9/365 days of gratitude

Today, I'm grateful for a tradition that 4 ROMers started a decade+ ago.

Despite our increasingly busy lives, we still manage to meet (for the most part) once a month to venture off to an all you can eat restaurant and stuff ourselves until we are physically ill. Over the years, our stomach capacity has definitely dwindled, but to be honest, the food has always been secondary; it's the company that keeps this little tradition of ours alive. 

it's been a while crocodile

It's hard to believe that we're more than halfway through January! I am definitely feeling the effects of all the Christmas eating I did. I don't regret it, but the track at the gym gave me a serious kick in the bum yesterday. One of the dinners that contributed to my Christmas food baby was a friend's swanky Christmas party. It was extra special not only because there was a cocktail shrimp platter, but because Kyle came home and ayce* was once again, complete. Although, the shrimp did make the night pretty fantastic.

* ayce stands for "all you can eat." My friends and I have been using that term to describe our gatherings and our little group for years now and we like to believe that we were the ones who first started using the acronym...even if we weren't.

sushi, tea and pastries

Larry brought back some yummy pastries from his trip to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago. Karen and I, of course, took this opportunity to "surprise" him with birthday goodies during our monthly ayce. We got him:

1. a birthday pin
2. a tubey noise maker
3. a bug catcher
4. a banana scoop set
5. a bag of rainbow chips ahoy cookies

 at TenRen's for tea after aycing at Wasabi

As per usual, I ate entirely too much that night. But nothing feels better than some hot tea after a full meal with good company.