The original plan was to spend the Christmas holiday in Australia. Then, we found out that my brother, Howard, and his wife, Jungha, were expecting their first baby girl at the end of November. Hello, tinsel on palm trees.
We received one of our Christmas gifts early this year — Philip had Christmas off on his schedule, so he was able to spend most of the winter break with us in LA, woohoo!!
Stepping off the plane at LAX, I was struck by two things: 1) Whoa, there are people of all different ethnicities here. 2) Whoa, English is spoken everywhere. There was definitely a bit of culture shock coming back to not only the States, but LA, after 4 1/2 months in Taiwan. The fact that cars actually wait for pedestrians to cross before turning completely confused us, since we’re used to crossing roads Frogger-style in Taipei. And the prevalence of avocado toast! Avocados go for $4-5 apiece in Taipei, so by compartmentalizing my guilt over consuming avocados at the expense of thinning pine forests in Mexico, I confess that I indulged in some LA avocado toast. And yes, I enjoyed every bite of it.
More importantly, we had the chance to meet our new nieces, Zosia and Vivienne. Jules couldn’t figure out why I was going crazy over little beings who couldn’t speak or play, but Auntie Judy smothered herself in some delicious baby goodness. This was also the first Christmas that I’ve spent with my brother in almost 20 years. Add in some quality time with dear friends, seeing “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, whiling away an evening at The Last Book Store, dining at Philip and Nick’s old haunt, The 101 Coffee Shop, and hiking up to Griffith Observatory, we didn’t miss Australia one bit.
