy baked pork chop rice, sushi, sashimi, and stir-fried beef and vegetables with ramen. We also had a round of Hong Kong milk tea, watermelon juice, and bubble tea. Being back in Brooklyn and enjoying Hong Kong style food was very comforting. Kevin, who grew up in Hong Kong, also thought the food was pretty authentic at HK Tea & Sushi. I was definitely inspired to make some Hong Kong inspired food once I return back to Ohio.
Day 6: I woke up around 7:30 a.m. this morning and had a craving for scones. I wanted to make some scones for my mom to bring to work for breakfast. By the time I woke up, my mom already left for work. I ended up still making scones using the leftover cranberries and white chocolate chips from making holiday treats earlier this week. I added a whole lemon to the scones and ended up making a batch of lemon, cranberry, and white chocolate scones. While I was baking, my granduncle spontaneously called and said he was traveling to New York to visit his sister, my grandmother. He asked if we had time to meet up for dim sum. Of course, we agreed to meet up with my granduncle for breakfast in the morning. I haven’t seen my granduncle in years and missed the opportunity to see him on some of his visits to New York earlier this year. My older brother, Peter, was also driving over to Brooklyn to see us. He even surprised us with rainbow bagels from The Bagel Store, home of the original rainbow bagel. We spent the morning eating dim sum, having a rainbow bagel for dessert, and relaxing for the rest of the day. I continued watching a couple more episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Day 7: Eating a rainbow bagel yesterday and crunchy cereal ice cream earlier this week inspired me to make rainbow cereal cupcakes this morning. We had ¼ box of Fruity Pebbles sitting at home, so I used the cake recipe from my anniversary confetti cake as a base for making Fruity Pebbles cupcakes. I also folded some lemon zest into the cake and lemon juice into the buttercream frosting. After the cupcakes were baked and cooled, I frosted the cupcakes with a lemon vanilla buttercream and topped the cupcakes with more crunchy Fruity Pebbles. The cupcakes made for a perfect midweek afternoon treat. We spent the evening catching up with cousins over dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant in Brooklyn. I haven’t seen my cousins, Jie Ying and Teng Fei ever since my wedding in July. Our other cousins, Matt and Chris also joined my brothers and I for dinner. We reminisced on the times we hung out as children and talked about future travel plans. We ended the evening chatting more at my parents’ home in Brooklyn.
Day 8: I spent the morning making a bagel breakfast bake using plain bagels, parmesan cheese, fontina cheese, scallions, onion, eggs, and milk. For lunch, I got to spend some time catching up with Xin, in Soho. There was a vegan restaurant, by Chloe, I’ve been meaning to try for a while. We spent a couple hours updating each other on what we’ve been up to and sharing our goals for the upcoming year. Both Xin and I ordered the pesto meatball with some form of cilantro cream and marinara sauce. I also got a side of Chipotle Aioli. The pesto meatballs did not actually taste like meatballs made with animal meat, but they were still quite good. Our lunch at by Chloe inspired me to make a vegan version of meatballs with chipotle aioli sometime in the near future. After lunch, Xin and I browsed some shops in Soho and stopped by Forty Carrots in Bloomingdales for some frozen yogurt. We had a lovely afternoon catching up. Later in the evening, a former high school friend, her mom, and my close friend, Ada’s mom stopped by my parents’ home to have dinner with my family.
Day 9: Today is the last day of my stay in New York City. I woke up feeling hungry and decided to make a French toast bake using a Panettone my dad had received as a holiday gift. I cut up half of the Panettone into cubes, added some fresh orange and lemon zest, eggs, milk, and a tablespoon of sugar. The Panettone breakfast bake turned out delicious. For lunch, I used some leftovers in the refrigerator and made fried rice for my family using leftover char siu, chicken, pork, scallions, eggs, and green peas. Later in the afternoon, Peter, Steph, Aiden, Audrey, Matt, and Chris stopped by. I got to spend some time with baby Aiden before we all went to a local Japanese restaurant for dinner. Shortly after dinner, Peter, Steph, Aiden, Audrey, Matt, and Chris headed home. Kevin and I ended up going to bed early in the evening.
Day 10: Kevin and I headed to the airport early in the morning. After a week of indulging in my favorite foods, I ordered a green smoothie for breakfast once we arrived at the airport. Kevin had a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes, and biscuit. Overall, we both had a very relaxing holiday season spent with family and close friends. We cannot wait to return back to New York City in the near future.
