We officially kicked off beach season today. Hallelujah!
Nick has been working nonstop in his new position, so a day of sun, sand, ocean, and doing absolutely nothing was exactly what we needed. It was completely fabulous.
I can’t wait to do it again in a couple of weeks—time to recharge, rest, and simply enjoy being together.
Feeling so grateful for this life we’ve built and these moments that remind us what really matters. We are blessed.
Our beautiful Aanika graduated from middle school this morning.
She chose the red dress over the blue one and proudly walked across the stage to receive her certificate. Her Nani joined me for the celebration, making the day even more special.
After the ceremony, we met outside her classroom where her teacher, Mrs. Alcantara, surprised her with a gold medal for being bilingual. We were so proud. She also had the chance to visit and say her goodbyes to some of the wonderful people who have been part of her middle school journey—Ms. Felix, Ms. Cashman, Mr. Lorenzano, Mr. Fabio, and her friend Alekx, who will be attending high school with her this fall.
Neera, Vani, Tejal + Lachmi. The girl group we didn’t know we needed.
2.5 days in Vegas filled with dancing, amazing food, nonstop laughs, and one unforgettable night at the Sphere watching No Doubt. We stayed at the Cosmopolitan, ate our way through Gymkhana, LAVO, and Momofuku, and somehow still ended up at Secret Pizza two nights in a row. Add in hidden speakeasies, way too many selfies, and the perfect amount of Vegas chaos — and it turned into one of those trips we’ll be talking about forever.
Nick and I managed a quick weekend getaway to Pismo Beach, San Louis Obispo with a stops in Santa Barbara & Solvang. It was a lovely, chill, relaxing weekend with cliff seaside views, beautiful dinners, some champagne cake at the Madonna Inn, Cookies at Solvang, Yummy Matcha & Drinks in Malibu and and evening of cocktails and pizza at Giuseppe’s. Can’t wait to do it again!
Santa Barbara Stop – We had matchas, coffee and something called a Higgey Bun!
Had a lovely lunch at a local Brewery in the town of Orcutt.
Christmas 2025 was a little tough this year. Jatin and I came down with colds after the Gilmore Girls WB Tour and we don’t typically have a lot of help with Aanika on major holidays so we were home for a few days just resting and trying to make the most of it. I captured a few sweet memories in the midst of a mostly chaotic few days 🙂 We went very simple for the gift giving this year. Aanika unboxed 1 Princess Aurora Doll and we gifted Jatin a Stranger Things Vintage Book along with some musical equipment he requested. Oh and Billy and Brownie got new matching holiday bandanas! The boys got to spend some time relaxing and playing Civ on their PC and Nick and I managed to get out on the 26th for some much needed hot Korean Soup at Jin Cook.
Gilmore Girls celebrated their 25th Anniversary this year and in honor of that the studio tour expanded the back-lot to open up more attractions such as Luke’s’ Diner, Trivia Sessions, etc… Nick and Jatin were troopers and attended the very long day of events with me and even waited in an almost 3 hour line to get a photo in the original Luke’s Diner Set. The food overall wasn’t great but the scenes, lights and photo ops were awesome. I loved the light show they did in the evening projecting all the beautiful scenes set to the famous Luke & Lorelai song. Bonus – we got to see the Harry Potter and DC Exhibits on the way out.
It’s been a quieter holiday season this year but we did manage to have some lovely hangouts throughout the season. Pritpal came to visit from Bakersfield, Mommy and Daddy hung out with us throughout the season. We had a lovely brunch at Castaways, Nick attended the Boy’s Annual Holiday Party and I participated in our Annual Holiday Zumba Dance!
Hosted my neighborhood friends for our annual holiday hangout at the house. We kept it small and it was PERFECT. The indulged me and took the viral holiday box pictures. They turned out so cute 🙂
Photographed Below in order: Vani | Mina | Maria | Esther | Gehan | Nancy
Aanika got a perfect attendance award today 🙂 She was very excited to walk down the aisle and see Jatin in the audience. She took some pictures with her friends Pariya and Alex and of course Ms. Felix.