December happenings

It's the last working day of the year, and in another 2 days it will be 2018! December was quite a busy month for us, with me going on my firm's retreat, 3 weddings to attend back to back and Christmas!

Speaking of weddings, here are some pictures from the weddings we attended in December, 3 Saturdays in a row:

Regina's wedding @ Vistana Hotel:

Elson's wedding @ Olive Tree Hotel

Hubby's cousin Lay Koon's wedding @ Copthorne Orchid Hotel:

After all the weddings, it was Christmas! We didn't go anywhere this year, so we had a small party at home on Christmas eve with our good friends the Tans and the kids' favourite Uncle Steven! He really was Santa Claus that night with all his presents as he walked in the door!

And that big box was for Helene! Inside was a huge teddy bear!

We had a very Asian Christmas dinner - steamboat! Hubby did a fantastic job of setting the table :)

The hosts:

The hosts and guests :)

The hosts and guests and kids :)

Kids with their favourite Uncle Steven!

From our home to yours, have a blessed Christmas and best wishes for 2018!

Million dollar smiles Part 2

You can see Part 1 here when Helene was 7 months old haha. So the other day I got this really nice sweet smile from her. It doesn't happen often so I thought it deserved a mention and a blog post.

Most of the time I get cheeky or mischievous smiles like this. Note that she usually has an ice cream or a sweet treat in her hand! Lol.

Or otherwise I get toothless grins like this. Actually I can't really tell the difference between the cheeky & mischievous smiles and toothless grins haha.

So what's the difference between Part 1 and Part 2? :)

Anyway, to digress a bit, the other night I had to attend a wedding dinner so being the little koala that she is, there was a bit of a meltdown when I had to leave. To pacify her, Hubby dressed up the girls in "wedding clothes" and they had a bit of a party at home. All smiles after that!

#ZICOCelebrates #zico30yo @ Club Med Cherating Beach

Our firm celebrated 30 years of its existence this year and we had a year-long celebration of campaigns, dinners and retreats. So the celebration culminated in a final retreat for all regional lawyers, directors and managers at Club Med Cherating Beach.  We had people coming from all 10 Asean countries in which we now have offices. This was my first time at a Club Med, and even though it rained on the first day we arrived (not surprising seeing that it's monsoon season), the weather was fine and sunny for the remainder of the days we were there. This was also my 3rd beach holiday this year, after Phuket and Langkawi. I don't think I have had so many beach holidays in a year before haha.

Club Med Cherating is 37 years old, so the rooms are quite old, but they were clean. It could use a makeover, though. It's an all-inclusive resort, so all food is included, as well as alcoholic beverages (open bar). There are 3 restaurants in the vicinity, but we mainly had our meals at the main buffet area. The food was not too bad, but after having buffet for 4 days, you would get a little bored of it. The resort had this signage at the main restaurant for us.

Did I mention the open bar? I don't think I have had so many margaritas before, especially during the day haha! However, the alcohol content in the drinks is quite minimal, so I don't think there's a high chance of anyone getting drunk on cocktails lol :)

The next morning, it was nice and cloudy, good for our internal sports activities. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to enjoy the facilities which the resort offered, but for those who did, they had a lot of fun, especially on the flying trapeze!

As it was a nice day, I took a walk on the grounds and beach after breakfast.

This is the entrance to the resort: 

Here is my team (Team White) for the sports activities that day. We didn't win, but it was a lot of fun!

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out high in the sky. It was perfect for photo taking, and we also had our group photo session. 

This was our "Zico Celebrates" t-shirt which was in our corporate colour (blue) and to be matched with white bottoms.

Here were the lawyers who attended from Penang office:

In the evening, we had our "Back to the 80s" theme dinner as our firm was established back in 1987. So we dressed (or at least tried to dress!) according to the theme :)

Club Med is also known for it's shows and parties every single evening. So despite sleeping at 3 am the night before (having had to wash and dry my hair), we were awake bright and early the next morning for RSATS (Regional Senior Associates Training). We managed to catch up with friends who we had not seen since the last RSATS held last year.

The next morning was the only free time which we had during the retreat, so we decided to check out the Adults Only Zen Pool. To get there, we had to take this train provided by the resort.

It really was lovely and "zen" :)

One more cocktail for the road before checking out! 

Entopia!

Last weekend, we had our 3rd time to Entopia (actually the 4th time as we went once when it was still Penang Butterfly Farm). You can read my post on our first time in Penang Butterfly Farm here and Entopia here. This trip, we went with Hubby's sisters and their kids and also my MIL. For most of them, it was their first time here.

We actually went again to Entopia last year, and Heidi insisted on wearing her butterfly wings there! It caused a lot of amusement with the park employees and other visitors alike, and even the the butterflies were attracted to her - they probably thought she was their long-lost sister!

So this year, both Heidi and Helene wore butterfly dresses instead. I got them from H&M and Helen's was only RM10.00 It's now Helene's favourite dress to wear so I definitely got a good deal! :)

Even little Charlize had a butterfly t-shirt on! :)

It was quite a productive trip this time. We were early so we managed to catch the butterfly-releasing session at 10.15 am. Here are the girls patiently waiting to release their butterflies in the plastic containers.

This time, it was Hannah instead who was the butterfly magnet :)

Hubby and I managed to attract some butterflies too!

After that, we participated in holding a scorpion at the bug show and tell. Well, maybe not "we" but rather just Hubby and his sister! :p

And then Hubby and his sister again participated in a trial activity which is going to kick-off next year - which is to transfer bugs from one container to another and to help clean the old containers. The bugs which they used this time was the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Now you know why the kids didn't want to participate!

Hubby even did a short interview after that on what he thought about the activity and his opinion on how it could be improved. So for those visiting Entopia next year, look out for this new activity!

After all the fun, it was time for lunch! We tried Hai Wei Seafood Restaurant in Precinct 10 for the first time and we were not disappointed. The food was good, the service was quick, and best of all, it was not expensive at all! We had 10 dishes for 11 adults and kids and 2 toddlers (total 13) and the bill only came up to RM217. We even had fish. So definitely on the "to-go again" list! See the food we had below - one pork dish is missing from here.

My 3 butterfly girls before leaving the house in the morning :)