01 | December | 2013 | Daily Moves and Grooves

Cheerio!

That greeting seemed appropriate considering the title of this post. Unless you say “Cheerio” as a departing remark…

This long weekend has gone by insanely quickly as all long weekends do. But that’s a sign of a fun one, right? This weekend definitely brought about many blessings, lots of family time, and much needed rest. Marvelous indeed!

Head over to Katie’s blog for more marvelousness!

Marvelous is…

A tea and scones date with dance sis, Lilly! We had been wanting to bake together for such a long time, and we finally got the chance to do so yesterday. I was eager to use the vanilla beans that my mom bought, like, two months ago, so we decided to make some vanilla bean scones!

Just splendid!

We accompanied our baking with some of Lilly’s videos of her past ballet performances, including the Nutcracker. ‘Tis the season! Can you believe I’ve never seen an actual Nutcracker production in person before?! I think I’ve said that before, but it’s just mind-boggling. Anyway, I had a lovely, relaxing time with my lil’ sis 🙂

Marvelous is…

A night in with Ben! It happened to be the day to treat yourself for #Elf4Health, so our night in perfectly coincided with that.

Fuzzy PJs, the Game of Life, and green tea ice cream. YEAH-YA. My pajamas match the board game.

I won both times we played 😀

Marvelous is…

A new wall sit record! I used a 17.5 lb KB for an extra challenge. My quads were crying…in a good way.

Marvelous is…

Eating pomegranate arils by the spoonful. Just because more deliciousness gets into my mouth that way.

Efficiency

Marvelous is…

Thanksgiving and the bounty of leftovers it has left us. Besides all the delicious food enjoyed on the actual day, we have been enjoying our turkey dinner in the form of frittata (recipe here!), wraps, and curry soup that I made on Saturday.

I was still in the mood to do more with the leftovers two days after Thanksgiving, so I searched a recipe for leftover turkey soup. Then my eye caught a glimpse of the curry powder in our cabinet, so I searched for curried turkey soup and found Julia Child’s recipe. It was perfect because it uses mashed potatoes as the thickener, and we had lots of that left over as well!

I am oh so grateful for everything that has happened this weekend. Now I hope you all have a wonderful week! ~~How many weeks ’til our next break?~~

So tell me: Do you like scones? How did you treat yourself this weekend? Does anyone else eat pomegranate arils with a spoon?

Check out some other fun posts from the weekend:

A Lovely Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Leftovers Frittata

Spill It Sunday #1: Struttin’ My Asian Stuff

Good morning and happy Sunday, everyone!

And HAPPY DECEMBER! I’m still amazed that it’s 2013, further less almost 2014. Hokey smokes. When I was in sixth grade, my class got T-shirts that said “Class of 2014,” and back then, I thought that year would never come. Now it’s around the corner and it’s exciting and freaky at the same time! But first, I’m in major anticipation of Christmas. A lot of people say we are in the Christmas season right now, but I like the sense of vigil for the actual day when our Lord came to us. However, Christmas music has been blasting in this household… 🙂

Today I’m sharing a fun post with you as part of Arman’s Spill It, Sunday link-up! Basically, bloggers answer some questions that allow readers to get to know them beyond their health and fitness lifestyles. Personally, I love reading about other people’s lives (nosy) and knowing more about the backgrounds of the bloggers I follow. So I think it would be a nice idea to give you all some more snippets of who I am too. Head on over to his blog to check out what other bloggers are spilling this Sunday!

What is your cultural background?

I am 100% Asian! My dad’s side is Chinese and my mom’s side is Laotian, so I’ve got a little Far East and Southeast in me. Unfortunately, I cannot speak the native languages of either those countries. My mom speaks Laotian and Thai with her friends and family (and watches Thai TV a LOT), but other than that, my parents have just spoken in English at home my entire life. I should learn Chinese from this girl! She’s got swag.

I’m definitely very familiar with Chinese and Laotian culture though. Like, I say “Ai-ya!” a lot. That’s just one example, I promise. Also, we eat dim sum on the daily whenever we visit relatives in Toronto.

I am overwhelmed.

Mom in a traditional Laotian outfit

I was born in Los Angeles, California, so I’m also super American.

I’m technically Canadian too, since I have a dual citizenship! My parents met in Toronto and my brother was also born there. Why I have citizenship there? I’m not sure. But I like Canada, so I’m alright with it.

My cousin

So I guess you can say I am a cocktail o’ nationalities. 🙂

What was your most memorable birthday?

My 13th. Not because I was becoming a teenager or anything, but because my sweet friends threw me a huge surprise party that almost put me to tears. Such a lucky gal I was. Just look at the invitation for the party!

I don’t even go this all-out for my own parties that I plan! I even wrote a whole story about the party and how thankful I was for my friends for putting it together. *Sniff*

Who was your childhood hero?

I guess I’ll answer like Arman with my favorite fictional character. I’d have to say it was Mulan. Yeah, it’s probably because she’s Chinese. Also, she’s freakin’ awesome. I mean, risking her life to save her father’s? Saving China? C’mon. Let’s also not forget the fun songs from that movie: “Let’s get down to business…to defeat….the Huns!“

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FUN FACT— I met the woman, Ming Na Wen, who played the voice of Mulan because my grandma is good friends with her mother-in-law. I got to hang with her and her dog and we got her autograph on this special framed picture of a scene from the movie…This was when I was maybe 3 years old, so I barely remember. But here’s a photo of it!