5 Reasons Why I Loved Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas! I hope you’ve been having a great day, wherever you are in the world and whatever time it is there! 🙂 Here’s my post about Christmas this year and it is not just about Christmas Day itself but about everything Christmas-y that has been happening around me!

☃ Presents ☃

My family always waits till Christmas night to open our presents 🙂 Just opened them and came up to blog!

All the presents under the tree and a little cute teddy bear Ruth gave me (too cute so he gets to sit there amongst the pressies.)

After opening my presents (including the ones in my stocking!). I love my presents every year so so so much! Yq bought me one Rila and Santa got me the other ❤ ❤ I got one Rila for Yq too! Hers is the Christmas series Rila! Now we have FOUR in the family ❤ ❤ And then Ging got me clothes! A really pretty blouse and cute floral shorts! My aunt got me watercolours paints and special watercolour brushes (I seriously did not know that there were different brushes for different paints omg I am a failed artist). And I also got other things like phone cases! My other aunt thought I used an iPhone 4 hahahahah so she got me a really cute princess-y iPhone 4 case x) Santa got me Samsung S3 cases and socks and goodies too! Really useful because I cracked my Molang case 😥 Dropped it a gazillion times. And then my parents ❤ ❤ got me a necklace! It’s a really pretty one with a heart charm and I wasn’t expecting it AT ALL.

THANK YOU EVERYONE + SANTA ❤ So blessed in so many ways!

☃ Stocking and Santa ☃

So apart from the presents under the Christmas tree, Santa also leaves me presents in my stocking. This year, Santa left me a note (not the first time! Last time he did, he wrote something about not being able to find my stocking and leaving the presents under the tree instead! My Santa is Cute with a capital C.).

☃ Food ☃

Generally, Christmas is associated with turkey and ham and log cake etc. etc, and I had plenty of those things in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But on Christmas Day itself, I had Roti Prata for breakfast, Prawn Mee for lunch and horfun + mee goreng + satay + rojak + sweet and sour pork + egg for dinner x) I’M SO FULL. It’s a rather different way to celebrate Christmas haha but I enjoyed the food and that’s all the matters!

Part of dinner 🙂

Of course I had Christmas food too! Mom cooked all the Christmas stuff like turkey during her gathering with her friends 🙂

And we also had western (kind of) dinner with our extended family!

 Bwahahahaha my aunts + cousin!

 My western food 🙂 Duck confit and Christmas ham (from the Philippines!!)

Log-cake! So this was the western part. The “kind of” part was because we also had Chinese soup and tang yuans HAHA.

☃ Secret Santa with the Nincompoops ☃

So the Nincompoops are namely: Rach, Vicky, Sherm, HS, Dawn, Su, Bev, Jay and Zen! We arranged a Secret Santa gift exchange through a cool secret santa generator website, and all of us were assigned a name to prepare a present for J I can’t say who my “person” was yet, because not all the Nincompoops have gotten their gifts. So far I think only Vicky and I have! I can’t wait for all of us to present our gifts (secretly) :D. Anyway, so my Secret Santa very kindly came all the way to my house and placed the parcel at my doorstep before leaving in a jiffy so I didn’t know who she was! She also requested an opening video haha so I filmed me opening the package which was wrapped in layers of bubble wrap as well! It turned out to be scrapbooking supplies – cute puffy cupcake stickers, purple glittery alphabet stickers and many many pieces of Christmas themed scrapbook paper! I used the paper to make envelopes for my Christmas cards to the Nincompoops J THANK YOU SECRET SANTA ILY <3!

HINT TO MY SANTA: TIME TO TELL ME WHO YOU ARE

☃ Giving Back ☃

On a more serious note, I also donated money to a charitable organization for relief efforts in the Philippines after the powerful typhoon Haiyan hit them more than a month ago. I read a few articles about the aftermath in the newspapers today and was saddened by the great loss that the typhoon victims have experienced.

I quote the article – “When asked what his wish for Christmas is, he said it is for his family to be whole again “because Christmas should be a time for family.” He knows this wish will not come true, but he wishes for it anyway, every day.” This was the story of a 12 year old boy who lost 22 family members to the typhoon. Many of us simply can’t bear to imagine life without one of our family members, let alone our whole family.

Again I quote – “”This Christmas, we will have no tree, no party, no gifts, no lights. But we have sardines and some rice and we will share,” he said.” This was from a father whose family members all survived (thank God) and it touches my heart in ways I can’t describe because he is just happy that his family is alive and ABLE to share food with each other, not asking for anything more this Christmas.

The money I donated came from friends, family and friends of family who purchased my handmade clay and resin charms. I had made up my mind since the end of last year – when I received the Edusave Character award – that I would use the prize money to buy materials and make tiny art pieces that I would sell. The money that I raised would be donated to a charitable organization in the hopes of making someone else’s life a little better. Initially, I had hoped to donate to mycharitywater (google it to see their life changing efforts), but unfortunately they had stopped accepting payments from Singapore earlier this year. Then I saw a plea on television for donations for the victims of typhoon Haiyan through GlobalGiving and decided the money would be equally helpful there. Hence, I donated the money here http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/super-typhoon-haiyan-relief-fund/. If you take a look at the amount raised thus far and the amount that still needs to be raised, you will realise that the USD200 I donated is a mere drop in the ocean, but the ocean is made up of drops! (So cliché but it’s true!)

My booth during my mom’s gathering! Happy Mickey!

Thanks for reading this extremely lengthy Christmas post 🙂 I hope you had a MERRY one and remember to be thankful for what you have ❤

Hong Kong Disneyland

Mickey Mouse incorporated into every bit of the train!

Our visit to Disneyland was rather last-minute (we only decided to go the day before!) but nonetheless very enjoyable! Yq and I loved the Disneyland atmosphere – especially since Christmas is just around the corner and they had Christmas songs and limited edition merchandise 🙂

We arrived rather early at approximately 9.15, because we set out early from the hotel. The park was only supposed to open at 10 according to the website, so it was a pleasant surprise when the gates opened at 9.30! Then we found out that only Main Street USA would be open for that half hour and the rides would open at 10. So we waited around for another half hour, and when the clock struck 10, we RAN to the Space Mountain ride in Tomorrow Land hahaha! Had to be the first in line. But we weren’t >.<

The inside of Space Mountain! It was an indoor roller coaster which didn’t have any sudden steep drops. There were many twists though and it was quite dark during the ride so it was still fun 🙂 We took this ride twice because there was hardly a queue!

Then we got ourselves some popcorn 🙂 They sold ice-cream and popsicles there too, but we didn’t get any. I took this picture because I want to try making the Mickey-shaped ice-creams from polymer clay teehee 😀

Our Mickey-shaped popcorn bucket! We got this because 1. cute 2. we could close it and not have to worry about the popcorn flying out during rides. However, the lid wasn’t very tight and opened up easily, which led to me spilling some popcorn in the toilet while trying to hook it >.< Bad Mickey.

It’s a small world! The most relaxing ride there 🙂 It is a boat trip down an indoor man-made “river” with cute dolls of people from all around the world! It showcases different cultural aspects such as dances and rituals.

Square trees outside!

Then, we went on another relaxing ride – a Winnie the Pooh adventure! We sat in a Honey Pot carriage thingamajig hahaha it’s such a cute idea! So the Honey Pot just goes around and we find out more about how Pooh bear or Pooh-san (as I now like to call him hahaha I learnt it from the Japanese!) lost his Honey Pot in a storm but later found it again. 😀

Hooray bc he found his honey x)

This way to Toy Story! Again, love the idea of the bench made out of giant popsicle sticks!

In Toy Story land, I took the s c a r i e s t ride in HK Disneyland by myself! Because Yq took it before in another Disneyland and said once was enough humf.

It’s called RC Racer and is basically a giant horseshoe! So you go from one end to another, much like a viking ship ride but much much scarier! It’s like going up at 90 degrees then literally falling down (like your seat falls before you and you fall back onto the seat!). And then repeating that soon after on the other side! It’s sooooo fun even though it’s scary! Only went on it once though 😦

This ride doesn’t look as scary as it actually is (which isn’t very scary actually). Basically you start here (^)

And then you go here. And you just go up and down and up and down hahaha. The queue was really long though! Longer than the RC Racer which was so much more fun in my opinion! The RC Racer had no queue actually. I went on the first one once I walked in because I was a single rider ^_^

This was the funnest ride! Yq says it’s like Thunder Mountain in the other Disneylands, but this one is even better because there was a backward part that was totally unexpected!

It goes up this little cliff, stops and then goes backwards really quickly! Then it stops in a cave with two grizzly bears and there’s some TNT in there which explodes, so we go off again at lightning speed 😀 It was sooo fun. And it was even better because there was a Chinese mum and her little daughter in front of us, and the mum was super duper scared and just hollering “受不了啦!” (I can’t stand it!) and many other things hahahaha so I just laughed throughout the ride x) And her daughter was so annoyed at her mum, she kept turning around and looking at Yq and I because we kept laughing hahaha. After that round we decided to queue again, but the queue was so much longer! But oh well it was worth it 😀

After the ride, we wanted to go back to Main Street USA but we realised it was time for the parade!

Pooh-san’s float! I really love the honey pots haha 🙂

Disney princesses – Snow White, Aurora (my childhood favourite although I’m not sure why haha maybe because her dress is pink), Belle and Cinderella.

Then I realised they were doing a dance of sorts hahaha.

The Stitch float was really cool because the platform swings about!

The dancers with their colourful costumes 🙂

Finally got our turkey leg!

And I decided to get a Churro 😀 I’ve been wanting to eat a Churro since the last time I tried one in London! They sold them in the park if I’m not wrong and they were so good omg. They were slightly different from the one in Disneyland though. The one in London was sold in a pack of 5 or 6 mini sticks (like shorter than the one I’m holding in this picture) and it came with fudge! So good 😀 I prefer those but it’s okay! This one was coated in sugar! I tried to make Churros

before at home, because I bought a Churros mould from Daiso, but they turned out different because I baked them instead of frying them 🙂 They weren’t as crispy and tasted more like a buttery cross between a bun and a biscuit. It was still good though! :Next, we watched the Mickey 4D show (the brochure said 3D, but it had water and air effects :D). It started with just Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck and an orchestra but they gradually incorporated many other Disney characters! Basically the story was about how Donald Duck lost his hat and journeyed to many different lands in an attempt to retrieve it. He went to places such as the castle that Belle lives in, swam around in Ariel’s grotto and flew on a magic carpet alongside Princess Jasmine 🙂 It was supposed to be a musical of sorts because of the orchestra, so it was like a medley with all the different Disney songs 😀 (There was also Lion King!)The people outside waiting to go into the auditorium. There were many little kids there and it was so amusing and cute to watch them reach out and try to grab the things flying around because of the 3D glasses! It was also quite interesting because the Disneyland crew calls the 3D glasses opera glasses… x)

We didn’t have much we wanted to do anymore so we started walking out 😦

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth! And I really want to visit the one in Japan again because the last time I went there was when I was 5 or 6 (I think) and the only thing I remember was chickening out of a Disneysea ride. 😦 Not the best memory! I would also like to go to Disneyworld in USA 😀 Hehe but right now I’m just really contented that I got to go to Disneyland on this trip because I wasn’t expecting it at all! 🙂

Hong Kong 2013

I just got back from Hong Kong a few hours ago! My family and I went for a short trip from 6th to 9th December 🙂 Over the span of four days, we did some sight-seeing, caught up with relatives and went to Disneyland (only Yq and I). 😀

Dinner on the first night was a whopping ten course meal! I selected the nicer pictures for this collage 🙂

On the second day, we went to Lantau Island via cable car. Not my favourite mode of transport (I’ve been scared of heights since forever – cable car ride to Ocean Park the last time I visited Hong Kong, St. Paul’s cathedral in London, the Eiffel Tower, Mount Kinabalu etc. etc. Weren’t exactly the best experiences I’ve had haha!). But still it was quite an experience going over the mountains 🙂

The island had a rather festive mood to it and there was an ongoing collaboration with Koala’s March (a koala-shaped biscuit, much like Hello Panda).

Tried out the tau huay (which had a ginger taste to it), corn and curry fishballs!

Main attraction of the day – a huge statue of Buddha which could be seen from far far away.

The Buddha statue as seen from the cable car!

There were also quite a few dogs wandering about the island. 🙂 They were really tame though and nicely groomed (according to Yq). Some passer-by left this goldie a bun hahaha so cute!

Dim-sum lunch yum yum 🙂 Over-ordered though!

Then we went to the Avenue of stars 🙂

One of the two actors I actually knew hahaha x) The other, Jackie Chan, had too many people crowding around it.

The next day, Yq and I went to Disneyland! But the amount of pictures I took there was equivalent to half of all the pictures from the trip, so I shall dedicate a separate blog post to Disneyland!

Adventure Cove and Clay Workshop (Part II)

Yq and I went to Adventure Cove today! We went really early and got to the entrance at around 9.50, so we were among the first few to enter. 🙂

We went on all the rides and only had to queue for one ride because they weren’t too many people around yet! I think we covered all the rides in less than an hour! By then, the queues had started forming though. :<

So we floated leisurely along the “river” and went to play in the wave pool! The last time I went to Adventure Cove (in June if I’m not mistaken!), floats were allowed in the wave pool, but now they aren’t! Probably because the big round floats took up too much space 😦

We got bored so we ate cheese fries!

Candy crush: anytime anywhere

After this, we went to the wave pool one last time and decided we had nothing else to do in Adventure Cove! It was only 1.30! (Perks of being early birds!) So we went to Chili’s 😀

More Candy Crush 🙂

So much food! The service was great there 🙂 The waiters and waitresses were all super friendly and offered to refill our chips haha but no thanks!

I really love how chili is incorporated into everything – even the door handles! How creative 🙂

And the stand too 😀

And omg the giant Molten Chocolate Cake! Yq heard from her friends that Chili’s has the best lava cake so I had to try it hahaha. It’s really good but we were so full from the chips so I couldn’t appreciate every mouthful of rice chocolate cake fully D:

Then we left for Vivo City 🙂 We shopped a bit and skipped dinner haha because we were still too full! Then we went for the second and final part of our clay workshop (which I blogged about under Food Adventures at Vivo)!

The finished products!

This and the following are all my works 🙂 Sausage bun + cucumber + cheese drizzle!Hamburgers 🙂 The meat patty part was cool because I learnt a totally different way to texture it!
Sugar and rainbow sprinkle donuts 🙂

Lastly, peach and strawberry tarts 🙂

I’m so tired now haha after jumping in the wave pool and eating loads and clay! Another long day ahead of me tomorrow – Catching Fire + more shopping! 😀