Extended Family Lo Hei Lunch

How can we not meet our extended family members for Lo Hei!! I arranged a luncheon with the extended family members at East Ocean and I am happy that everyone took the effort to be on time.

Before the Lo Hei begins, I had our kids to greet their God-ma and Rie. Though it was not the traditional house visitation, I thought it was appropriate for the kids to greet the elders when we meet. Though the restaurant was crowded and noisy, the ‘bai nian’ managed to complete. 😊

As usual, Lo Hei is a joy for us especially when it’s only once yearly! The kids and adults tossed with well wishes and greetings and we hope this year will be smooth sailing for everyone though we were told that there were some cases of Covid-19 in Singapore and on the rise.

After the luncheon, we continued to celebrate Mizuki’s birthday though we are a day late but its worth the celebration. Who doesn’t enjoy birthday celebrations! Hahaahahahaha… Mizuki was happy to be surprised with a birthday cake and pressies presented to her by our kiddos. 😊

As hub’s car is under servicing and too early to collect, we went shopping with the kiddos and ended up at P.S. Café Paragon for desserts and coffee. The mall was super noisy as there were a few Lion Dance troupes around the mall performing CNY greetings at the shops.

Little Emma began to panic as she is no fan of Lion Dance, in fact, pretty much scared of it due to the loud noise and huge eyes of the Lion. Hahaahahahah… she is super sensitive to sound so… most of the time she was covering her ears while enjoying her chocolate cake. 😊

Thank you guys for taking time to meet up today and let’s meet again soon ya… 😊

Day 2 Of CNY

After the visitation by my cousin this morning, we had a good rest and we are off to our next visitation. This time, we are heading West as the gathering is held at one of hubby’s cousin’s place.

They managed to book a function room at their condo and hosted the families for this CNY gathering. As the family is getting bigger by the year, not many people’s house can accommodate 50 pax anymore. I thought it was ideal to have CNY gatherings in a function room where you can mingle around freely compared to be confined in one’s house.

When we arrived, we immediately get the kids to wish all the elderly and others in case we missed someone. 😊 The function room was spacey, and they arranged a few tables and many chairs for guests to be seated. The buffet line was placed outside the room which created more space for people to be indoor.

Hub’s cousin’s wife also brought us to her unit to view the place and it was nice. The ceiling was high, and they managed to build a loft to create a small room for their child. I thought that was a brilliant idea to create space. The kitchen is at a reasonable sized and I considered it bigger than many other condos I have visited. They joint another room to create a bigger master-bedroom with a large walk-in wardrobe. Overall, the space is well utilized.

Back to the function room after a tour of their unit. One of hub’s cousin, Serena, who never fail to entertain the kids. This year, she brought with her many stuff for the kids to do. She prepared musical box for the kids to decorate and there were so many pretty beads, charms etc. for the kids to get creative. The materials that she provided was amazing and I really take my hat off her for being so patient with the kids.

While I was catching up with some of hub’s cousins in the room, the kids were very occupied by the activities led by Serena and I believed most parents had a breather from their kids. Hahaahahahaha….. Thank you Serena for taking time and effort to bring all your stuff to entertain our kids.

CNY can be different if someone makes a difference. 😊 Happy New Year everyone and I too hope your CNY is different from the usual.

Cousins From Down Under

It is almost impossible to meet up with my cousin from my mum’s side of the family as they are currently living in Melbourne Australia. We visited Melbourne last December but did not have the chance to meet up due to their school schedules and commitments.

I am happy to learn from Claudine (cousin-in-law) that they will be in town for CNY and will be able to visit my mum. My mum was so excited when I told her about the visitation. It is the 2^nd day of CNY and she was excited to meet my cousins and their kids. She told me to prepare some goodies for them so it will be nice to keep them feeling at home.

When they arrived at my place, I introduced our kids to theirs as this is the first time that they meet. Somehow, they hit off very well and went off to play with my kids in their room. My uncle and cousins being first time visitors to my house, we gladly showed them around.

It was nice to see my mum catching up with her younger brother as she was not able to meet my uncle due to the Covid-19 situation. Though it is not so serious in Singapore compared to China, we must be cautious about the virus too.

It was great to catch up with my cousin and we managed to learn more about their lives in Australia. I do hope to meet them again perhaps in Melbourne or Singapore soon. 😊

Thank you for dropping by today!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Woohoo!!! It is a brand-new year once again! We have entered the Year of the Rat and let us hope it will be a smooth and good year ahead!

Mum woke up early this morning to prepare the vegetarian dish for our luncheon later at cousin’s place and the delicious smell of this dish woke me up too. Vegetarian dish is one of mum’s signature and a MUST-HAVE for CNY. It has been a tradition I guess but I cannot leave this dish out yearly and I can eat that almost everyday as it is soooooooooooooo GOOD!

We set off to Cousin BG’s place and she was still busy in the kitchen when we arrived. This year, we have the pleasure to include Rosana to join us and she prepared her signature pan fried wantons too. BG prepared most of the dishes and Florence prepared by favorite dish yearly and I really thanked her for that. 😊 The dish that she prepared (pan-fried chikku) reminds me of my late aunty always and I would want to include her dish in our CNY lunch just to remember her. 

This year, it is pretty much unlike the past. We used to visit my uncle after luncheon at BG’s place yearly but this year, there is no need to visit as my uncle passed on last year…. Anyway, I hope we can continue to the tradition of visitation to family or extended families during CNY so that we can at least meet up once yearly to catch up with each other.

After the luncheon, we headed down to Singapore Shopping Centre for another party. This year, there is no house visitation but a gathering at a rented office instead. Leslie’s cousin kindly arranged the gathering and ordered the food for everyone. It was a cozy room where it was able to house about 40 pax and some were chilling outside the room.

Though the kiddos only get to meet their cousins once every year, I was happy to see them being able to hangout together and seemed like they get along very well with each other though not too close. 😊 CNY is one of the occasions where you bring families together and catching up with people whom you do not meet often.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Happy Lunar New Year!

CNY Reunion Dinner

It has always been a yearly affair that we have our family reunion dinner at my Gujie’s place but this year, we decided to host it at our place instead. We prepared most of the ingredients for our yearly family steamboat and cousin bought the yusheng to save us from queuing. 😊

Everyone arrived early or on time and we started our dinner with Yusheng. As we tossed, wishes, greetings and blessings were spoken and even the kiddos involved too. This is one of my favourite moments for CNY and always looking forward to it. 😊

As some of us were helping to clear the Yusheng, the others were cooking the steamboat ingredients to save some waiting time as the kiddos should be getting hungry. We were thankful for the contribution of a fantastic spread of food on the table and they are a real table of plenty. 😉

This year, I am glad that we hosted the reunion dinner at our place as I was able to prepare more desserts for everyone. I made the jelly cheesecake which I eventually became part of the celebration. Baked the cake for both Florence and Brian who are celebrating their birthdays in end Jan and early Feb. Since my birthday also falls on Feb, we celebrated together. I am happy that everyone enjoyed the desserts and the jelly cheesecake.

Thanks for coming over to our nest for reunion dinner everyone and see you tomorrow!

Birthday @ Halia Botanical Gardens

I have heard of Halia Botanical Gardens but never gotten the chance to visit. Today, I am happy that the birthday girls chose this restaurant and I am excited to try their food.

After meeting up with Marion, we took a cab to the restaurant which was kind of not too assessable if you do not drive as the bus stop is situated at the main road and you had to take a long walk through the greenery to reach the venue which might take you about 20 minutes.

When we arrived at the entrance of the Orchid Gardens, we had to take a short walk to the restaurant (so, a lot of walking if you are not driving). The restaurant is cozy and nice. We were seated indoor as we thought it will be safer as it’s a garden after all and you might get uninvited visitors like monkeys, flies or even bats to share your food if you seated outdoor. 😊

We ordered the set menu for 4 and I was surprised that the food served in this restaurant is really good though the food portion may not look like it’s for 4 but we were actually stuffed even before desserts were served. Overall, the food was great except for the desserts which did not awe me at all. I would suggest that if we order from their a-la-carte menu if you are not planning to share or perhaps just visit for a trial.

Time passed extremely fast when you are having so much fun with friends whom you love. Thanks for recommending this place Ron and I am sure I will be back again with the family soon. 😊

Happy Blessed Birthday to Vian and Ron! Wishing you guys a healthy year ahead and stay forever young! Cheers to many more of friendship!