The end of 2010

Wow... it is Christmas again... It's been a year since we moved to Shanghai from KK. How did it happen so fast?

We are still here, everything is great. We enjoyed the family vacation to Bali and I passed by Jakarta for a few days. And it had been great.

I know I haven't been here for a while. I need a kick to write back here more regularly . So.. for now let's talk about Christmas. We had a simple day, like usual , our way of Christmas , to church and opening presents in the morning. The girls of course had a blast !!

So now the New Year is just around the corner. And people start to talk about New Year Resolutions  ( which they will break in February by the way LOL ) But I think it is good ( if you see in in a positive way ) to have NY resolution if you asked me. Why? Because it is a therapy, a way to see our self  , to set a goal and to practice self discipline  ( we as adult need a discipline as much as children do! But we are too ignorant to admit it right?) .

This  year I want to keep my New Year Resolution simple ( and I think you can use this resolutions too!!):
To EAT
To PRAY
To LOVE
( Yup as you know the movie/book : EAT PRAY LOVE)
And I want to add
To LIVE and To LAUGH

So I can say that I want to EAT more ( huh?) PRAY more, LOVE more, LIVE more and LAUGH more

If you ask for details of those, it would be something like this
EAT - to enjoy more food , too cook healthy meal more
PRAY- to pray more , to be more close to God , serving HIM
LOVE- to love unconditionally more and to spread love
LIVE-to live to the fullest in a positive ways of course and enjoy my live.
LAUGH - to be able to laugh at my self more


 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

XOXO
S.R

Our Christmas this year

So I thought my dh must work on Christmas...but he managed to took a day off and made us a surprise and arranged one night trip to Tuaran Beach Resort. He worked on the eve and then about 11 pm he pick us from home and drove to Tuaran. The girls were in their pijamas and so excited.

Since we all must open our presents on Christmas morning, so you can imagine , our car trunk was over loaded. And when we arrived there it was pass midnight. I need to put back the girls to sleep in the room, and then after they were a sleep, My dh must sneaked out to the parking lot again to unload the presents.

They 're sure enjoy the Christmas day.. Indy took a long 2 carrots to feed the reinders. She was a bit worry that Santa might not find her since we slept outside on the Christmas Eve.

But lucky Santa did find them! Thanks to the carrots that she packed :) .So Indy got a picnic set , and Maya got a tea party set from Santa. And from Papa Indy had a big my little pony soft toys that she always wanted, in fact she had a mini collection of my lil pony. She loves horse ! And Maya had a bicycle from Papa. As from Mamma , Indy got her first Baby alive, that baby can eat, drink, pees, poop and talk..hmm... remember she try to earn some money during this school holiday? well she earned RM 150 so far, not too bad. So I used that money to buy the baby alive. As for Maya , she likes to copy mommy now so I bought her a mini shopping cart ! :)
They also got a few of other presents from Papa's friends and Aunty MK and Aunty MLJ.

As for me and my husband, we also got a nice presents from each other.

How about you , how did you spend this holiday?

BTW New year is coming very soon...... do you have a new year resolution? I still haven't think about mine yet..

Here are our Xmas day pics

Still so blur...6.30 am..which one is mine?

oh my pony!

bike.....

Maya with her bike and my present from dh on her hand...

Oh Santa did find us !!

Merry Xmas...

December re-cap part II

Gingerbread house making

When I heard that there are Gingerbread house making for a good cause at Hyatt Hotel KK, I plan to join it with my girls. Although I know that will be a big challenge for me . I never build a gingerbread house my self, let alone to do it with a 6 years old and a 2 years old. But my purpose is just to let them have fun, feel the festive season and be creative beside it is for a good cause too. It will be a great memory for them to remember .

So me and Miranda ended up to be there with other participants. And we did have fun. Well...actually we the one who build it and the girls decorated it. There were a bit of competition atmosphere in the air between our girls. So I keep reminding them, that this is not a competition or a race , no one will judge you and your house. Just have fun and decorate it in away that you think it is nice. It is not so easy for me to build the house, as Indy is not that good in helping me to hold the pieces :-D and not forget about Maya, that lil thief keep stealing the edible decorations and ate it ! Not to mentioned Maya and Avi wrestled and engaged in common toddler fight. Hard for us to concentrate. Bu we also managed to have a great and filling high tea during the gingerbread house making session ( included ) Maya sure did eat a lot. And Indy did too !!

The prototype of the ginger bread house

This is Indy's creation. The toothpicks suppose to be take out the next day
The instruction on how to build it

Before the session began, Indy in front of her "house pieces"

Some of the participants, and the house in the front is Miranda and her dd 's one. PRETTY.


These are the two mischievous participants


Avi: it's kind of boring here. All are busy with their little house thingy, so do you want to take a walk?Let's say out to the lobby? Maya : Sure thing ! wait ah.. I put on my shoes first..but hey don't forget to grab a few sandwiches before we go out !

BBQ and Eating Tang Yuan

We also had a BBQ at home with some friends( no photos taken) and as I want to keep my childhood memory alive and share it to my girls , and to let them know the Chinese tradition too. We made the " tang yuan" ( glutinous rice balls) together ( Maya is just squeezing and licking some of the dough).

I remembered this tradition when I was still a young kid, we made the "onde" ( as we called it in B. Indonesia) together at my aunt's house. And I must admit I don't do this tradition for a long time. On and Off. I think I did eat some Tang Yuan but not every year, Mostly because I was not aware or remember when to eat it LOL . It is easier to remember when we lived in 4 seasons country when it is suppose to be eaten to welcome winter ( Dong Zhi ). The other Chinese Festivals that we also celebrate is , of course the most important one : the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year and the Mid Autum Festival ( Moon cake festifal) and The Dragon boat festival ( or the Zhong Zhi/Rice dumpling day for us ). I think it is important to share our traditional roots to our children as part of their up bringing.

This time I didn't make it with the filling, instead I just made the plain one to keep it simple.

Some of our Tang Yuan or Onde Onde as the girls called it.
Actually there were 3 colors, but in the photo it looks like 2 only.

Maya first Tang Yuan ever!

And they are lovin' it to bits! They actually finished it all! I just ate a few!
And they are asking for more...hmmm i think I can put tang yuan as our house dessert menu from now on! haha..

December re-cap

As most of you, the last month of the year are the most busiest, hectic but yet fun and exciting of them all.

Here are some of the re-cap of our December life episode

A baby came for 2 visits!
Not a real baby but this baby :


She is a pug and look at her face , she is sosss cute with that face. Thanks Mel to bring Baby over. We love dogs and Indy is in love with all dogs right now. But we want to teach her that dog is not a toy. We need to be full responsible for that. Sadly many adults do not treat their dogs nicely . To have a dog mean you need to feed, bath, take care, play and give attention to them. Not just buy, put in in your yard and leave it or even worse in a cage.
Specially those with big dogs, like rottweiler, German shepherd , doberman, Labrador , or Golden Retriever , those breeds are very intelligent and need to be stimulate and do a lot of exercise to be in good stamina and to be in their best health and best state of mind.


Christmas Tree decoration
This is my dh's job so he did it this year with Indy as I was just supervising from nearby

Presents Hunting
Yup...we did our presents hunting already. For this time of the year it is a bitter sweet time for us as we do not have any relatives here, so our Christmas is solely between us but that can bring our family closer too. I wish sometimes that Indy and Maya can share the celebration with their cousins but they are too far apart.

This year my husband need to work on the Christmas day so that will be only 3 of us. I got a plan in mind for them , we will stay at home, opening gifts, watching Xmas movie and I will cook a special lunch and dinner for them.


Get down and dirty
We also managed to went to the beach ( Kinarut area). We packed roast chickens and took along the "tikar" and we eat by the beach. Nothing tasted better for them ....anything they eat on the beach sure taste nice...look at the pics:


And of course , go to the beach for them means get dirty.... they must play with sand and Indy must look out for seashells for her and her dad collection. After playing with the sand they hit the water and play with the waves...


That is all of now, more stories soon...