2023 is surely off to a great start. Jon & I made a quick trip back to the US for my citizenship interview. We first landed in Seattle to celebrate New Year with mom, dad, and our WA friends. Our flight to New Jersey had a layover in Minnesota and there was a huge storm in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport area. Our connecting flight got delayed, but thank God and Buddha it was not cancelled. We made it to Jersey around 3am and Grandpop still drove to the airport to pick us up.

My citizenship interview was a piece of cake, probably thanks to a coincidental fun fact that the interviewer’s first granddaughter’s name is also Aurora, and it’s not a common name. I got to do the oath ceremony on the same day, and we celebrated at dinner with Grandmom and Grandpop. We could then squeeze in an expedited passport appointment in Washington DC on January 10th, thus another fun road trip. Passport application submitted at 8:45am, passport in hand at 11:30am same day. Our flight back to Hanoi was on the 16th, less than a week before Tet.

And all the fun begins! The kids got to wear their first Ao Dai (a one-time thing during Tet, but somehow they got 5 sets!), our first Tet with Minh being married and Nhung as an official member of the family, first time receiving lucky money, first time being together as a family of 8💞 My hear is so full!