Tag Archives: Celebration

First Mother’s Day

Yesterday marked my very first Mother’s Day. My coffee cup and heart were filled to the brim with such good stuff! The weather was straight out of Mr. Rogers neighborhood perfect! I’m talking clear blue sky, the sun shining, birds chirping happily, and the evening sunset was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen to date in Korea! See! Perfection!

Olivia and Mr. B made my day so very special and absolutely memorable. Outside of the fact that I get to wake up every single morning to my best friend and my daughter, seriously is gift enough, but I also had a lovely prepared breakfast, freshly brewed coffee, the sweetest little message from “Olivia”, as well as two beautiful charms to add to my Pandora bracelet.

Sipping on my coffee that morning, I couldn’t help but think about the past several years, the Mother’s Days that passed, that my heart waited, ached, and longed to be a mommy. To experience life being a parent with my husband. I didn’t realize that there was a bigger plan eventually in store for us, it just wasn’t our time. It was a hard pill to swallow and I just didn’t understand why. So this very morning, like all my mornings since becoming pregnant and having our bumblebee, meant so much more to me than anything in the world. As I said on our Instagram account, my husband and daughter are the greatest gifts on this side of eternity to me!

We continued our afternoon with a stroll, snapped some fun photos and picked up potbingsu from a local cafe.

It didn’t just stop there! The Mr. continued right on spoiling and making the day special by cooking the most deliciously moist grilled chicken, Israeli shiitake mushroom flavored couscous, spicy crushed tomatoes, and bread with homemade dipping oil….. I scarfed it down, I had to grab this photo off of the Mr.’s cellphone.

These past few weeks, two months, this very morning, life as a whole has become so much more meaningful to me. There has been no greater miracle than this one to me. So many heartfelt thank yous to my husband and bumblebee for such a beautiful day.

Celebration Calls For Afternoon Tea

This morning, Christmas eve, I attended a graduation and certificate ceremony for my dear friend at Le Cordon Bleu (French for “The Blue Ribbon”) culinary school located in Seoul. What an honor to be invited and partake in such a monumental moment in someone’s life. Not to mention a dream of my own…swoon…

As you may know already, there are some rather distinct differences when it comes to comparisons between S.Korea and the US. I now can also safely say that a graduation ceremony is another difference in my life experience book as well. The ceremony while very nice, had some distractions occurring.

…Eh, heck why not, I’ll share some of the humor with you all…while I carefully tried to concentrate and make out some of the words being said in both French and Korean, I was sitting beside a Korean man who was obviously very proud of his family member, so much so that right after his family member walked off the stage he decided he immediately needed to put together a video montage with songs right on the spot (I’m talking no ear buds, full on sound for all to hear around him). Then after said Korean man was happy with his masterpiece, I thought I was in the clear, silly me….two elderly Korean woman to my left decided to sit down and have a very loud conversation and pay no mind to the ceremony, or anyone sitting around them. I really don’t believe that they looked up at the stage once. I pondered if they even knew anyone there and perhaps maybe had come for the free food afterwards? Hey, no judgement ladies… no judgement. For future events try to keep it down a bit please? Thanks.

Anyways, the ceremony was beautiful in book, even with said distractions. I was beaming from ear to ear with a huge permi-smile for my friend and her incredible accomplishment! I think I told her about 50 times that afternoon how proud I was of her and how much of an inspiration she was to me. She really is, more than I think she will ever know!

Onward to the celebration afterwards. Let’s talk food shall we?

No, wait.. even better shall we look at amazing photos of the food that the Le Cordon Bleu Chefs prepared for the graduation ceremony? Yes, I think we shall…

After the ceremony and the light tasting event, we headed onto our own celebration at Shilla Hotel, also located in Seoul, for afternoon tea.

There is no need to make reservations and the afternoon tea is held in the Library Bar and Lounge of the hotel. The Afternoon Tea Set starts at 46,000 KRW and there is an option to upgrade and add a glass of champagne for the set price of 68,000 KRW.

First we were seated and asked to select our tea choices. Because our group was rather large, we ordered various teas. The tea selection is plentiful and I immediately fell in love with TWG’s White House tea. I know, I know…Perfect pick for the American! But really, the tea was a delightful white tea. It was described as, “delicately fruity with overtones of ripe, red berries and a scattering of rare and fragrant rose petals.”

I was blown away by the tea set that came out! It was impressive and perfectly plated for presentation. A wonderful section of various pastries, hot scones, sweets and beautifully sliced tea sandwiches. The afternoon Tea set also includes a selection from the cake cart. Our group chose a gorgeous slice of chocolate cake (and that says a lot coming from a non-chocolate lover)!

I cannot wait to go take a few friends back and share the experience.

I Highly recommend the afternoon tea and by the way, don’t forget pinkies up!

Directions:

Le Cordon Bleu
Website: Here

The Shilla Seoul Hotel – The Library Bar and Lounge
249 Dongho-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Buñelos Dagu

Fried yam donuts, or also known as Buñelos Dagu by the Chamoru people of Guam.

We Bee’s had the opportunity to feast on some dagu while enjoying ourselves at a typical Chamoru family celebration with our friends. As I got to watch the mixture drop into the oil, I was told that Dagu is served at Christmas time because the yams are harvested during that season. Lucky for us… we made it just in time!

Talk about island hospitality! This was the very first time we met this group through our friends, we were instantly greeted with kisses on both cheeks, handed adult beverages and pointed in the direction of the mounds of delicious foods. Maybe it was the warm tropical island breeze? Or, maybe It felt a lot like home…Whatever it was, I know we both equally relished the warmth and generosity of this family.

Under the crystal clear moonlight sky we listened and swayed to festive music, were intrigued by the families telling folk tales of taotaomonas and duendes (Google it! interesting island superstitions), watched children run and play as most of their fathers were losing their hands time and time again at Texas Hold’em card game.

Buñelos Dagu recipe here.

Let me know what you think! Oh! Don’t forget maple syrup or simple syrup too!

(You’re welcome!)

A New Year

New Year resolutions are something that everyone does, but the harsh reality is that we almost rarely stick to them. Weeks leading up to new year’s eve I found myself asking close friends and family if they had a resolution for the new year. It was really interesting to me to hear their response or watch their facial expressions.

To be frank before this year I really never paid much attention nor bothered to spend time giving thought to a resolution. However this year the thought loomed in my head and while on our night walk Mr. B and I talked about our personal goals as well as our together goals, for the most part a continuation from 2013. You know… travel and saving more money, (I know, I know…if that isn’t the most contradicting statement EVER.)

I guess the thing that I realized as I rolled out pizza dough while entertaining our friends this new year’s eve is that life, goals, and things are going to happen the way they happen, goals met or not…life has that funny way of just working out in the end, even if you thought you had a solid plotted out resolution for the new year.

So with that said… cheers to the unknown in the new year of 2014!

Almost forgot! Included some fun photos below of dear friends we cheered the new year with.