A quiet Christmas

We had a quiet Christmas this year, as Mummy and Daddy were busy with work and moving house, and I fell sick with fever and cough. One whole year has gone by, and this was my second Christmas. I was only 7 months old last Christmas so I couldn't walk yet, and I needed Daddy's help to open my presents.



Speaking of being sick, Daddy and Mummy had to wake up in the middle of the night for a few nights to feed me medicine because I was feverish. They were afraid that if I did not take the medicine, my fever would get too high. However, I was cranky and refused to open my mouth to take the medicine. In the end, I only took the medicine after Mummy promised to blow bubbles for me. So Mummy had to blow bubbles outside the house for me at 3 am in the morning, for two nights in a row. She says this is the length that parents have to go through for their kids :p

Anyway, the bubble solution that I had at home was finishing so Mummy decided to get me a new bottle. Look at how I love bubbles!



On Christmas eve, we all went to Uncle Max's house for dinner. I played with Jie Jie Isabelle while Daddy and Mummy ate a yummy dinner and chatted with their friends. See what Jie Jie Isabelle was showing me? It's an iPad :) Her Mummy said it's great for entertaining kids, and my Mummy agrees :) Mummy says it's a whole different generation nowadays, where even little kids can enjoy these new gadgets. Seems a far cry from when Mummy was a kid.



See all the yummy food. Amah helped to cook some of it. She made fish curry, fried rice and pohpiah. Ah Mah is a really good cook. I will only finish my food if Ah Mah cooks it. For outside food, I will only usually eat a few mouths and I don't want any more.



Later on, I was getting a little bit too rough with the iPad, so Mummy asked Jie Jie Isabelle to keep it away from me. Mummy and Daddy said they have no money to replace it if I spoil it :p. Good thing, she also had colourful markers for us to colour with. Since I don't know how to colour in the lines, I was busy scribbling away in Jie Jie's nice book.



Later on, I got a plain piece of paper so I could scribble as much as I wanted. However, that also had to be kept away pretty quickly as I discovered it was nicer to scribble on the floor and the cushion covers (almost!). I think Uncle Max nearly had a heart attack :p



Later on, we all opened presents! Look, I can manage pretty well on my own now, no need for Daddy to help me :)



We wanted to take a nice family picture, but I was too busy looking at my presents. I got some colouring pencils from Uncle Steven and two water bottles from Aunty Chia Yin.



The next morning, I was greeted with presents the moment I woke up!



This is the "masak-masak" set which I wanted. I chose this myself at the supermarket and did not want to let go even though Mummy and Daddy showed me more "canggih" toys. So in the end Daddy only paid RM8.90 for this. I guess he didn't mind :)



I also got this from Daddy's cousin, Suk Fen ku-ku.



Mummy bought me these:



Later in the evening, when I was well-rested, Daddy took me to Queensbay to play:



And I also got this. Daddy said it would keep me occupied at the new house while Mummy and Daddy discussed what they needed to do.



So I guess that's it from me for now. Merry Christmas and have a happy "cool" year ahead! :)

Christmas in KL

My Christmas present this year was a shopping trip to KL :) We bought mostly Chinese New Year clothes and things for our new home. I have a corporate rate with Cititel Mid Valley (where we stayed the previous time) and we stayed there again, just because it is so very convenient. I was a bit sad to leave Hannah behind, as she would have enjoyed the Christmas decorations at the shopping malls, but it would have been impossible to bring her this time, especially to Ikea where we did most of our shopping.

Anyway, we arrived in KL early on Saturday morning and since we did not stop for breakfast, we had brunch here:



Delicious is owned by the E&O group and the last time we were here, it was packed to the maximum. However, since we were early and there was not much of a crowd, we decided to try it out. By the way, they are opening another outlet at Straits Quay Mall in Penang, so those who are interested can check it out there.

While waiting for our food, we took pictures:





On weekends, they serve all-day-breakfast. I had vanilla waffles with some sort of syrup and strawberries. Very yummy. This is Hubby's idea of "art" with the syrup and strawberries :)



They originally came like this:



We also shared a chicken dish - it had some fancy name which I cannot remember. I especially liked the potatoes in the dish.



This was the Christmas decoration at Mid Valley. Pretty impressive, I would say. It must have cost them a lot to do it up like that.



Hannah would have loved the big "bear-bear"(s).



A kind passer-by helped us take this photo:



Later on for dinner, we had this:



The menu placed outside the restaurant looked quite interesting so we thought we would give it a try. As you can probably tell from the name of the restaurant, it serves Italian-Japanese fusion food.

We had the pizza topped with turkey ham and all types of Japanese mushrooms - a must try.



We also had spicy pasta with scallops and Japanese mushrooms (again! - but I love mushrooms :p). It didn't look that impressive at first but it tasted better with every bite.



Our usual hotel room photo:



The next day, we went to Ikea and Ikano Power Centre. The Christmas deco there was pretty nice too:



We had lunch here - good food but very bad service. We waited almost an hour for our food.



This was their specialty - Hainanese Chicken Chop. We also had the Nasi Lemak Ayam Merah but forgot to take a photo as we were probably too hungry!



Looking at all the Christmassy decorations really put us in a Christmassy mood. But this year we did not put up the tree as we are busy moving, so to put it up and keep it away again would be a lot of trouble. This was our tree last year:



Nevertheless, Christmas is not about trees at the end of the day, it is about the love and joy that Christ has brought into our homes and hearts, and that is what really matters.

Wishing all of you a very blessed Christmas!

Photos of the weekend

Every kid loves McDonald's (generally). Of course, it's not something to be encouraged all the time, but we should indulge the kids once in a while for a treat :). Look at Hannah's face :)



She was curious as to what was in the box:


Where's my burger?

Hannah prefers to eat in this manner rather than to sit in the high chair. I know, we spoil her :p



Oops, she was either sniffing the french fry or it missed the aim into her mouth :)



Later in the evening, she was running around and playing while we attempted to get some nice pictures. However, she has recently got this aversion to the camera and dislikes her photo being taken.


Go away papparazzi!

Running away from the camera - catch me if you can!

Hannah's happy faces

Both Hubby and I took last Monday off, since Tuesday was a public holiday (Awal Muharram) and so we had a nice long 4-day weekend. We took Hannah out kai-kai a lot, and I think she really enjoyed spending the extra time with us too! Look at her happy face outside the house before leaving to go kai-kai! :)



She found Candice's scooter and decided to climb up and play, with Daddy's help of course:)



The look of pure joy :)



Her favourite show nowadays is "Bananas in Pyjamas". Everytime we get in the car she will ask to see "amas". I think we have watched the dvd more than 20 times now :p However, she still hasn't forgot about her Mickey Mouse - it still brings smiles to her face :)



This little outfit and bunny ears were given to her by Chia Yin and Kok Hsiang (passed down from Isabelle). She got a whole new paperbag full of lovely clothes, thanks very much to the Tans :)



This is another outfit, isn't it cute?



It was really nice spending time as a family, we don't get the luxury of these long holidays often enough. Look at the picture below, this was Hannah's initiative. Hubby was holding her hand and she suddenly said "all, all!" gesturing towards my hand. So we all held hands together; big hands and little hand. Our precious little girl.

November happenings

The year has whizzed by, and we are now in the last month of 2010. Soon it will be goodbye 2010 and hello 2011. It has been a busy year for us and we expect nothing less in 2011! :)

Speaking of being busy, I have had no time to blog about certain happenings in November which photos are sitting nicely in my thumbdrive :)

Early November we celebrated Jenny's birthday at Korea Palace, Krystal Point. Look at all the small side dishes that were served. It almost filled up the whole table so there was no place to put anything else.



This seems to be a favourite dish at Korean restaurants - seafood pancake. Hannah quite enjoyed it.



She was so happy when it came time to blow the candles and cut the cake. Look at her clapping excitedly.



Hannah seemed to think it was her birthday rather than Jenny's :p



Family picture with the birthday girl:



In mid-November, I attended the Bar Council Legal Aid 30th Anniversary Dinner. The legal aid programme was initiated by the Bar Council for those who could not afford legal representation and the very first centre was opened here in Penang. Today there are legal aid centres all over Malaysia.

The dinner was held at E&O Hotel and was attended by many lawyers and pioneers of the legal aid programme. The food was Western-style set dinner which was a welcome change from the usual 8-course Chinese dinner.

From left clockwise: Smoked salmon salad (very yummy!), Nut-crusted salmon, Honey spiced lamb and Cheesecake. There was also a wild mushroom soup but I forgot to take a picture of it.



This is me with my colleague and room-mate, Celyn:



With my colleague Ai Li and ex-colleague Janet:



This is our firm table - ZICO girls :)