Happy Prosperous Lunar New Year! 

How did your CNY celebration go? Let me recap ours.

The hubs and I were off work early on the eve of CNY and I went home first to change the bedsheets and put the curtain to wash before picking K up but thankfully the hubs called to say he was off work too and will pick the girl up. So I was able to do more chores around the house.

The eldest brother and Tim came by about 4ish and together with the hubs, they went to pick up curry fish head for our family reunion dinner. They swung by again to pick  K and I up because I had made jelly desserts for the dinner. The 3rd SIL said there were going to be a lot of food so my contribution was fine. The guys, from the brothers to their sons played Monopoly before and continued after their meal. They had such rousing fun that it was such an endearing sight to behold.

On the first day of the CNY, I cooked a pot of Olive Fried Rice and with the jelly dessert I made the night before after returning home from my family's reunion and brought them to the in-law's place. The Uncle's wife and another auntie did some cooking at the in-laws but I was so glad I brought food because it was walloped! And the new found sea jelly dessert I made was well received both at my family's reunion as well as at the in-laws, that the hubs requested for me to make some more for the 3rd day when we have 2 families coming over to our place.

We went back home about 3ish, made K take her nap and then the eldest brother and his troop arrived abt 4ish for CNY visitation. Our first guests. Lol. Shortly after K woke up from her nap, we trooped down to Jerry's. This year, they were heading to the 3rd SIL's hometown on the 2nd day of CNY so M was able to host guests at their place. Last year, we hosted because Jerry and family went off earlier. Again, we had dinner there.

For the 2nd day of CNY, it was church in the morning and then back home for the father and daughter to take their nap. I have asked the hubs' youngest Nepalese Aunt to come by our place about 4pm before we proceeded to a relative's open-house together as she now stays about a 15 minute drive away. But she reached at almost 5pm, citing the long wait for the bus. 

This year, another family took over the hosting at their landed property. The girl was having so much fun playing with all the jie-jies that they even brought her to a nearby playground. Again, I felt so neglected because the hubs sat at the table playing cards as soon as he walked into the house! I Always get pissed off with him when we have any gatherings at their relatives. His mother, who appears so sickly will also find herself a seat at the table. And I end up not liking any of these gatherings. I had to make it so obvious to the rest of the relatives that 'I' want to go home when it was getting late and he 'has' to. And I am sure none of them have a good impression of me and that's his doing so I really do not care anymore about how they think of me. Because there's nothing I can do about it right.

And finally, on the extra day off that we have, we picked M up from Jerry's and went to visit my Godmother. We had lunch there, stayed a while and left about 1:30 because we have invited 2 families over.

We are hosting CNY lunch on the last day of the Lunar New Year but these 2 families are not able to make it, so I made arrangements for them to drop by on the 3rd day instead. I allowed them to play with K's kinetic sand at the balcony and it was still quite messy. So when everyone left, the OCD in me had to wash the balcony and thankfully, K had help with tidying up her playhouse and I still ended up moping the entire house. Point to remember, Do not let the kids play with the sand during our open-house. Let the mess be contained in K's playroom, which already can be quite bad. When we had our 'house-warming' a year + ago, the entire lego set that my eldest brother bought for K and fixed by my nephews & nieces were utterly destroyed and remain so in the box. :(

Anyhow, that is the 3 days of our Lunar New Year celebrations. I hope you had a great time catching up with relatives and friends!

I had my first lo-hei session on Wednesday when my ICT team invited me and the receptionist for dinner while treating a fellow IT colleague from Manila who is in town. My second lo-hei session was on Friday when I brought along another colleague to a corporate lunch at Intercontinental Hotel. It was so grand!

And at today's reunion dinner with the hubs' side of the family, I'm going through a third round of lo-hei. Coincidentally, the FIL's youngest brother just arrived earlier in the day with his wife. The FIL's other younger brother has returned to the UK with his wife a week back and this time, we have another Uncle visiting directly from Nepal.

Earlier this morning, after completing K's laundry, the 3 of us went to Woodlands to stock up on our frozen items. There were so many people there buying stuff for CNY! It's always crowded this time of the year especially when the resident committees all over organise shopping trips here. Thankfully, it didn't take long for us to snag a carpark lot. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do much cleaning in the house because of the reunion dinner in the evening but I managed to set up the CNY goodies! Looking forward to having visitors to our house. 😊

I attended a tax workshop on Friday at Marriot Hotel. Which means the tax season has beckon. Sigh...busy at work again.

The hubs picked the girl up early from school because the workshop ended at 5pm and I didn't want to have to wait so long for them. So, we had a rare walk along Orchard..otherwise, we can get everything we need and want in our 'hood.

We went over to the hubs' aunt's place for lunch on Saturday because a brother of the aunt/FIL has come for a visit from the UK with his British wife. Although we were there at about 12 noon, lunch was only served at about 3! Talk about Nepalese timing! So when we arrived, I helped a little in the kitchen.

And then we went home, took a nap and out we went again. Dinner this time. With the Victors and Whites, for the hubs' belated birthday dinner.

I could finally mop the floor on Sunday, after our naps. Lol. And then we went to Chinatown to soak in the pre-CNY festivities as well as for dinner.

And today, we all slept in because we took the day off for a day-trip to JB with Jeremy and Ivy. We picked them up from the MRT station near our home and arrived in JB slightly early for lunch. We spent almost the whole day in that 1 shopping centre because it has a new extension which made the shopping so fun. Dinner was also spent there before we headed back home.

The youngest BIL text me before lunch to ask if there would be any plans for the hubs birthday. I replied no but can be arranged. So he said he will check if he can get off and will let me know. I have no plans at all for the hubs' although he took the day off but we did have plans to eat out and I've asked him since yesterday to let me know where he wants to eat.

In the afternoon, the youngest SIL confirmed that they can meet us at my requested time of 6:30pm. And so the hatching started. Since the hubs could not decide where he would like to eat, I made the decision, bought a small cake and brought it to the restaurant first. The hubs and the girl arrived a little after 6pm and I did a purposeful walk into Isetan while the youngest BIL and his family arrived and went to the restaurant first.

The youngest BIL had called the 2nd BIL but he and the baby was sick. According to the youngest SIL, her husband had wanted to call their mother but changed his mind because the FIL's brother from the UK is in town. So, the hubs' birthday dinner was just a cosy 6 of us, the way I prefer.

I paid for dinner, although in reality, didn't had any plans to surprise the hubs but he was happy, thinking that I planned it all. If the youngest BIL had not messaged me, it would have just been dinner for the 3 of us. And so since we had company, we had more food choices.

The 3 of them came up to our place after dinner and I passed the NIL his belated Christmas present, which he liked very much, thankfully. It is a Star Wars jacket. By the time, they left it was almost 10pm and I still had to do the laundry. But I shall not complain. The hubs spent his birthday day alone and even washed the master bathroom. 

Happy Birthday to the man who tolerates me so much.

It has been a busy week at work and like all things, this too shall pass. Lol.

The hubs scored a complimentary staycation at Setosa again, making it almost an annual routine for us. He always manages to get it in his birthday month but this time, we stayed at Hotel Michael. Personally, I still prefer Festive Hotel although our first time at Equarius was the best but in terms of location, the furthest. Hotel Michael was situated nearest to the shops and very near the monorail station. 

We did a lot more this time round. The hubs reckons it's because K is older now and we can do more things. After dropping our stuff in the room, we went for our much needed lunch, took a walk while the hubs waited to redeem the hotel voucher at the membership counter and went back to the room for a short nap. About an hour later, we went to Imbiah Monorail station and took a walk towards the luge station where the girl was so hesitant to ride but after seeing kids her age or younger, she braved herself to go, sitting with her daddy, of course. After that first luge, there was no stopping her. Thankfully, I bought us 2 rides. But because the sun was so strong, we decided to return later for the 2nd ride.

We then took another walk and went to 4D Adventureland. The hubs has some ex-colleagues working there and scored us tickets again! Only the show and shooting game was more suitable for K. She had her head down on her daddy's lap the whole time during the extreme log ride where we sat in a spaceship like machine and it was moving all over.

We then returned to the luge station after all the 3 stations at the adventure land, had pretty good dinner at the beach, caught some fireworks and then took the skylift back up in the dark. 

This morning, we took the monorail out to Vivo, had breakfast and took the monorail back to the hotel where the both of them changed into their swim outfits and we took along K's sandplay toys. We spent about 2 hours at Palawan Beach before we had to head back to the room, to bathe and check-out.

It was a pretty well-rested weekend, despite the scorching heat. And I thought the heat has descended upon on us for the CNY season until the lovely strong breeze came back to us at night. :)

Although I had wanted to cook on Friday evening, because we have so much roast beef leftover from Christmas, the hubs managed to convince me to go out. And so we did! I'm glad we did because we bought quite a few pieces of clothing for the girl at a sale and managed to grab 2 pieces for myself from the older kids section. Hahahah...am so glad I can still wear them and with some allowance!

I did the usual laundry on Saturday morning and then cooked lunch. Fried Brown Rice with Chinese Sausage and Ham. 

This is the last meal I cooked for 2016 and I had extra so we brought them over to the PIL's. But unfortunately, enough only for 1 so the hubs packet something else for the FIL. We stayed at the PIL's for about an hour and met the hubs' aunt and uncle who happened to drop by while shopping nearby. 

We then left for the White's for a steamboat dinner, which the hubs is not a fan of. But they have been good friends and have tried inviting us once before but we couldn't make it. The Victors joined us later after we were done with our dinner as the place wasn't big enough to have everyone eat together anyway. And then some of us, meaning actually involving me, played playstation, while the hostess and her bff, Gaye, were talking with Deb's mother. And then we counted down at their home and left a little past midnight. The girl literally slept from 2016 into 2017 because it was way past her bedtime. Lol.

And on New Year's Day, we started the year right with church service and the 3rd SIL dropped by our place with Esther to collect some roasted beef that I had offered her. Seeing E play wif K, I suggested that E stay for dinner at our place and then we'll send her home. The 3rd SIL was agreeable thankfully because who knows, with PSLE this year, E may not want to play with K as much when she enters secondary school. After dinner, the hubs decided to drive through Chinatown to take a look at the lights but unfortunately, the lights were not up yet and it was pouring.

And today, I suggested to the hubs to pop by the 2nd BIL's place so that we could pass them whole lot of toys that the girl has out-grown. We ended not keeping any for memory's sake. There are just too many. And so, the hubs arranged for the youngest BIL and we all met there. Unfortunately, I forgot the Christmas presents for the 2 nephews-in-law! We ordered pizza and KFC for dinner and left at about 9ish, sending the MIL home first because she had spent the night there.

That's how our New Year's eve ended and New Year's started. I remember being so excited for the count-down parties pre-K...but now, it only means getting a year older. :p