Christmas Presents

We woke up on Christmas Eve morning and it was snowing! Snow has melted several days ago and it has been raining and was really windy for the past few days. Everybody was really disappointed with the weather and we all got a pleasant surprise when we woke up to see everything covered in white.

Having picked up 1 heavy box and 1 package from the Post Office last night, we were all excited to see what was inside. The box was from our family back home and it was loaded with goodies! Instant noodles, 3-in-1 coffee powder, Chinese medicated oils, ang bao packets, my favorite magazines and book, presents for all of us and of course, lots and lots of love!! The package was from a very good friend, who always send me nice stuffs to brighten my days. This year she sent me 2 books by my favorite illustrator, 幾米. My happiness was doubled!

Nothing beats receiving gifts from home. Looking at all my favorite stuffs, my eyes teared up immediately and my heart swelled with gratitude. I suppose it is difficult for Lars and kiddos to understand completely how worked up I was to receive these.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THOSE WONDERFUL GIFTS!!!

One of the presents I received this year is something which I have mentioned to my hubby very long time ago. I was very very surprised that he actually remembered and bought it for me! It is a tablet from Wacom.






This tablet is for professional illustrator/designer and he bought it for ME! I make some designs using Corel Draw as a hobby, I feel that I should not be using something so expensive, feels both guilty and happy at the same time! I tell myself that now I really need to work harder to launch my website to sell my designs so I can justify for the cost of my hubby's investment and hopefully to repay him in future!

I will work hard in 2009!

Baking our first gingerbread house!

We decided to bake our first gingerbread house last Sunday. A project which proved to be very challanging as we went along. Kiddos started by tracing the drawing onto baking paper so we could put on our dough later. Then we cut the dough and put the parts into the oven and then.... we kinda forgot about them. So the parts turned out to be a little on the dark side! ^_^ Then my sweet hubby volunteered to put them together because the melted sugar was very very hot and dangerous.



we thought he did a good job.



After all parts were put together (well....most of them were), all of us crowded around to do the fun part - decorating! we managed to do the roofs and a little on the sides and then Julkalender (a kids' program which is shown every year from 1st Dec to 24th Dec, with different stories every year, all related to Christmas)started, so all of us "migrated" to the living room. Leaving this mess...



When Julkalendar was over, Harry Potter started so nobody was interested in decorating the gingerbread house further, so we declared it done!



There was one special feature in our gingerbread house though.... It was missing in one wall!



Lars and I were laughing so hard when he was trying to put all parts together! Jovan tried to make the situation better by saying,"Our pepperkakshus (gingerbread house) has a open garage."

We think that we did a good job for beginners and we feel that we're ready for a more challanging design next year! hahahahaha!

Recipe for Rocky Road Chocolate

Here goes the recipe for all you chocolate fans!

200g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate (I used dark chocolate instead coz I like dark chocolate!)
25g butter
397g sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla powder
Your choice of:
minimarshmallows (or cut regular ones into smaller pieces)/peanuts/hazelnuts/raisins


How to:

1. Cover a small rectangular container with aluminium foil (I used those kind of small disposable aluminium tray, around 20x25cm)

2. Melt chocolate and butter. Stir in condensed milk.

3. Stir till mixture is smooth. Let it cool a little and stir in vanilla powder.

4. Mix in your choice of marshmallows/peanuts/hazelnuts/raisins. Do not stir too much if you're adding marshmallows coz they will melt. Leave in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

5. Cut into bits. Store cool.

There you go, yummy Rocky Road Chocolate, enjoy!

Rocky Road Chocolate

This is the second time I made this chocolate. The first time I made with marshmallows and hazelnut. The time I made it with marshmallows and raisins. Kiddos really like it (me too!).

This time I gave half the batch to Angel's buddy, who will be moving away from here and going to a different school from next week onwards. Both of them (Angel and her buddy) are sad that they won't be able to play together anymore.

Angel has been talking about wanting to give her a present, so we made this chocolate together and also gave her a framed picture of Angel, Jovan and her took during Halloween. Her buddy's mommy has also promised that she'll come and pick them up during the weekdays, after school, to bring them over to their new place to play together. She thinks that this is a better way than to separate them abruptly.

Lars and I are always mindful that children are like blank canvas and it's extremely important what and how we choose to paint on them. I hope that we have taught Angel that even if our good friends moved away, this doesn't mean that the friendship has ended. It just means that we have to take more effort to stay in contact with each other. People moves in and out of our lives every now and then, but if we have found good friends, we will make extra efforts to remain good friends regardless of distance.

I miss my good friends and I'm happy that even though we're on different side of the earth, our friendship remains and we can still talk and gossip as if we just met yesterday

Cheers to true friendship!

First sewing project

I have been learning to use the sewing machine which I got from Lars as Christmas present last year. Yeah, I've waited a year before I gathered enough confidence to open the box! That's how much my Home Economics teacher has "scarred" me! I'll talk to my "half-sister" to see if it'll be okay for me to blog about all those horrifying events back in 1989.....


Anyway, after I've succeeded threading the machine and spinning some bobby pins, I pluck up enough courage to shorten a few curtains I have which were too long for the windows. I used to pin the extra fabric up with safety pins but I decided that now is the time to be a grown-up and sew them properly (I know, it's sad).

Curtains seems to turn out alright, although I was already planning to buy new ones after I destroy those! Then I remembered that I have saved one of Angel's favorite jeans because she has grown out of it. Why don't I try to make something out of it? I think Angel will be happy. That is if I'm successful....

And this is the end result. This is the front view.

It's a little crudely made because I didn't use any measure tape or ruler. I was just going at it with my scissor and a lot, and I mean A LOT of estimation and imagination!

Back view:

The accessory used was bought from Singapore when I was home for holiday. And I've stitched the flower pattern in beads. It was from a sketch by Angel and I modified it a little.

Angels is very happy with this bag. (or maybe she's just being nice to mommy?) And I think it turn out quite alright considering that this is my first sewing project.

What the....?!?!

Saw this interesting advertisement on the web... it says "fluffy chinese naked dog". FLUFFY???!!!!

Hilarious!!!!

It's really tricky to stay upbeat and cheerful between the transition period from autumn to winter. It's dark, cold and just plain gloomy....

I think I finally realise why Swedes are such exercise freaks. They really need to keep their endorphine level high constantly to survive 9 months of "sun-less" autumn/winter. For a typical Singaporean (translate: lazy and only wants to eat good food) like me who thinks that writing with a pen is hard labour, my only solution to increase my endorphine level is to EAT CHOCOLATES!!!! (happy food! happy food!) But when I do that, my mind is happy but my body is growing side-way too much - so end up, still not happy...

Anyway, chance upon this hilarious article which I would like to share:

http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

Sooooo funnnnyyy!!!!