Hello 2023

Time is ruthless, and we have reached 2023 in the blink of an eye! What happened to 2022 – it just passed quietly and so quickly? Well, I do hope that everyone who is reading this had a great 2022 and I hope that 2023 will be a better one for you.

 

Today, we hosted our family to welcome 2023 at our humble home. I thank God for giving me the patience and knowledge to whip up a good meal or my family and so glad to have this closeness with my cousins and nieces. My kids had a certainly had a great time spending the evening hanging out with their cousins while we had a great catch-up during dinner.

I am glad that everyone enjoyed the meal, and I am surprised that my cousin who usually does not like brownies had 2 servings of my brownies today! Woohoo!!! How cool is that! After dinner, we sat around the dining table to discuss on the upcoming Chinese New Year arrangements so that we can have amble time to prepare the food and the visiting schedules. 😊 

I can’t believe that my kids are another year older and my elder will be turning to a TEEN this year! Arrrrggghhh… where did my baby go!!!!! I am seriously missing those baby days when I am able to pick her up in my arms and sniff her!!!

 

It’s 2023 today and there is no turning back. Let’s move forward and pray that 2023 will be a superb year for everyone! Happy New Year!!!

Christmas At The Tan’s

Christmas has always been our family favorite season and getting invited to friend’s Christmas party is definitely a plus point. I remembered being invited to hubby’s classmates’ home party was perhaps coupled of years ago. This year, we were blessed and were invited to join the fabulous party at the Tan’s again.

 

This time, they hired a chef to cook the meal for all their guests and we are so excited to be there. When we arrived, most guest had arrived and some of the food was already prepared, and the chef was still busying preparing the rest of the dishes to be served.

 

The host Eric was really efficient to serve us drinks and appetizers when we settled down our gifts for the family and gift exchange for the kids. Dinner was served shortly after some other guest arrived and it was like a buffet style party where everyone stood around and mingled with each other. I got to give thumbs up to the chef for preparing such delicious food for us and the roast beef was the highlight of the party. The meat was super soft and juicy; Lady Faith sneaked away from us to get herself a couple of servings too… hahaahahahah

There was music by Robert and some guest were singing and dancing while the kids had their own play time. I was chilling at the corner enjoying the music and soaking in the atmosphere of Christmas! After dinner, Josse (the wifey) started the gift exchange for the kids and it was great to see all kids smiling after receiving a gift from another child. 😊 

We want to than Eric and Josse for the wonderful Christmas Party and we wish everyone a Blessed Christmas!

Ooohhh… Poached Eggs

I am a great fan of eggs and my girls fell in love with poached eggs when I first introduced them at a café. They just love the oozing egg yolk on their toasted bread, and they have been bugging me to make them at home ever since.

 

I tried making poached eggs while they were at school, and it was not successful, but I did not give up. After many tries, I think I finally got it! Hahahaahah…. I did not tell the girls as I wanted to surprise them. 😊

 

On this very morning, I made poached eggs with toasted bun. I was really nervous as I was afraid that I might fail again and didn’t want to disappoint the girls. I was happy that it turned out pretty good and I managed to poached an egg perfectly for the 1^st time after countless tries.

The girls were thrilled to see their brunch on the dining table when they woke up and the feeling of satisfaction is seeing them enjoying every bit of the food prepared by me and giving me a thumbs up! 😊 It is all worth the many tries and the wasted eggs after all. 😊

Hot Cross Buns

Preparing for Good Friday.  

Godma’s Visit

Their offical Godma is a very busy woman who takes on duties as a doting Godma, a wonderful friend, a filial daughter and a passionte follower of Christ who serves in church. Despite her busy schedule and routine, she came to my house to pay us a visit. 

The kids were happy to see her and though she was able to stay for a short while, it matters a lot to the kids as they were able to spend some quality time with her. They spent time catching up and as usual, she will always remind the kiddos how much God loves them and how blessed they are. We are really blessed and honored to have her as our girls’ Godma who loves them and care for them. 😊

 

Thank you Sue for the beautiful friendship and you are such a wonderful Godma that was sent from above.

Little Pumpkin Turns SEVEN

How time flies! Our little pumpkin turned SEVEN today! She always feels sad when she attends her friends’ birthday earlier in the year and had to wait till the end of the year to celebrate hers. We always tell her that good things have to wait and the celebration will be bigger… hahaahahahah We also reminded her that she shares the same birthday month as Jesus and told her that she is really blessed.

 

After a staycation at Shangi-La Hotel Singapore over the weekend, we brought her to one of her favourite Italian Restaurant, The Pizza Bar for lunch. She ordered her favourite Truffle Mac & Cheese and gave a thump up for the lunch (as usual). Headed to town to shop for her birthday gift and this would be the best moment as she gets to choose whatever she wants and no one is complaining… hahaahahahah

In the evening after a simple family dinner at home, we had a small cake cutting ceremony for her to sum up the whole week’s celebration. She is really happy though no big parties but she mentioned that she had a ball of a time too. 😊

Happy Blessed Birthday Little Pumpkin! May the good Lord always keep and bless you with happiness and good health always. We love you soooooooooooooo much!

Birthday Staycation

It’s Little Pumpkin’s birthday in a few days’ time and we decided to have a staycation at Shangri-La Hotel Singapore since we are unable to host birthday celebrations due to Covid restrictions. She was so excited when we told her that we would be heading out for a simple celebration, but she had no idea that we would be going for a staycation.

 

When we arrived at the hotel, she asked if we would be having luncheon at this hotel and when she saw us unloading our bags, her eyes lit up with a bright smile. She was so happy and kept thanking us for bringing her here. We did a brief check-in and were assigned to our room without delay. After checking into our room, we hurried to book the activities for the kiddos. 

We played the hotel’s history hunt with the kids as they want to win a prize once all clues are found, and they were so excited to get it done quickly. I am happy that the hotel provides such interesting activities for the kids and at the same time, they can learn the history of the Shangri-La Hotel. Thumps up!

For dinner, we booked Waterfall Ristorante (one of our favorite Italian Restaurants) and man… little pumpkin was so happy and enjoyed her pasta so much. She said that the kids’ Beef Bolognese is the best she ate so far. The restaurant manager kindly arranged a tiny birthday cake for her as we mentioned that we are celebrating a birthday upon reservation. 

It makes us happy to see you happy Little Pumpkin. We love you so much!

Woke up early this morning for our breakfast at The Line and thankfully, it was not as crowded as we expected. The buffet line is closed but we can order our breakfast at our table and be served. Honestly, we preferred the buffet breakfast as we can check out dishes and take whatever we like but at this moment, we are only able to order and wait for it to be served to our table.

Let’s hope the covid situation will be stabilized or in fact, be over soon so that we can get back to our life before Covid.

Right after breakfast, the kids wasted no time and got changed into their swimming costumes and plunged into the pool. We couldn’t swim yesterday as it was raining, and the pool was closed. The kiddos had a ball of a time in the pool while I chillaxed at the sauna.