Jubili Frozen Yogurt And Christmas Eve Dinner

It is 12am and I find myself once again behind on my blogs, but this time I'm behind by a month. I tell myself to suck it up and stay up to write, but getting back from work around 1 or 2 am and making the commitment to hopefully write intelligently and humorously till whenever and knowing that I have to wake up around 7:30am is a daunting task that I have not been able to tackle this past month. Tonight though I am committed to catch up or at least make some sort of a dent.

On December 23rd the family made the trek up to San Jose to spend Christmas with my family. We initially were going to leave at 5:30 am, but that changed to 9:30am. It took us a little under 7 hours to get to San Jose with all the pit stops for the kids. When we arrived we rested for a couple of hours...put the kids to sleep and went out to meet up with my friend Tony and his wife. He and his wife recently had a baby girl. So we wanted to see her and give her gifts. Tony was my best man in my wedding and is one my best friends from 7th grade. We hung out for a little bit, but we were pretty exhausted and we had a full day the next day...so we left and went to bed.

The next day we were all going to my sister's place for Christmas Eve dinner. My sister was going to cook Christmas dinner for all of us and her In-Laws who were visiting from Canada. When we arrived my Mom wanted me to visit my cousin Andy's new yogurt store. I wanted to check it out and see all his hard work. He has been working really really hard to create a new yogurt franchise that will hopefully compete against Pinkberry in the Bay Area. His concept is similar as far as the yogurt aspect , but he is also about breakfast cereal, parfaits, and teas. I liked his location...it's right next to a Starbucks...funny because Starbucks infused cash into Pinkberry. I liked the vibe of his place because I felt like he wasn't trying to necessarily imitate Pinkberry which a lot of stores are trying to do here in LA, but more try to be a Coffee Bean to Starbucks if that makes sense. One of the sucky things about running a business is that you have to be there ALL the time ...especially in the beginning stages. My cousin let his employees take the day off on the 24th and worked by himself. Here he is serving a customer with a smile. Here is my Mom who just finished a "my"(med) original yogurt. My Mom liked it. I found the interior to be soothing and fresh. Here is another angle of the store. I called my cousin after I came back to LA to let him know that I was really proud of him. He had been coming down to LA to sample different yogurts...including Pinkberry...and working on a vision to create a franchise that could succeed in this newly highly competitive yogurt industry. He is a recent graduate of UC Davis and already creating a franchise. I believed in him before, but now seeing the his hard work coming into fruition it only solidified it more. Shoot...if I can afford the franchise fees and quit my acting career I would open a Jubili. If any of you are around San Francisco around the Fillmore District check it out. The parking secret is to park at the supermarket parking lot across the street and walk over.

Jubili Frozen Yogurt and Cereal
1515 Fillmore St.
Open Mon.–Wed., 7 a.m.–10 p.m.; Thu.–Fri., 7 a.m.–11 p.m.; and Sat. and Sun., 8 a.m.–11 p.m.

Anyways, my Mom and I stayed for about 30 minutes, but we needed to get going. We gave our farewells to my cousin and drove back quickly. We didn't want to make people wait to eat dinner on account of our tardiness. Especially, since my sister put a lot of work into preparing this Christmas feast. Here is the dinner table setting and some of the food that was prepared. Albert's father actually prepared the turkey. It was moist and flavorful. Dinner was tasty...sorry that I didn't take more pictures of it to show, but I was hungry...so I was busy eating it. It was a great Christmas dinner. After dinner we opened presents.Here is Justin opening...I mean helping Dylan open his present. Here is Justin checking out his brother's present. Nancy and Dylan smiling for the camera. Albert's mother opening a present from Nancy and I...a selection of Bigelow teas. Here is Justin wondering what he will get. Here is Justin grinning ear to ear opening his present from my sister and Albert. A HotWheels race track. He said with enthusiasm, "This is a nice present." Here is Dylan bringing over his present to see if Justin would like to trade. Nancy got a 65 piece flateware set. Believe it or not, but this was one of things on her wishlist. Here is my sister and Albert posing with their gift from Nancy and I. We got them a digital photo frame. They recently bought a nice SLR Digital camera and I thought the digital frame would be a great compliment. Lastly, my sister enjoying a moment with her nephews. Family is important. I thank God everyday for mine. Okay...I'm pretty tired so I am going to post part 2 of Christmas Eve at my parents later. I hope this entry wasn't too long, but I'm sure for our loyal readers it's not enough. I guess that should be one of my New Years resolutions...to blog more consistently.