Her Christmas Pressies !!!

Below are the pressies Amber received this year from Aunt Annie, Aunt Barbara and us :

We finally got her a pair of klik klok shoes (oh.. she was soo...happy).
I like the 'bikini' from Annie. So cute hor,, esp the sexy bikini top.

Looks like we have to make another trip to Langkawi next year.. :)

A Christmas Feast !!

This has to be THE feast to end the year with a BANG !!

On the 27th, me and Barb was very priviledged to be invited by Annie to join her family for a BBQ night. When we arrived, Annie's hubs was working on their very big and 'canggih manggih' BBQ set. Poor him, working all night filling our tummy tum tums, I never saw him eat anything.

Annie's house was nicely decorated with 2 Christmas trees and lots of lighted garlands around the house. I must commend the family for making this a big event, you should have seen the Christmas presents. Coming from a small family, I truly enjoyed this 'big' gathering at the Lee's mansion.

Hubs went goo goo gaa gaa when he saw few big chafing dish of bbq-ed smoky ribs.... this is truly a feast for us and the nearest we could to Tony Romas rib racks ( which is a tad dry). Annie's SIL also cooked 2 bit dish of pasta with lots of bacons and Annie made us delicious fresh mushroom soup and garlic bread.

I am ashamed, I truly am..
With so much nice food.... I forgot to take any nice pics. Luckily Annie took some nice and memorable pics here. I was too engrossed digging in to the delicious food.

This is the only photo I took of the food :

My plate .. clean or not ? Hahahahaaa.. I can't help laughing looking back at this photo !

Annie planned a surprise early bday wish for moi... **blush**. . and her SIL's friend. That was real sweet of her and I told hubs, he had to do better than Annie for my bday !

Amber made some friends and had a good time too .

Annie's family's gift exchange..

Kids had party packs and glowies..

Amber and her gifts from Aunty Barbara, Aunty Annie and us..

Amber and Ashley opening their gifts

Excited !!

Thank you Annie for having us over. It was the best-est BBQ we ever had.. Don't forget us the next round ya ? ;)

What We Did on Christmas Day and the next

On Christmas morning, hubs was helping my BIL move some mattress from my fathers to our place. We need to fold up Amber's baby cot (max age 4 and I think we've maxed it out) and replace with a single bed mattress. No chance on getting her to sleep in her own room, still rooming in with us, my baby.

We went Pavilion (again!!!!) on Christmas Day but this time with a reason. Bossini was having
50% off and I needed to get some clothes so, good excuse :). Luckily the sale wasn't fantastic, perhaps most of it were winter collection clothes and not suited for our hot summer weather and I had more allocation to shop at Marks & Spencers.



The sights and colors of Christmas

Where else would you find me at Pavilions ?

Can you see me nodding off ? Amber fell asleep and we had to cradle her whole afternoon. Haih. .. . there goes my shopping expedition.

Then we went to Starhill, a reprieve from the crowd at Pavilion. Hubs wanted to show Amber whis interesting walkway with millions of glittering lights :

Another Christmas tree which caught hubs attention:

Lift buttons at Starhill is color coded and themed. Very interesting.. no prize for guessing she pressed ALL of them .. :(

We went home for steamboat which I've prepared in the morning with the help of my maid. We shopped till very late and it was the fastest steamboat setup I did and because of the rush, we forgot all about our camera.

I really enjoyed our Christmas celebration this year even tho it's all about food and shopping. What's important to me is we enjoyed family's company and I discovered a lot more about Christmas food.

Having guest gives us every reason to eat. We had mince pies and plum pudding for supper. I made my own lemon sauce to go with the pudding. Really yumz !

We had a quiet Boxing Day, BILs left and the house was down to just 3 of us again. We enquired Amber's registration at a kindie nearby and went KLCC to do some shopping.

Por-Por (her previous nanny) invited us to her Christmas/Year End/Birthday Bash. It's her yearly family affair and we're invited to join. Amber miss her Por Por very much and was looking forward to the night.

I thought I could make it to Old Klang Road easily by MRR2, exiting Awan Besar but it was raining and I took a wrong turn to Maju Expressway.. we were already late for dinner, had to make another 40km, turnaround before coming back to MRR2. Lesson learned, don't depend on GPS 100%, need to use my eyes and logic too !

We still made it, no doubt late, for the party.

Amber hands a present to Jane cheh-cheh. The gathering was to celebrate Jane cheh-cheh and Richard Kong-Kong's birthday.

There's a buffet, BBQ and roast lamb spread. Hubs and I headed for buffet table immediately. No time to BBQ, stomach growling and blaming me for making a wrong turn to Putrajaya.. LOL !!

I can very 'fong sam' to leave Amber to play with her best friends .. Jane & Wan Teng cheh cheh while we had dinner. My maid was also busy eating somewhere (I dunno where she went ??)

See how happy she is here ? With friends whom she grew up with.. her best pals..

Then it was time to sing the birthday song..

2 cakes.. one for Jane cheh-cheh and Richard gong-gong.

Amber with her Jackie cheh-cheh.. Jackie loves teasing Amber and 'manja' her very much.

Then Por-Por gave each of us a 'lye-see' for well wishes. My dear girl, Amber couldn't wait to open it at home, she quickly open the packet and count the notes **blush**

We stayed till quite late. Amber changed her pyjamas and gelled up her hair with body lotion!

Ms Punk ! and her buddy, refusing to call it a day.

We had to coax Amber to go home and she told Por Por she'd visit her the next day..

'Tomorrow, 2 o'clock, I come to your house ahh !'

True enough, the following morning, the first word Amber said was 'I want to go Por Por's house at 2 o'clock!!!'

Amber miss Por Por very much and kept asking me why she cannot go to Por Por's house and why she must go to current childminder. I had to explain to her that all good things must come to an end and she'll be schooling soon and everyone has their own schedule, Mama & Papa has to work, Kakak will go back Cambodia, Amber will go to school and Por Por has her own things to do.

Colours of Our Christmas

We had the best Christmas this year, I cooked Christmas dinner, baked a Christmas cake (brandy fruit cake) and we even had time to sneak to KLCC on the eve of Christmas to join the carolling there. Oh what day....

I took the day off, went to market and Cold Storage, thoroughly enjoying my day, all my myself.. then went home, prepared the cooking and roast, then my BIL's came, staying over for the weekend and then we all left to pick up hubs at the office and headed to KLCC. Timing and route is very important on a busy traffic day like this to avoid being caught in the eve jam, for which we avoided, thank god..

It's been months since Ambers last trip to KLCC and she was the happiest. She's been bugging me to bring her to KLCC coz we can see the Twin Towers from our home and all along MRR2. Amber was most happy and she's been asking for Santa Claus for weeks, since she saw the Christmas decorations at Pavilion last month. I wanted to go KLCC on the eve coz I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus !!

Everyone was busy with their last minute shopping and we just join the 'crowded crowd'.


She picked this decor somewhere and placed one in hubs pocket and another in mine.



Finally Santa !!!!
But.. but.. but... when we went to take photo with Santa, Amber was afraid and didn't wanna go near him. Haih... only after a long persuasion, we took a photo with Santa, Amber nearly cried.

I asked her why she was so afraid of Santa while she's been asking for him everyday. She remembers Santa giving her candy canes at Ikea last year. She told me :

I want Santa old old wan.. this Santa, young young, I don't like !!!

Kids are kids... I really don't know why she said that.

Luckily, Santa's candy cane can placate her

The colors of Christmas at KLCC.

Then by 8pm, we quickly hurried home, I had Christmas dinner to cook. Most of the stuff, I've prepared beforehand, only chicken to roast, soup to reheat and pasta to cook..

Amber decides to be an 'Angel' for the evening. She wants us to call her 'Angel' instead of Amber. Angel is a nice name too ya ? Why didn't I think of it when choosing a name for her.. but then.. how to scream, shout and punish a girl called Angel ? Rather contradicting huh ?

Presenting my first home cooked Christmas dinner. All easy peasy stuff, I stuck to what I was confident at :

Pan roast of whole legs, sausage wrapped with bacon, carrots, aubergines and sweet potatoes

With crushed rosemary, lemon and garlic

Tadaa.... simple, easy peasy, let it roast while I do the other stuffs. We don't fancy turkey (thank god !! I cannot handle such a big and heavy bird) and whole legs are best.. no need to fight for the best part of the chicken.

Then I made some pasta, the quickest and easiest type ... with olive oil and chilly flakes

For starters we had garlic bread (homemade) and fresh mushroom soup. I even tried to make my food look nice and decorated with sprigs of parsley, but it sunk.. dunno why..

Mashed potatoes. Personally, I prefer roast potatoes but BIL spefically asked for mashed.

The pasta, which everyone liked coz it's spicy..

The spread

Somebody enjoying the Christmas dinner but I think she enjoys the sparkling juice served with the wine goblets more.

And my brandy fruit cake ...

Looks kinda bland boz I didn't decorate with blanch almonds or cherries but hubs said it's the best-est cake I've baked (3 whole long hours in the oven) !!!

Apple crumble

Hubs likes to take photos of empty plates and bowls, don't ask me why but this is what's leftover from our Christmas dinner :

And guess who helped clean up the crumbs ?

So, did you have a blast on Christmas ???? I hope you did ;)