Christmas morning, Chinese edition!
Helen, Uncle Eugene's wife, prepared a wonderful Christmas breakfast for us! Scallion pancakes, dofu with peanuts (fried tofu), bamboo shoots, red bean paste patties, and scrambled eggs with pickled turnip. The lettuce was in case we wanted a more Western breakfast (of salad, teehee), and we didn't have any. The dofu and bamboo shoots go into congee (rice porridge), which is like savory grits/oatmeal.
Helen and her Vitamix smoothies! The one on the left is loquat and honey, the one on the right is banana, pineapple, grape, kiwi, apple.
This pavilion was brought over piece by piece from China and assembled in their backyard. WHOA.
Chicken coop. They used to lay eggs but now they're too old.
Fountain
Lush backyard in deserty Las Vegas
Auntie Chiao Tseng's bedspread with little embroidered children on it. These were really cute!
Picture of Uncle Peter, my grandfather, Uncle Benjamin, and some Aunties. The one on the bottom right is Auntie Chiao Tseng. Uncle Peter is always wearing hats and brightly colored shirts, he is a rockstar!
Teehee
Christmas morning take 1!
Christmas morning take 2!
My favorite winter beer
Story time! Dodger was such a good listener!
Dodger was attentive during story time, Oliver napped
Papa Ku working on a puzzle
Dawww
Candy cane socks!
And off to the Strip we go! Here is the ferris wheel.
Caesar's Palace
Harrah's
Stratosphere
What is this??
I wonder if this one has an Elvis!
Circus Circus
Flamingo
Eiffel Tour
Don't know what building this is, but it looked cool!
This was the parking deck at Cosmopolitan. There was a light system to show which spaces were available. Clever (when it worked)!
Cosmopolitan
Bar at Cosmopolitan. So elaborate!
Bellagio
We went to Paris and this is inside with a leg of the Eiffel Tower going through the building. I felt like I was in the Truman Show because we were inside but it was made to feel like you were walking through the streets of Paris. As Ben described it, it was like Disney World Paris, which is an accurate description.
Again, this is inside a building
When in Paris, eat crepes!
Cute luggage!
Shoe store
Check out that ceiling!
Bellagio and Caesar's Palace
Eiffel Tower
That's Cosmopolitan on the left with the blue lights and the Bellagio on the right during a Bellagio fountain show in the evening
Chinese dragon heads back at the house!
The eyelids move!
Christmas dinner was an amazing spread of Chinese dishes, all made my Helen and all incredibly delicious. This was a chicken dish.
Tea eggs (hard boiled eggs steeped in black tea, soy sauce, and spices)
I think this is a type of broccoli?
Noodles
Meatballs
Clam soup with some kind winter melon?
Cabbage
Basa fish
Celery and calamari. Look how pretty the squid is scored!
From left to right: Jason, Hojung, Jacob, Ben, Mama Ku, Auntie Chiao Tseng, Papa Ku, Uncle Benjamin, Helen, Mark, and Eugene. So, Auntie Chiao Tseng is my grandfather's sister (my dad's aunt). Uncle Benjamin is her husband. They had Eugene (and Evangeline, whose house we went to for Christmas Eve dinner). Helen is Eugene's wife. And Mark is Eugene's son. Still confused? That's ok, we are still trying to figure it all out too :-P
Pineapple and date cakes. There was also a big platter of orange slices and kiwi for dessert.
Chinese yo-yo fun!
These are dried fruit of some kind and they are a natural remedy to help the throat / coughing. The one on the right looks like rabbit food pellets hah.
Traditional red envelope gift from Auntie Chiao Tseng (her English name is Jean) and Uncle Benjamin
Day-after-Christmas breakfast. Pickled cucumbers, bamboo shoots, scallion pancakes, spicy turnip, tofu, and rousong (also called pork floss, it's dehydrated pork) for congee. Eating authentic food, hearing Chinese, and trying to speak some is really getting me pumped to go there. I can't wait!!
Helen, Auntie Chiao Tseng, me, Evangeline, Papa Ku, and Mama Ku. Papa Ku realized it was all the ladies and felt like he shouldn't be in it, hence his face :-P
Uncle Benjamin, Papa Ku, Mama Ku, moi, Evangeline, Jason, Ben, and Auntie Chiao Tseng in the front. She's so little and cute!!
Papa Ku, Mama Ku, Evangeline, Helen, Eugene, Uncle Benjamin, and Auntie Chiao Tseng
From left to right, top to bottom: Papa Ku, Mama Ku, Evangeline, Helen, Eugene, Jason, Ben, Uncle Benjamin, Auntie Chiao Tseng, me, Mark
After leaving, we went back to see more of the Strip.
Statue of Liberty
Excalibur (looked like Disney to me)
Oliver checkin out Vegas
Luxor pyramid and sphynx
Luxor obelisk
Inside the Luxor pyramid
Dum dum da dum
Papa Ku officiating.
(There was no marriage, just snooping)
Hojung, Jason, Papa Ku, Mama Ku
Moms and me on a tram that goes back and forth between 3 places that are all next to each other. We did not see the point of this so we got off and walked.
Cold beer and girly drinks!!
Inside the lobby of the Bellagio. These were all glass.
Botanical display at the Bellagio. Apparently these creatures are made of flowers. Butttttt you can't really tell. After seeing the ones at the Botanical Gardens in Atlanta, we were not very impressed.
Papa Ku in front of the big Christmas tree in the Bellagio
Flying reindeer
Teeny tiny ice skating rink in the middle of the desert! Mind you, it was about 70 degrees.
Infamous frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3 in front of Caesar's Palace. "How do you freeze hot chocolate?" you ask? It's basically the consistency of a blended frappaccino from Starbucks. Like an icey milkshake. I liked the whipped cream better than the drink!
Not sure how this street performer managed to stay in this position. We think he had some sort of seat under his pants or something?? Cuz he just stayed in this position!!
It's been real, Vegas, but I'd take NYC over you any day.
I'm already falling behind with this blog (hey I was consistent for over a week!) but hopefully I can maintain some sort of regularity. We are driving to Los Angeles today (Friday the 27th) to have dinner with more family (Chinese grandmother's side, Vegas was Chinese grandfather's side). Festivities tomorrow! Check back to see :) Adios!!
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