Officially a teenager!

Lesley-Anne celebrated her 13th birthday on Saturday. It was a simple celebration with dinner at Sushi Tei on Friday, followed by ice-cream at Swensen's.

On Saturday, my sister and brother-in-law came over for a simple meal and we had a chocolate fudge cake. Just as Lesley-Anne had requested, most of her presents were books. I overheard Andre comment, "Hah? All books? Not a single Lego brick??" (Obviously to him, that was a complete waste of a gifting opportunity.)



How did my little girl become a teenager overnight? Lesley-Anne now wears the same shoe size as I do, and she can borrow my blouses (though we obviously have different tastes in styles). In the blink of an eye, she's now 13, though in my mind, I will always see her in her fresh new p1 school uniform and two pigtails, all of 6 years old.

Actually, Lesley-Anne becoming a teenager isn't a very drastic transition. A family member once commented that Lesley-Anne was born a teenager. That's because she has always been very mature for her age, thinking and saying things beyond her years.

Even as she reaches adolescence, I know we will continue to have our mother-daughter fights and there will be many times when we cannot see eye to eye, but her intelligence, level-headedness and uncanny sensitivity to those around her never fail to amaze me. So here's my message to her: May you never sell yourself short, always grow in your spirit of care for others, and know what a blessing you are to your family and friends.


Happy birthday, baby girl!

Chinese New Year in pictures

Chinese New Year is tradition, festivities, noise, colours and celebrating the fullness of life in all its glory. And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here's several thousand words' worth of what Chinese New Year is like in our household.


























A big part of Chinese New Year in our household revolves around food, largely thanks to the fantastic culinary skills of my mother-in-law. It involves feasting so major that it is customary to stagger away from the dining table feeling extremely tight around the waist.

The pictures are but merely a small sample size of the spread that was offered during the first three days at my mum-in-law's place. Other unsung, unphotographed delicacies included butterfly prawns, yam basket, kung ba pao, lotus root soup and stir-fried bamboo shoots, all greedily lapped up before the idea to take photographs could surface.


A rip-roaring Year of the Tiger to all my readers and may your plate of blessings never be empty!

An evening in December

We love Christmas parties but this one held at our place is always one that is extra special to us and our kids. We started holding a Christmas party for a few close friends to celebrate together even before we had kids, and since then, it has become somewhat of a tradition. Some years, the guests vary, depending on whether friends are away and last year, we skipped the annual celebration since we made a last-minute trip to Beijing.

So our kids were doubly excited this year, even more so because for the first time since 2005, we managed to get the core group of friends back together again. I must say it's really wonderful to be close to families and see the children grow up together. I didn't quite realise this until I was browsing through old Christmas party photos - this fellowship brings not just us adult friends close together but also our kids, which is pretty special.

Although the kids haven't met each other for at least a year, they were so at ease with each other and got along like a house on fire in no time. Here are a few "see how they've grown!" comparison photos:





Daenia, my friend Hooi Ming's elder daughter, and Lesley-Anne have always been great pals. Christmas 2006 (left) and 2009 (right)




Typical of boys, Andre and my friend Lim Nah's son Martin, bonded over trucks and Lego. Some things don't change even with time. Christmas 2005 (left) and 2009 (right)

Here I am with my dear girl friends. No comparison pics. We don't like to be reminded of how young we used to look, thank you.



And of course, no food, no party! Christmas parties at my place is always Christmas fare - that's half the fun of celebrating the season!

Appetizers courtesy of David and Hooi Ming. A super duper cheese and pate platter, with dips, apricots and walnuts. These were wolfed down so quickly the adults had to physically restrain their kids with unheeded cautions of "Leave some room for dinner!"

Dinner was roast turkey, crispy roast pork, shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes and salad contributed by Lim Nah and Remy. Before you assume that I'm Jamie Oliver in disguise, let me confess outright that the roast items were ordered from NTUC's festive menu. So all I can lay claim to is that I'm adept at heating up food, which is a whole lot less glamorous.

Here's Martin (who incidentally is an aspiring chef) tossing his mum's famous salad. I say famous because Lim Nah's salad, a recipe passed down from her mum and improved through the years, is a much requested dish in our circle. This is coming from a family which generally looks unfavourably on greens.

The salad filled two of those gigantic green salad bowls and by the end of the meal, there was NONE left.

Don't let the quiet demeanors of the kids feasting fool you. They were like bottomless pits. We were taken by surprise when we found that there were hardly any leftovers, even though we had provided about the same amount of food as previous years. We then realised that we now had to cater for pre-teen appetites, which is waaaaay different from feeding little kids.

After dinner, we had a little musical session. This is also a tradition in our parties. Kids who play the piano are invited to play something. It's an initiative to give the kids a mini platform for performance, something that's very lacking in Singapore, unlike in the US where music students often have the opportunity to play at recitals.

Lesley-Anne, Andre and Martin did the honours and it was very enjoyable. I took videos of the performances but the sound quality didn't turn out to be great. So instead, here's a video of an earlier session I took of Lesley-Anne and Andre practising the piece they performed. It's a jazzed up version of O Come All Ye Faithful. The score was provided by Andre's teacher, Uncle Peter. I thought it was a terrific idea of his to make them play a duet. Christmas lah - time for peace, even among siblings!



Followed by dessert! Log cake thanks to Molly.

And home-made Christmas cookies by Hooi Ming. Nigella Lawson recipe some more, don't pray pray. Lovely touch with the decoration. As you can see, the jar was already half empty by the time I remembered to take the picture!


Then the kids' absolute favourite part - getting presents!

Only noticed this when I was going through the pictures... the blue jeans brigade.

A time to remember, to celebrate friendship.

Message from Santa

A quick post for those with young kids.

Here is a link where you can create a personalised video message for your little one from Santa Claus and it's pretty neat. I did it for Andre and he sure got a kick out of it!

The only kink is that if you click "Other country" in the form, the video seems to hang for some people, so just choose "Australia", "New Zealand" or "United Kingdom" if that happens.

Actually, it's not just fun for kids but for adults too (the sender as well as the receiver!) You can send it to your friends - I know a friend (who shall remain nameless) who spent the past two days in the office customising the video for her colleagues. I created one for Lilian and was chuckling away while keying in the options.

Ho ho ho!

Let the celebrations begin!

It's the Christmas season and our partying has started!

We had our first Christmas dinner this year when our good friends Isabelle, Joon and baby Maxime came over for dinner last night.

Lesley-Anne drew a picture for Isabelle just for the occasion. Isabelle is an avid fan of sting ray collectibles, hence the water theme.

The last time we saw Maxime was probably about five months ago, now he's walking on his own and cute as a button. He speaks his own Maxime language, gives smiles and high-fives all around - he's the darling of the infant care centre he goes to and I'm sure you can see why:

Awwwww!! He has the perfect blend of his father's Asian eyes and his mummy's European colouring. This one is going to be a total heartbreaker when he grows up, mark my words!

Dinner was Christmas champagne ham with apple sauce, quiche and an apple salad. A quick note on the apple salad: we're not big on greens so this salad sits well with us. I learned the recipe from my sister - basically, it's two apples diced, 1 can of garbanzo beans, 1 can of sweet corn kernels, 1 head of butterhead lettuce. You can also add some cashew nuts if you like. Squeeze a lemon over the combi, toss and you have a tasty salad that even kids will eat.

You can find the quiche recipe here.

And to show you how seriously Maxime takes his food, his devoted parents even towed his high chair along! (What's a feast if you can't share it with baby, right?)

Isabelle and Joon contributed a fab French red wine and apple strudel, which ended the meal on a sweet note.

Wonderful dinner, wonderful company, as always.

Advent calendar version 2

Last year, I wrote about the Advent calendar I made for my kids. If you are wondering what an Advent calendar is and how it works, do read that post so I don't have to repeat it here. I'm not doing one for my kids this year, it's a lot of effort and I think they've outgrown the novelty anyway.

But for those who might be interested in making one (and I do encourage it as it's loads of fun for the kids), I thought I'd share the one I did for 2008. Again, feel to copy the rhymes but you'll need to change the ones that are specific to my family, like references to Ben 10 which Andre was crazy about last year.

Last year, I didn't use all Christmas related words (this was my third year doing it so I was running out of ideas!) Plus Lesley-Anne was older and the rhymes were getting too simple for her. So I turned some of them into riddles instead.

Once again, the first letter of the answer to the rhyme spells out a sentence, in this case "May love and peace be with you". To give it added difficulty, I didn't give out the clues in the order listed here, they were jumbled up with no. 22 actually given out on the last day of Advent (24 Dec). So after the kids got all the clues, they had to rearrange the letters to form the correct sentence.

I'm just listing the letters in the correct sequence here so you can see the final sentence. Hope that explanation isn't too confusing!

1. Maths

It gives you many headaches
When you can’t work it out
But when you finally solve them
There’s much to shout about!

2. Asterix

A funny little sign
A funny little man
He has many wild adventures
Stop laughing if you can!

3. Yelsel

Button a as bright
She is ballerina a
Thing right the does always
We are her of proud

4. Leprechaun

A little green creature
Found in Ireland I’m told
He looks for ends of rainbows
To hide his pots of gold

5. Open Sesame

Ali said this
So did Daffy
When they said this
They got plenty

6. Verb

It’s not a singer but it sings
It’s not a telephone but it rings
It does a lot of actions
But it is not a thing

7. Exams

These things are such a nuisance
These things you really detest
But when they’re all over
You’ll be glad you tried your best

8. Andre

Zip-a-dee-do-dah
Zip-a-dee-ay
A cute and clever dragon
Please always stay that way

9. Nikko

We really loved this place
Even though it was freezing
The udon warmed us up
It was really very pleasing

10. Daddy (this is a repeat of the one I shared last year, the actual D word I used refers to a specific person so I prefer not to share it here. Just create your own!)

Sometimes he’s smiley
Sometimes he’s not
But whether he is or isn’t
He sure loves you a lot

11. Pie

It comes in many flavours
Like chicken and apple crumble
But the one that tastes bad
Is the one that’s called humble

12. Egg

Hard or soft
Fried is best
Yummy whichever way
Just don’t get it for your test

13. Angels

We never see them
But we know they’re there
God sent them to protect us
To show how much He cares

14. Cannonbolt

He rolls up like a ball
I made him dance some Russian
If he hits some big monster
The monster gets a concussion

15. Emotions

It can turn your eyes green
And make you red, white or blue
You can’t see or touch it
But it’s very colourful

16. Beijing

A land rich in history
With a very winding wall
We were recently there
And we really had a ball

17. Email

You used to use a pen
Now you use your fingers
The goal is still the same
It’s to send out messages

18. Wise Men

There were three of them
They travelled afar
To look for Christ
They followed a star

19. In

You’ll see it in something
It’s there in everything
It appears in thin air
Yet it’s found in nothing

20. Tin Tin

A clever Belgian boy
With a helpful little dog
There are a couple of twins
Who’re always in the fog

21. Hammy

Very, very active
When she bites, ouch!
You give her lots of food
And she stores them in her pouch

22. Yes

I see it in your eyes
It started yesterday
Knowing Christmas is near
This you want to say!

23. Omnitrix

It makes you look real funny
And gets you in danger
Yet every boy wants one
Have you seen anything stranger?

24. Unicorn

A mythical beast
Somewhat lopsided up there
It only has one
While others have a pair


Happy Advent! Meanwhile, we'll be going on a short vacation from the weekend to end of next week. So I'm taking a break from blogging but I hope to see y'all when I return.... hopefully refreshed! Adieu!