Needing to clear my leave, I have taken today and the coming Monday off. But because the office rec club has organised a movie night today, we've decided to pick baby K after the show. I had arranged to catch up with Pauline and her bub too but had to call it off to start packing for our Bangkok trip, happening next Thursday. 

With baby K back home tonight till Monday evening, then back to work for me on Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't want to take the risk of last minute packing the day before we travel. So technically, today is the best time I can get things done, without any distractions. 

I could have slept longer but woke up before 8 because of the nagging thought of clearing a long list of tasks. I did baby K's laundry, mopped the house, cleared some clothes from my wardrobe before packing for myself and baby K for the trip. I can now relax, knowing I've got most part of the packing done. The only stuff left are the ones that we need to use on an everyday basis.

Today's movie might probably be the last that the hubs and I get to enjoy. The sweetheart is coming back for good in 2 weeks' time and unless the hubs and I plan a day-time 'get-away', it's not going to be just the 2 of us anymore. Everything that we have plans for will now include the little one. 

I had my first taste of Christmas today when 3 of my colleagues and I made use of our Staff Activity fund for buffet at the Oriental. There were supposed to be 6 of us but 2 fell sick, which just as well, the buffet didn't come cheap despite a '1 eat free for every 3 paying adults' promotion.

Which reminds me that I saw CPL having dinner with her husband at the hawker centre near our place on Saturday evening. I was carrying baby K, with the hubs who was walking ahead of us and Jerry's helper. I saw her approaching the table where her husband was seated, carrying her food tray. And I used baby K to shield me. Lol...I really do not want to have anything to do with her anymore. To the extent, I've set a privacy setting in my FB that limits what she can view. I do not know if the hubs recognised her and I did not bother bringing it up when we sat down for dinner after.

As expected, I chose to sit away from them and completely out of sight. Some friendships are so straight forward but some people are so hard to phantom. I do not see it worthy to wonder what level of friendship you have with a certain person and whether it's even genuine. No, not these at our age. Thank you!

As promised, a picture of our Christmas tree! No decorations needed. The lights are so pretty by themselves. Adding on decorations will only spoil the look.

Also, this is the 3rd car I've seen dressed up like Rudolph in our estate. It's fun to look at, especially in this festive season. When I first chanced upon it with baby K, I pointed it out to her and started singing Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer to her. 

I feel the spirit of Christmas coming back to me, one that was missing for the past year. In fact, I've invited Jeremy and Jerry's family over for a simple do on Christmas eve. Our family stopped the tradition of Christmas get-together ever since M moved out from Jerry's but I know all of us still long for that family warmth. Although Jerry and his wife have work, I know the 3 kids can't wait to come as confirmed by Joshua's 'yay' when I spoke to the 3rd SIL about having their helper bring the kids over.

Even though I won't be having turkey, glazed ham, log cake and the usual stuff that we have had since I was a kid, unwrapping presents, kids playing and introducing baby K to the warmth of what Christmas brings is something I really look forward to. :)

Baby K 'developed' an ulcer near her top upper lips and we only found out when I was feeding her on Friday evening. She cried and pointed to her mouth but I couldn't see it then. It was only when I was brushing her teeth that she cried again and I asked her to open her mouth to let me see. Hopefully it goes off soon and thankfully, it has not affected her appetite.

The hubs' new guild house project has completed and he has been busy with the opening since Thursday. On Friday, the soft-opening was during lunch and he was able to fetch baby K and in fact both of them were home way before I reached! And yesterday, he was away from early morning again but managed to come back in the afternoon and off he went after our dinner. Hopefully, his long hours will end soon with the completion of the new guild house.

So in the early evening, we could pick up an optic fibre christmas tree that I had bought on-line and I must say I love it! There's no need for any decoration at all! Although it's only 90cm, the main reason we're buying it is for baby K. Maybe next time we'll get a taller one when this one no longer works. I'll post a picture of it in my next post. :)

I got myself a bottle of craft glue and foam tape to complete the rest of the photos for the scrap album during lunch yesterday. And I am so impressed wit the Daiso outlet that a colleague and I visited! It has so much materials for craft work and is so organised as well. The usual outlet that the hubs and I tend to go to seems so messy in comparison.

However, I only managed to get 1 photo done after completing my laundry last night. I do not have those design punchers and am hoping the rest of the photos do not end up looking too plain. Gaye has a whole load of those punchers and I only managed to scrap some for use for the remaining pictures but it's definitely not enough. Let's hope the stickers I bought can do a good job. Lol.

On another note, Jerry sent his maid over again yesterday evening as he and his family drive up to his wife's hometown in Malaysia. Which means I can leave the maid to do the housework today! Yay. The last time she came over was during our Malacca trip last month and because Jerry and his family came back later than all of us, the maid was with us for the whole week and when we returned home from the trip, I was able to get her to help out with the chores. She even cooked baby K's meal when the hubs had to return to work the next day. 

But having said that, the maid also commented that there wasn't much to do around the house. Well, once she is done with the chores that I hardly touch, there really isn't much left. Yes, there were areas which made the entire rag black and that was it really. She'll be with us till tomorrow and since the hubs will be at the opening of the new guild house for almost the whole day tomorrow, I'll have her clean up his wardrobe and wash the master toilet. Ooh....how I wish this sort of arrangement could be a monthly affair. Lol.

Although baby K knows that she has to be seated in her high chair during her meal times at home, she has a different treatment at Jeremy's. As long as she remains seated, they give in to her fuss not to be strapped onto the high chair, which happens to be nicer and bought specially for Jeremy's home.

Pre-birth, we had 2 Ikea classic high chairs handed down to us. Not knowing our arrangement for baby K then, we kept one and gave away the other, only to have to buy another one months later. And the new one with lovely butterfly prints was under-utilised. Thankfully, we bought it during a warehouse sale and I managed to sell it to a colleague, whose hubs went to collect it from Jeremy's. Ahh...if only it's so easy to sell all the other items that I want to let go. 

Here's a look at the under-utilised high chair:

We met the Victors for dinner yesterday in Orchard with the intention to see the Christmas light-ups. But it was raining when we finished our meal and we had to content with the decorations at the shopping centre itself as it was not connected to any other malls. It started to pour in the afternoon and the hubs was already hesitating to go out but Kenneth was keen to have us join them, to the extent of even wanting to pick us up!

Baby K who has started a shoe fetish, yes at her tender age of 20 months, quickly put away the shoes she was trying on when she saw the 2 Victor sisters. She was trying them on and when she saw the sisters, she quickly took the shoes out and anxiously put on her own pair of shoes. It happened in Malacca too when we went into the shoe shops. It didn't matter to her that she was putting on adult shoes! She would take a pair from the shelf, plonk herself on the floor, remove her own shoes and try on whatever pair she has taken. She did it at 3 shops that we went into and all of us had a amusing time looking at her antics. I have to remind myself not to walk past any shoe shop anymore.

Anyway, I finally started on the scrapbook album when we went over to the Victors after sending baby K to Jeremy's after her dinner. The hubs was there to watch soccer and time passed by so fast because Gaye and another friend was busy helping me with the scrapbooking. I had fun while at it and there are some more pics to be done. I guess I'll get busy at home when there's no chores to be done and while baby K's not around to disturb, oops, I mean distract me.