On Christmas Day

On Christmas day, we had our big feast with the main entree being the turkey. The eight of us only managed to clear half of the turkey breast but we had tons of fun that day. We baked and decorated a red velvet cake and had them after our giant meal. We opened our presents and had so much laugh. A fantastic day to celebrate a joyful day! Have a blessed Christmas everyone!!

PS: We also include our dearest Sriracha for our meal. Yum-my!

Christmas In Melbourne!

Merry Christmas from Melbourne! A view of Yarra river on Christmas day. Peace on earth and good health to everyone and their loved ones!

Before Wicked...

We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness. David Weatherford

It was in the evening of 25 December, the children had their tickets to watch Wicked at Marina Day Sands' Theater. The theater is located inside Marina Bay Sands Shopping center, where the casino is also located. Go figure, being Christmas day, the place was so full of people.... DH and I dropped them off at the theater and went off.

Our car was parked at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, just minutes away from MBS and we walked there passing the Helix Bridge that was quite packed with visitors as well. We got to view the stunning scene around there at night.

 

Christmas lights were  lit up along the street and looked very lovely and brightened up the area. It was a pretty scene.

The Bird And The Leaves

The family got together for a Christmas meal and we had the turkey above. We chose the small one available but still ended up with a rather gigantic bird, it was 10 pounds! There was no smaller one available, unless we picked chicken. The turkey was already pre-cooked, which really helped a lot, but we still seasoned it with a mix of olive oil, minced garlic and rosemary from the garden. Miss K prepared the spinach salad with caramelized onion, dried cranberries and mozzarella cheese with whole grain mustard salad seasoning. 

We had ham and mashed potatoes too. Apple Cinnamon Crumbs for dessert and gelato and sorbetto of various flavors should one wished to have. They were more than enough to stuff ourselves and left us with lots of leftover....... One beautiful day to be grateful to God considering many people in some parts of the world do not have enough to eat! Five more days to the end of the year.... Yay or nay?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone. May you Christmas be filled with joy and happiness! Have a happy and safe holiday!

Beary Christmas!

This one is called Beary Christmas, the picture was taken this afternoon at Raffles City Shopping Center.

Everywhere we go these days, we see everything Christmas-ey. Streets are glammed up with Christmas decorations. Stores are so dolled up too. Some adopt purple color as their theme, while others still go with the traditional red and green. Other colors like silver, gold, pink, etc were also picked to be their Christmas colors. Christmas songs are heard everywhere..... Shopping malls have huge Christmas trees to enhance what they call Christmas spirit, namely spending huge amount of money......

They all seemed ready for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Really???? It's just business for them, of course. Don't get fooled! Buy only what you need!

Season Greetings In October!

I passed by the junction where this Tanglin Mall is located many times a day over the past few days, as we continued moving our stuff from our old residence to the new one. It's super duper exhausting and physically demanding. We underestimated the amount of staff we have. The little things we have seem to be much more than the big furniture we've got.

We throw away things we do not need, of course. We also separate things that we want to give away to others. The remaining is still plenty. An extra packing needs to be done as well as one of the girls is away is for college.

Anyway, we started seeing the development of the Christmas decoration a few days ago and now the pieces seem to have a clearer picture of what it is. The street has been decorated too.... I can't believe that Christmas is nearing..... although what I have seen is more on the business side of it. I am too busy to care much about that right now.

Blue For Some

At times like this, I could use a freshly baked white bread as my comfort food. It is depressing to see many people get affected by the current economy crisis. Life gets tougher as prices of basic goods go up while more and more people losing their source of income.The roads ahead are getting bumpier for many.

When in comes to retrenchment, delivery of news could come anytime, even on Christmas eve. It is hard breaking to know that one more friend of DH was laid off yesterday, after a few others. DH just got his call today, on Christmas today. Wishing him a Merry Christmas really brought its meaning to a new level. It does not really matter whether this person held a high management position, it still means that future income is gone and plans have to be altered.

The night before, the technician that I called to fix our refrigerator came over. He told me that he and his colleagues have been laid off too and no compensation money was given because the company was losing money. An excuse that is rather unacceptable, because in general, those sort of payments need to be made unless the company went bust. He was going to work on getting what he feels that he is entitled to, which constitute to at least five months salary.

I am certain there are way so many sadder and heart breaking stories around this. There are people without enough money to buy food and pay for the much-needed medical care. There are kids that can't go to school because their parents lose their income. There are just more sadness and sorrow this Christmas. I pray for the strength to do my part in helping others although I barely am good enough to help myself. I know, it is a blue Christmas for some people. Sorry that this is a downer.

From A Church To A Thai Restaurant in Queenstown

It was Christmas Day. Yes, this was two months ago (already?!). We attended Christmas mass at St. Joseph Catholic church in Queenstown, a nice, small church with the most fantastic views and one priest!! Then headed downtown afterwards.



It was quiet, most shops and restaurants were closed. So we all were hungry and had no reservation anywhere, we decided to park our car and walked around to see which place that was inviting to our rumbling tummy and could win a majority vote among the five of us. Somehow, we ended up eating in this small Thai restaurant. It had a very nice ambience and a friendly server, only one for the whole restaurant that had around 10-12 tables or so. We had our usual Spring Rolls, Pad Thai, Thai Green Curry and White Rice, which was cutely served in the teddy bear shape!! And for a change, we ordered Thai Beef Salad and Chili Prawn. Nice foods! We left the restaurant felling happy and full indeed. A different kind of Christmas meal to remember!