We had a reunion dinner gathering at our place on Chinese New Year’s eve. We dressed up the house to the nines and cooked up a storm. I even had Mal put  on his traditional Chinese outfit to match the festivity mood but somehow I had forgotten about myself. I wanted to put on something  RED.

Every year, I would scorn at my mum’s superstitious beliefs on the DOs and DON’Ts on this day. Now, I realize how much I have taken to her bizarre customs. I can’t believe how much I am behaving like her. I guess I am after all my mother’s daughter.

So of course my mum used to make us wear RED on this big day. But the fact is, my wardrobe is loaded with solemn black and earthy colors of every shades. I have NOTHING  bright and cheerful, much less ching chong RED.

Then I caught a glimpse of red in the remote corner of my closet, something still wrapped in the cellophane bag, something I brought over hoping to give as souvenir.

I couldn’t care less.  I ripped it open and donned it on. I knew that was the closest I could get.

I ended up looking more like a kebaya girl.

We invited some friends over our place for reunion dinner. ?? and family were here to celebrate new year with us too. Each family brought some food over and we ended up with a really sumptuous spread. I contributed Lor Bak, fried spring rolls, pig’s stomach soup and steam boat. The highlight for the evening was actually Auntie June and Uncle Raptor’s YuSheng. I was so impressed by their yusheng. The presentation was so pro and I seriously think they can start taking orders to sell yusheng for chinese new year. It looks and taste as good or even better than those I had back home. It was Mal’s 1st time to Lo Hei.

lor bakfried oyster…yum yum!!!wine and cheese anyone??

da da…highlight of the evening…

Auntie June and Uncle Raptor’s super impressive YuShenggetting ready for Lo Hei

Auntie Jane in her very pretty dress

Auntie Jessica, my baking inspiration has all the yummy yummy recipes

finally…time for a snapshot

Time flies, we had our 2nd Halloween celebration here. This time, we had a small pot luck party at our place. It was so fun to see all the kids and babies turned up in their halloween costumes. There were witch, cat, flower, chicken, bumble bee and even froggie…all so cute!!! Mal’s one was the chicken where he chose himself. Other kids came knocking on the door early for tricks or treats. This time round, we were well prepared cos we had asked everyone to bring some sweets along as we do not want to end up like last year where we ran out of sweets ! Some of their costumes were rather elaborate and scary as Mal had to come running to me a few times asking me to carry him as ‘there were scary monsters outside!’
Finally, at 8 plus, Daddy was back to bring him and some other kids out for their rounds of tricks or treats. It was Mal’s 2nd try on that as he had a rehersal practice at a neighbourhood library a few days away:) Though not many doors opened for us but it was a great experience for him. We knew he had loads of fun when he woke up in the middle of the night saying ‘tricks or treats’ and the 1st thing he said in the next morning was ‘Mummy, can we go tricks or treats again ?’ Had to disappoint him by explaining to him that Halloween only happens once a year.

6 Oct was our Chinese Mooncake Festival. We had a small celebration at Daddy’s office. It was a simple get together to share some mooncakes. All the mummies and kids turned up at the office unexpected and uninvited. We had brought our own little mooncakes for tasting!

I rummaged through the house to look for lantern so that Mal could bring along. I found a miniature one, think we brought it along when we moved over from spore…a small pathetic one…made of paper which required a candle to light. Did not light the candle though as I foreseed that it would catch fire in no time!

Anyway, Mal was more fascinated by some other kid’s battery operated lantern blasting with funky music instead of his tiny weeny one held using a chopstick! Should have brought his one from spore…the one grandpa gave him when he was barely 1 year old!

4th September was labour day and it also marked the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It was a Monday and it was a public holiday. We spent the day lazing at home and in the evening, while I cooked dinner, Mal did gardening with Daddy. They were busy pulling out all the weeds in the garden. By the time they finished, Mal’s cheeks were all flushed red after working so long under the evening sun. Mal was constantly reminded to drink his water as I had been feeling abit sick for the past few days with a bit of sore throat and nasal congestion probably due to insufficient fluid intake and flu bug. By the way, I had been either boiling barley water or chrysanthemum drink every other day as sometimes it can be so difficult to ask Mal to drink water. With barley water and chrysanthemum drink, which were sweetened, it was a bit easier and for a while, he could easily gulp down the whole cup that was given to him. Unfortunately, the sweetened drink is about to wear out its spell too as recently he seem to lose interest. This guy needs variation when it comes to drinks, for eg. he doesn’t want to drink from the same cup everytime, sometimes you need to give him the drink in a plastic cup, sometimes in a sipping cup, sometimes in a glass, sometimes with a straw, sometimes in a disposable cup…the variations seem endless! Anyway, I digress…from the gardening, Mal had gotten some really ugly and potent insects bites. The bites only started to show effect that night while he was sleeping. He was scratching all over, from hair to neck to back to arms when actually only his feet and legs were bitten.

The worse thing was he started to get nose bleed again in the middle of the night and with the itch…he couldn’t fall asleep until a long time. In the morning he still woke up as early and obviously he was tired and so were we. On Tuesday he started to get cough and on Tuesday night, he was having cough and itch throughout the night and did not sleep well at all. This morning, I quickly went to the nearby pharmacy to get all the medications that I think I will need, for cough, for fever, for itch and even the exergen roll on thermometer which I have been wanting to get. His palms and body have been feeling a bit warm today but his temperature was ok. I have been diligently applying the antiseptic cream and anti itch cream for him and hopefully the venom of the bites will wear off soon and with the cough medicine tonight, hopefully he will be able to sleep more peacefully so that we can all rest.

what a perfect playground!

mal getting warm up…ready to join the kids

Here’s mal with Cheryl ??

the papparazi team is here

This is Uncle Dina…taken by Auntie Bebe

Uncle Dina helping Mal to cover the other ear…the yum seng party was too loud!

Looks like Mal had some competition here huh!

this very ‘cheena’ background is too precious to miss!

This shot was also taken by Auntie Bebe…so cute!

How can we leave out Hannah ??

Oh finally…in case you all are wondering who is Auntie Bebe….here she is…with her the other half and the ‘golden’ boy and girl…heheh

here’s a wooden ladle borrowed from Baby Luke…seem like mal had someone to share his passion for cooking

the HUNKS ??

oh Daddy is one of the few who wore red..surprise!

all the Mummies

So…the Daddy’s colleagues organised a reunion dinner at this Chinese restaurant. Whao…so this is the first time the ambience of CNY was felt. The restaurant was really ‘cheena’ with all the decorations that were red in colour. It was a 8 course chinese dinner and the food was good enough for a place with so few chinese. All the kids were dressed very approriately for the occasion with very chinese, new year outfit, can’t say so for the adults though…as few of them bother to wear the usual RED color new year clothes. There was a stage and it had became a playground for the kids who were mostly very sociable as they made friends with one another almostly instantly. It is definitely a great way to create the mood for the CNY holidays coming ahead.