Travel

We are happy to be home

After our first ever "2 week vacay" to L.A. we are happy to be home except for Unloading 10 pieces of luggage, sorting through mail the size of Mount Everest, a broken dishwasher, and taking care of a sick baby.  I don't feel like we even skimmed the surface- there is so much to see and do there!  Gjelina(6 month old) did Awesome!  We shipped all of our Christmas gifts to the lovely house we rented from http://www.vrbo.com.  We Made it to Disneyland and we all loved it!  I feel like I could write a book on how to travel with a 6 month old and 5 year old and plan the best Christmas for them in another city in another house!  We made homemade snow from our packing peanuts and ornaments for our 3 foot Christmas Tree.  We went to all our favorite restaurants: 
http://mvink.com,
http://www.gjelina.com,
http://bouchonbistro.com/beverlyhills, http://www.chateaumarmont.com/therestaurant.php, http://www.giacominodrago.com/content/?id=33&custom=1, http://www.thehungrycat.com, http://aroadatree.com/twodudes/soag/, http://www.joansonthird.com, http://www.nobumatsuhisa.com, http://www.katsu-yagroup.com/izakaya.html, http://thetastingkitchen.com, Four Season's Christmas Brunch, & http://www.osteriamozza.com and got to try some new ones out: ww.hatfieldsrestaurant.com, http://mvink.com/menu/, http://superbasnackbar.com,http://www.angeliniosteria.com , High tea at Montage Hotel, http://redmedicinela.com & found the http://kogibbq.com.  Thomas Keller sent out a bottle of Champagne at our Christmas Eve dinner(We met him when we hosted a private dinner for him at http://ibizafoodandwinebar.com in October)  But I think we will forever have an ongoing list of places to try!  

For the first time, Grant and I celebrated New Year's Eve together! (He is usually stuck in one of the restaurants) After dinner at Mozza Osteria, a burlesque show at Bar Marmont with Joey Arias, and ringing in the new year with a kiss, holding american flags and singing along to "Auld Lang Syne" in the hotel's lounge it reminded me of a bar scene in the film, Midnight in Paris, It was the best way to bring in the new year.  Now we are on to building a house, opening some restaurants (Coppa in Rice Village) and Paris/London in 6 Weeks... (we need recommendations for Paris and London, please share!) 

We are so excited for 2013.

Below are some snaps from our trip!

Cheers and Happy New Year! 

bohojc

(If I could adopt a grandmother, Joan McNamara, would be the one!)  It is always our first Stop Every time.  I wanted to name Gjelina, Gjelina Joan after our two favorite restaurants.  The store felt magical with all the Christmas decorations and Gjelina and Caymus got to meet Joan!  Caymus said there were 12 Christmas trees in the store, he counted!