Merry Christmas!

This holiday season has been amazing with meeting up old friends, enjoying family meals and beating the crazy Penang jams by chillaxing at home. 

My brother-in-law very kindly carted Red Kettle's fruit cake for me all the way from KL. Bubs and I have also been busy with holiday cookie baking.

Nothing says relaxation better than a good book (usually not a zombie fan but the Girl with all the Girls was one of those books that I couldn't put down), using Bub's artwork as a bookmark and a generous wedge of the above-mentioned fruit cake, which was truly delectable with generous fruit and nut chunks.

On Christmas morning, Bubs woke up in tears because Santa didn't leave him a thank you note for the cookies and milk he left out. I glared at Hubs, who had told me the night before that Bubs was too old to believe in Santa notes anymore. It took a lot of persuasion for Bubs to stay in the bedroom while I ran out at 7am to pen a thank you note in my best cursive and giftwrap something from Santa. 

Bubs also loved the box of Christmas crackers or "merry poppers" from my cousin Jean. I couldn't stop laughing at the look of shock and immediate recoil on their faces when Bubs and Hubs pulled their first cracker together with a loud SNAP. 

Xmas Festivities

December has been a whirlwind of celebrations and emotions for us. I'm still in denial that next week, Bubs will officially be a primary school kid already! Where did that chubby newborn that refused to sleep through the night go to?

Bub's Xmas Festival at school was a bittersweet one. He was so proud and eager to show us his speech, songs and dances, but at the same time, it was the last day of school so he wasn't looking forward to that either.

As usual, the parents were greeted with colourful Santa origami and crayon-coloured paper stars that each child made.

Thankfully the weather was clear and we were able to have morning tea outside. The children baked the butter cookies themselves earlier and this was Hub's favourite. The parents chatted together about the activities, primary schools, worries and traded cherished stories about what the children did playing together.

We were so proud of Bubs :) He performed beautifully even though there were a couple of times where his shoulders tensed up and you could see a determinedly stoic look on his face when he held back tears. Little confession: I was nearly in tears myself at this point, haha! Each child brought back a stocking stuffed to the brim with artwork and a tiny origami ornament.

To celebrate this transition from small boy school to big boy school, we revisited one of our favourite cafes: the Alley. Bubs was flipping through the reading selection at the side.

No place for a tree? This is an ingenious way to still add a festive touch.

The best cronuts and churros in town served with a generous scoop of home made ice cream and salted egg dip (RM18) which is slightly on the pricey side but soooo good and worth every single cent.

Glam Girl was generous in gifting Bubs a couple of tickets to the Gurney Paragon indoor playground. which he thoroughly enjoyed. The biggest hit was the ginormous slides that lead to a pit filled with gazillions of rainbow coloured balls. Bubs was so enthralled, he even dove straight into the balls and swam with them!

All Prepared for Xmas

Bubs has been busy in a whirlwind of frenzied Xmas preparations. At school, he's hard at work rehearsing for their upcoming annual Xmas Festival. Bub's incredibly proud that he's performing but also sad that it's his last year at kindy, Hubs is warning both of us not to shed tears this time around!

Bubs is also hanging out a lot with his older cousin whom Bubs hero worships. Whenever I'm busy with work, Bubs hangs out with him and there's nothing the two of them like better than to be glued to electronic devices.

To stop his little Bubs brains from turning to mush, we've kickstarted Xmas card making. We did a fairly simple one this time around.

Bubs used blue watercolour paints on on thick art paper. He also sprinkled salt on for a speckled effect and left them out to dry before writing his Xmas messages inside.

He then glued felt shapes and glittery stars on them.

All ready for family and friends this year!

Bubs is also looking forward to the first of many play dates with his little chums before December comes to an end.

And also collecting treasure from his Lego Star Wars advent which was a Xmas present from his cousins :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Bubs and I have been relentlessly nagging *ahem* reminding Hubs to take out the Xmas tree from storage since November. One fine morning, Hubs finally put up the tree amidst whoops of joy. We played Xmas songs, sang out loud the lyrics that we knew and hummed the ones that we didn't know.

We blew dust off the ornaments, recalled happy memories of each one.

"Look, Mummy, I made this gingerbread man from clay when I was small!"

"Awww, we made this felt snowman together!"

"Teacher made this paper crane one last Xmas for me!"

"Remember the time when you were tiny, you snuck out and unwrapped all of the little giftboxes ornaments on the tree?"

"Well, I wanted to see what was inside ..."

My heart filled with equal parts love and wistfulness, looking at my not-so-little-anymore boy as he scampered about, carefully picking the right spot for each ornament. His face is losing its baby-fat from his cheeks; they no longer wobble whenever he runs, his limbs becoming longer and leaner but that expression on his face is still the same. Giddy with excitement at the smallest things. Hopping and skipping about whenever he's delighted. Throwing his arms around me and planting kisses on my face. I wish I could freeze this moment forever.

Here's to the beginning of a lovely festive season :)

Xmas 2015

Our Xmas holidays have been a blur of family, friends and fun and we feel very blessed indeed.

Bubs woke up at the crack of dawn on Xmas morning and I could hear his little feet stampeding to the tree, a stunned pause before shouting at the top of his voice, "Daddy, Mummy, Santa ate the cookies! And look, he left a note!" He came running in, bouncing on our bed and happily brandishing the note (which I may or may not have written *shifty eyes*) from Santa with the words "Thank you, Bubs".

Present opening time was fun as we watched the look of sheer delight on his face as he tore open each wrapping. The funniest part was when Siew stuffed her pressie into a cereal box to make it easier to wrap; Bubs ripped the gift wrap apart and exclaimed happily, "Cornflakes! I love cornflakes! Can I eat them now?"

Dinner was at my uncle's place where he hosted (and roasted) his annual turkey extravaganza. I can tell you that the tukey bones made for a very excellent post-dinner soup stock.

Bubs helped my Mum with the annual glutinous rice ball making for the winter solstice. I accidentally tipped in too much blue dye and the poor kid suffered having smurf hands for the rest of the day.

We've been having play dates quite often since most of his friends are on school holidays.

This was at the Youth Park's playground where Bubs and his friends chased each other through the sun dappled grounds filled with the laughter and happy squeals of children.

This was my Xmas treat for myself - the Laura Mercier mini caviar eye stick set. I'd been eyeing this for quite some time since I'd the full sized version of khaki and loved how pigmented it was. When the salesgirl told me that this was the last set in Penang, I immediately grabbed it; what made it an even sweeter deal was that I got 10% off the price with my Sephora black card points, yayyyy me!

Since we spent RM200 at Gurney Paragon, Bubs and his gal pal, Little H, gained entry for the giant bouncy castle. I did feel that it was a bit of a rip off as the children were restricted to only 50 mins (not even an hour!) inside but *shrugs* the kids had so much fun, they were so reluctant to leave.

The Spice Arena (formerly known as Pisa) revamped their iconic public pool and and it is so much more gorgeous now. My cousin, Jean, remarked that the kids' pool looks like something out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and I couldn't agree more!

It's a massive play area filled with candy themed slides, water shooters and even a seesaw right in the middle of the wading pool. About a quarter of the pool is open air so you get beautifully strong sunlight warming up the end of the pool. It was jam packed with kids and adults supervising plus there isn't a fenced up entrance so you really have to pay close attention - no surfing (pun intended) on your phone as your little one might easily wander off somewhere else.

I think Bubs and us alike don't ever want this holiday to end :) 

Merry Xmas

Just a couple more hours before Santa drops by.

Bubs left him cookies and a note beside the tree. He also worried about Santa accidentally eating the candle inside the lamp, which we assured him, no one would even think of doing that.

We're reading this beautiful work of art by paper engineer Robert Sabuda for our bedtime story tonight before snuggling under the covers while listening carefully for the sound of sleigh bells. Maybe we'll try hard to stay awake to creep out to spot a familiar figure with a belly like a bowl full of jelly; maybe we'll dream of colourful presents all awaiting us under the tree. One thing's for sure: we're creating a lifetime of memories to be cherished, even when the last tinsel has been removed from the tree and the last ribbon unraveled from the gifts, our hearts will be full of love and laughter from this wonderful season.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Felt Xmas Cards

Xmas card crafting has become an annual event for Bubs. This year, we tried our hands at felt cards after being inspired by this post and the snowman one. The beauty of the Internet is that there are heaps of brilliant ideas out there to inspire you.

You'll need:
Card stock
Felt (Daiso has small squares in jewel tones)
Potato (If you're opting to make the snowman version)
Alphabet templates
Embellishments (sequins, sparkles, etc)
Glue

I traced out the shapes onto the felt and cut them out. Bubs was tasked with gluing them.

For the potato print snowman, I sliced a potato into half. Bubs painted it with white poster colour before carefully stamping them onto the card.

Wait (preferably over night) for the stamp to dry before drawing details on with markers.

Glue felt onto the cards. With the snowman representing the letter O, we cut out different letters to make up the words JOY, SNOW and LOVE.

Bubs also had fun making Xmas trees with felt triangles.

He was so proud of his cards!

Xmas Reading

"Wordless books? That's like asking for teh peng (iced tea) mai teh (without tea)!" Hubs scoffed when I first showed him the concept of children's' books without words.

Raymond Briggs's The Snowman is on our Christmas reading list after I discovered that Chinese translated books cost less than half of the original English versions. Given my very limited Chinese reading skills, it's a good thing that the book is wordless.

Bubs was enthralled with the soft and gentle illustrations about a boy that builds a snowman that comes to life. At the beginning, Bubs asked if we should write out the story in pencil onto the pages (I've been sneakily doing that for a few other Chinese translated picture books we got) but I pointed out that the beauty of a wordless book is that the reader is able to change the words each time they read it, so it doesn't stay fixed. Plus, you're able to do the storytelling in any language you want to.

Even Hubs had to admit the tale was beautifully told in the muted sketching.

Here's Bub's version of a snowman and reindeer :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's funny how Bubs has changed my point of view about Christmas so much. I used to view Christmas as mass commercialism. During the first year when Hubs and I were dating, he asked if we should exchange Christmas presents and I gave the poor guy an earful about rampant waste and profit maximization from retailers.

Post Bubs, I find myself putting in a lot of effort for all kinds of festivals. I know I sound like a cliche, but we are lucky to live in a place where there are so many major festivals throughout the year so I try to make the most of it for Bubs to enjoy and learn.

Fairy Godma calls our Christmas tree as a strange and wonderful place where mushrooms, birds and gingerbread all co-exist happily. Bubs and I have been adding to our stash of Christmas ornaments and our criteria is cheap, cheerful and most importantly: non-breakable. This year, we added Ikea wooden birdhouses (Hubs said they're the perfect size for cockroaches to crawl in and make themselves cosy), a golden glittery butterfly and Fairy Godma even threw in a pair of felt owls with beautiful red trailing streamers.

Hubs played Christmas music from YouTube while we put up the tree together and wrapped presents. Bubs was so proud that he's finally considered big enough to use scissors to cut the tape and stick them on the presents. I also caught him stealthily shaking each present to guess what is inside.

Bubs and I baked gingerbread together (while poor Hubs did the cleaning up in the kitchen after that). Bubs helped out more this time around by mixing the ingredients, rolling the dough and stamping the cookie cutters firmly.

The Lego advent calendar has been the highlight of Bub's bedtime routine in December. He absolutely loved the Star Wars one we got last year and this year, I got him the Lego City version for a change. He calls them "star windows" as they practise a similar concept to an advent at their school. Bubs added some Star Wars minifigs to this year's advent for a cute scene.

Merry Christmas!

2014 has been such a momentous year for us, from the not so pleasant bits (the death of my father-in-law) to happy occasions (Bub's learning about the world by leaps and bounds) and ones that take our breath away in sheer anticipation (job changes for Hubs and me both!)

In spite of all my mutterings about mass commercialism and bah humbug, it was nice to watch Bubs open presents under the Christmas tree. He's still at this stage of innocence where anything wrapped up in a box and wrapping paper receives happy cheers from him. I may or may not have wrapped a couple of new McDonald's Happy Meal toys up *shifty eyes* and he was soooo enthusiastic about them. "Wow, Happy Meal toys, Mummy!"

Just a couple of Christmas-y photos for this post before we continue our merrymaking.


The yummiest stollen from Yin's Sourdough Bakery. It's baked as how it would be back in the 15th century and just the right balance of sweet and tangy.

Miss Selfridge opened at Gurney Plaza and they have the nicest party clothes. I went crazy over their jacquard skirts but restrained myself. Couldn't resist these 2 tops (the silver one has a very sexy back) and the sales assistant threw in a gingerbread man for Bubs :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, ho ho ho!

Xmas Festival

In just the 2 months that Bubs has been at his new school, he loves it and we're surprised that he's been adapting so well to it. This time around, the school had its annual Xmas Festival and all parents were invited to watch the children sing and dance. To be honest, I love this concept ... mainly so I can skip paying concert tickets and costumes *cheapskate mum alert*

The doors were decorated with origami Santas and trees.

Hubs went bonkers for the very yummy butter cookies baked by the children earlier in the morning.

While I wandered around in the garden, examined the tiny veggie patch with its cheery ears of corn and sunflowers.

They sang so many songs this time around. I'm amazed that Bub's Chinese vocabulary has grown significantly in just a couple of months through song and play alone.

Peekaboo, Bubs, I see you! :)

All of the children were invited to hold flower candles and make a wish for the other underprivileged and ill children around the world. I thought this was a very sweet thing to do.

We were then treated to a puppet show performed by the teachers before we went back.

End of year comment cards, a beautiful origami ornament complete with the teeniest tiniest crane nestled in it and all of their artwork were distributed to parents.

Bubs delighted with his Xmas stocking stuffed with sheets of his artwork.