In the Midst of Winter

The 2023 winter solstice was December 21st. Now at the end of February 2024(leap year) we get 29 days this month. I always wished my birthday was not in the midst of Winter but we can't pick and choose. Winter this year has been very mild, today's weather(2/28) feels like Spring, cloudy, gloomy, rainy and humid. After Sarah's school closed for a snow day two weeks ago (there was no snow that day), this winter has been warm with no sunshine.

Winter Wonderland

We spent the last weekend of February upstate, Sarah had Alex over for skiing. It was a beautiful sunny weekend with a mild winter temperature.

Sarah and Alex made chocolate chips waffles with raspberry cream cheese yogurt dip.

Sarah Skated to Qualify for National Showcase at Sky Rink

Sarah had a long skate competition day on February 17th. She competed to qualify for this years Figure Skate National Showcase that will take place in San Jose, CA. She started with the mini production Gold at 10am followed by Comedic, Lyrical Pop, Character, Duet/Trio and Interpretive(not included in this year showcase but Sarah wanted to compete just for fun)

Sarah with Emily for their Duet

Lyrical Pop

Comedic

Interpretive

Duet

My Birthday

We went out for two birthday dinners, one on my birthday February 13th and another one with Dawit and Kurt on the 22nd. David, Sarah, Alex and I went to Singapura restaurant in the Flatiron area to celebrate my birthday. They served a crab dish, that was a very impressive looking, but very hard to eat and a crispy roti tower with condensed milk that was interesting looking as well. Singapore dishes were very plain but we loved trying a new cuisine.

On February 22nd, we went to Hav & Mar restaurant with Dawit and Kurt, Sam and David Rosenberg stopped by to join us for desserts at the end. The restaurant was a very casual and a friendly place with corn bread and honey butter to die for. The foods were very good as well.

Chinese New Year 2024

Welcome the year of the dragon! I often compared my birth year of the snake to the beautiful dragon, it would be nice to be born in the year of the dragon but I'd rather be one year younger.

FangTao's family invited us to make dumplings and bring some food to her large dinner party. It was a lot of fun to roll out dumpling wraps as I have seen in Chinese dramas and always wanted to try.

Sarah's school Concert

Sarah's J-term this year was a class called "Common Ground: Making Connections Through Music" She enjoyed 2 weeks of playing guitar and singing with classmates from her school and joined with two other local schools; The School of Fashion Industries and Harvest Collegiate. The concert was on January 22nd at Hill Country BBQ. It was a fun event with Sarah playing guitar and singing a few songs. I got to see Mary, mom of Gabby (Sarah's friend from National Children's Chorus). She is from The School of Fashion Industries. What's a coincidence, small world!

Sarah's Dance at PMT House of Dance

Aidan came to see the show.

Running as Always

David, Dawit and I did a lot of interesting weekend runs.

We ran with Alex's NOMAD running group called "Croissants and Coffee Run" We started in the city at the foot of the Queensborough Bridge and ran through Queens into Brooklyn, stopped for croissants and coffee at Brooklyn Roaster and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge back to the city, ended at Columbo Coffee in NOHO.

David, Dawit and I ran for foot massage in Astoria and went for Thai food at Sriprapai Restaurant in Woodside, Queens.

Kurt drove to meet us for foot massage and we drove to Sriprapai.

An Interesting Run to Flushing

This run was one of the most interesting runs because we didn't do enough research of how to get to Flushing from Manhattan. We ran through Randalls Island, RFK bridge, Laguardia Airport, City Field and a very scary auto shop area that felt like we might get kidnapped and would be disappeared without anyone knowing. Finally we got to civilization in Flushing and were rewarded with delicious bake goods from Chinese bakeries and bought many good fruits and veg from JMart, a large Asian market that has everything from rice cookers to meats, fruits and vegetables.

Stopped for coffee and took shelter from the rain.

Other Beautiful runs

Central Park

Queens to Red Hook, Brooklyn

East River Run

World Trade Center, downtown Run

New Year Eve 2023

Say hello to 2024, we had Dawit, Kurt, Sam and David celebrating the new year with us.

Christmas 2023

From Christmas trees at Rockefeller Plaza to Sarah's skate at Riverside Park.

Fifth Avenue's Christmas decoration

Christmas Dinner at Dawit and Kurt place

Sky Rink All Stars Senior Team skated at Tree Lighting ceremony, Riverside park rink.

Winter Break Skiing and hiking

Hanukah Dinner

Hanukah came early in 2023 from December 7th to the15th. We had Alex, Victoria, Dawit and Kurt over for French dip, potato latkes and cheese cake. It was wonderful to spend time with good company in this joyful event.