It was a boisterous Christmas for the family as all the children are together again, with the second twin finally returning after graduating.
Except for the turkey and rack of lamb, the dinner spread was all homemade, even the cookies.
The family photo session thereafter was hilarious. It was indeed a great time together.
Here’s wishing all my readers, family and friends, a very Merry Christmas!
So I kept to my word and handed over to M2 the iPhone4, which amazingly has been still surviving well without battery issues after I upgraded to the iPhone5S. Hubby even upgraded the SIM card and had the old mobile number reactivated for use. Like a giddy child on Christmas morning, M2 began customizing my old iPhone4 to her liking.
The ‘Angie’s iPhone’ ID has been renamed to reflect her ownership. The layout of the pages have been moved around with most of my stuff either filed away or deleted. Slowly, my presence on the phone was reduced and her preference put in.
I guess this is really goodbye forever to my old iPhone4. No more relying on it for my Farm Heroes! Oh no. But thank goodness for the latest update of it on the iPad, the game is now more stable.
Old as it may be to me, the iPhone4 is a new phone for M2, a new beginning. Goodbye iPhone4, be good to M2 and serve your new owner well.
The Year of the Horse has galloped in so fast that I feel I am totally unprepared for it. We have been having festivities one after another within such a short period, there’s hardly time to recover from the merry-making and planning. From Christmas to New Year and several birthday celebrations thrown in and now, Chinese New Year, a mere four days away!
And for the first time for as long as I can remember, I have left things until this late to prepare the necessary for the coming lunar new year. Although I am not a traditionalist, there are some traditions I still follow through as taught by my mother.
Also, for the first time, we are having the Pre-Chinese New Year Yee Sang rather late. I recall previous years, we would have had a couple or more of this dish prior to the new lunar year. This must-do dish is an experience by itself. Asians love to toss the condiments of the dish as high as possible for its significant connotations. The higher, the messier, the noisier, the better it is for prosperity and luck.
Last Friday, hubby and I had the Yee Sang and I almost comatosed from the six people 8-course lunch because firstly, it’s such a heavy lunch and secondly, ever since my detox diet recently, my tummy shrank and well, there is only so much I can consume.
Well the Horse has trotted in, whether I am prepared or not, and it looks like the next two weeks is basically about eating and merry-making. So I had better prepare myself to face this and have many more Yee Sang occasions for prosperity and luck!
It’s Boxing Day and I had gone to play golf in the morning with the hubby. And obviously I did not open the laptop to play Candy Crush considering it’s an early morning tee off and we shouldn’t be late. But for the record, I have been stuck at Level 500 and it has been most frustrating. These pass few days, being the Christmas holidays with the festive mood, I am hardly working so I have been trying to conquer this level at every opportunity available.
Fast forward to the late afternoon. I came home from my golf outing and routine was normal, playing five unsuccessful rounds of Candy Crush on the laptop before moving back to the iPad for Zookeeper Battle and checking emails. Everything was normal; then in the evening, I reached for the laptop again and launched the game for my usual five attempts at Level 500 but suddenly, I find myself leap-frogged to Level 501!!! Surprised, shocked, taken aback, I couldn’t believe it!
Notice the non-star at Level 500 and question marks for tickets?
Eh? What’s going on? I have been stuck at Level 500 for sometime but out of the blue or is it out of pity, I have been gifted with this! I have gone on to Level 501 without completing Level 500 and without even asking for tickets to go on to this latest chapter, Ice Cream Caves.
A belated Christmas gift? A computer glitch? A loyalty reward? Whatever it is, gee, thanks King.com! I just hope you don’t reverse what you just did for I have gone on to Level 506. A gift’s a gift, no taking back, belated as it may be.
I cannot believe another year has gone by so fast! Wasn’t it just yesterday the whole family was visiting the US – the adults catching up with some of our dearest friends and the children seeing what I deem as my favorite places from my college days? Wait a minute, that was last year! Dang.
The past few days I was reminiscing about this time of the year and out of the blue, the song by Band Aid (Do They Know It’s Christmas?) popped into my mind! Wow. That was dinosaur years ago. Watching the music video when John Taylor (of Duran Duran) fleetingly appeared made my heart skipped a beat even after all these years. Sigh…
It’s such a classic and oldie now, that song.
This year I decided to host the family Christmas (eve) dinner, relieving my only sibling of this annual duty. I look forward to the usual happy, fun and boisterous occasion despite the reduced head count (the twins are away in college and the younger niece, at camp). The tree is up, the presents are in place, the wine chilled and the food prepared with love. This time of sharing will no doubt be cherished.
This year has been significant for me, in many aspects of my life. For starters, I tried Candy Crush (in March) out of curiosity and look what happened? I became so addicted to it, I qualify to be called a professional candy crusher. I also started this blog (in June) and have been going strong ever since. With 4,851 views and more than 200 ‘Likes’ so far, I must be doing something right.
This year also marked my M1 turning Sweet 16 and my M2 fairing well in her UPSR exam. Children aside, Hubby and I traveled a fair bit—not to new destinations—but to near and far and enough to keep our sanity in check to balance up the work stress that we face daily.
And this year I made more new friends compared to any past given year. Pretty unusual but then again, golfing friends are a unique breed and it’s nice that it has developed into wonderful friendships over many outings and dinners beyond the fairways and greens. I also rekindled old friendships, thanks to technology for making the world smaller and reachable. For all these, I feel truly blessed and yeah, it’s been a significant year for me.
So I’d like to end this significant year by wishing all—from the bottom of my heart—a happy Christmas and a merry New Year in its truest sense! Hope your 2013 was equally significant for you to reflect back in years to come with fond memories and a smile on your face.
Recently, I found my old Palm T device and decided to boot it up, which was a good thing for I discovered many recordings that I did of the two girls when they were very young.
Listening to the old voice recordings brought much laughter and memories back.
M2 was just kindie-going when she first learnt how to spell. I guess ‘RED’ is the first one a toddler learns in school. And along with it, they also learn how to spell their name.
It was at a family Christmas gathering that we put her on the pedestal, proudly to show off what she has learnt that first year.
“Spell your name,” I gently coaxed her.
Loudly and confidently, she went,“R-E-D. Mabel Red!” Surprise caught everyone then laughter broke out in the family.
“Mabel red?” I asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes. I am Shiny Red Apple,” she beamed at me. Well, it was Christmas, spirits were high and happy, we all had a good laugh about it.
Ahh… Such memories.
M2 is twelve this year (how time flies!) and no, we won’t put her on the pedestal this coming Christmas.
Not too long ago, I bought another new orange toy for the Roo: an orange colored chew cow but kept it as a spare for appropriate moments. Normally, toy purchases are not given to him immediately, the release timing has to be just right.
So several days passed by before the appropriate moment presented itself. Time to bring it out for him to play with then! When M1 saw, she lamented, “How come we don’t get toys anymore?”
“Yea, Mummy, we want toys too!” echoed M2.
“Well, you two have been asking for books all these while, that’s why no toys,” I pointed out.
“We want toys!” both said in unison.
“Something that we can play with and not put on the pedestal,” M1 emphasized.
“Hmm. I get toys for you for Christmas then,” I offered.
They may have grown up but still a child in some ways. Toys it will be for them this Christmas then.
School holidays are always tough to manage when we have to work and the girls don’t have school. The year-end school holidays has started and hopefully, both M1 and M2 will find things to occupy their minds until school resumes in January. After all, they are now older and technology is at their disposal. But it will be a different story if we go on a holiday.
When they were 6 and 10 years old, we used to send them over to grandma’s daily when we did not have a lived-in maid (then) to care for them while we went to the office.
Being girls and hanging out with their cousin sisters, they did this to M2…
M2 subjected to the new hairdo!
And got carried away and ended up with this!
Another angle…
I don’t think they will resort to this these days though…
Halloween came and went, and here we are in November already! My goodness, where did time go? Before you know it, the Christmas decors have to be out and up.
Halloween is a day old already but I’d like to write about it. I had posted several pictures (on Facebook) prior to it but never quite told the whole story, so here goes…
Two nights ago, I decided to indulge M1 and M2 with some Halloween fun. Now, in my country, pumpkins are very expensive because they are imported. Those huge ones specifically for the occasion are even more expensive. But a friend inspired me to use watermelons instead of pumpkins. At a fraction of a price from a pumpkin, why not? What a brilliant idea! Thanks B1, you’re a star too.
So, on our way home, I told hubby to go buy the two biggest watermelons that he can get his hands on. Thankfully, the sensibility in him landed us two decent sized ones, any bigger, we’d end up with watermelon overdose.
The girls were thrilled. We’ve never carved pumpkins nor watermelons before. But the occasion was met with zest. The fruit I must say was much easier to cut being all water inside, therefore easy for the knife the pierce through. The whole process took less than an hour. A quick research, an impromptu set up and not much of a mess was made.
They enjoyed themselves thoroughly and we ended up with 4 liters of fresh watermelon juice! Even Roo, official pet number one, enjoyed some juicy watermelon pieces. Subsequently, there were many suggestions given to maximize the watermelon juice, from making ice cubes to creating vodka cocktails, it sure was creative.
Let the pictures show you our carving efforts for Halloween this year. Given the final outcome, no one would have guessed our creations were made from watermelons and not pumpkins if it was not mentioned. Nonetheless, it’s the result that matters. Happy Halloween!
The two unassuming eventual stars.
M2 scrapping her melon.
M1 outlining her melon.
Off with the head for M1’s red melon!
M2’s melon is complete!
Work in progress for M1’s melon.
Ready to be lighted.
Tadaa… our creations!
M2’s work of art.
M1’s work of art.
Angieneering 
Remarks