Our Christmas Celebrations

This entry outlines the celebrations we had for Christmas this year. Be warned, it's gonna be a long one. Just uploading the photos took me 3 days. And filling in the content took me more than 2 hours.

15 Dec 2007: Christmas Block Party for the Residents at Blk 958 Hougang

Every year during this period, our church has an event called Christmas Parties Everywhere where cell groups will hold block parties for the blocks in Hougang that each cell group has 'adopted' throughout the year to bless.

Me and Carolin as 'Angels' to give out candies

When we tried on our angel halos, Wanhui commented,"Carol looks like an Egyptian princess". One of our friends then asked her, " What about Hui Ling?" She gave me one look, did a quick mental review of me and said," Well this princess too tanned. Don't look like Egyptian princess." Sigh...I've never been fair. Even as a baby. My mum told me I was very yellow so they had to put me out under the sun. There's a name for this condition I think, forgot what it's called.

Anyway, I felt quite weird when I walked out as one of the 'angels'. Wasn't used to it and the kids looked pretty surprised. Maybe they didn't know what to make out of this tanned angel. I mean angels are supposed to be white right, not brown. Haha but it was a fun experience for me, and Carol I think.

19 Dec 2007: Christmas Actually @ Santorini Restaurant VivoCity

Me and the witty icebreaker MC for the night

Me and Lao Gong

I look so erm, mature here. Anyway, our church booked this nice restaurant at Vivocity for our Youth & Young Adults Christmas celebration. Some of us invited friends over and together, we celebrated the true meaning of Christmas.

Parting Shot

23 Dec 2007 1am

Ah mei (Our former Jack Russell) - The proud mother of one

Spot the puppy at the extreme bottom of this photo

Some background info: Ah mei is called ah mei becos she was supposed to be Ah boy's baby sister. No resemblance to Heli in any way.

We gave her and her son Lilo, from her previous litter, to a good friend cos we couldn't manage 4 dogs - Ah boy, ah ger, ah mei and Lilo. Though Lilo has matured, and takes his male animal instincts out on ah mei, she had never allowed him to have his way. However, there was an accident one day and something unfortunate happened. Our dear friend Ah qiang was so angry with Lilo that he brought him to the vet to become a eunuch.

Though Ah qiang saw the accident, he didn't know ah mei was pregnant as she didn't gain much weight. Until the day ah mei went into labour did he realise that she was indeed pregnant. The last time ah mei went into labour, lao gong was the one who delivered her babies and the first puppy died as the water bag broke in her womb. When the baby was finally delivered, she refused to believe that it was dead and kept on licking the water from its nose and mouth, trying to revive it. It was very heart-wrenching to watch and it's amazing what a mother's love can do. Though she had two other beautiful babies, she still wanted to keep the 1stborn with her.

Anyway, Ah qiang finally realised she was pregnant when she started panting heavily and pulling all the cloth she could find into her bed. When he called us at around 1130pm, lao gong was still busy and very sleepily wrapping the christmas presents we were supposed to give the next day. I was entertaining him by singing karaoke to him in our tv room. Lao gong gave ah qiang as much tips as he could from his experience as a previous doggie midwife.

One hour later, he called again to tell us that water was coming out from ah mei's womb. From previous experience, we knew that it meant that the water bag had broken and the puppy was in danger if ah mei still could not deliver it soon. After putting down the phone, we stood dazed for 3 secs, made the decision to rush to woodlands and locked up the house in record time. We ran to the main road, me in my pyjamas shorts and lao gong also in half sleep attire to look for a cab.

There wasn't much we could do except to keep praying in the cab. During ah mei's 1st childbirth, the puppy came out in less than 15mins after the water bag broke but it had already suffocated. The ride took us half an hour and we just kept praying for God to keep this puppy. We didn't want to see ah mei devastated again.

The moment we alighted below ah qiang's flat, he rang us to tell us that the puppy had finally been delivered and it was alive! How the puppy survived for 30mins in the womb without the water in the water bag is truly a miracle! What's more is that there was only 1 pup in this litter, a rare occurrence and if God hadn't saved this pup, it would have been a worse experience for ah mei cos she wouldn't have any pups to love and take her attention away from her lost one.

Puppy's 1st feed

Another miracle about this puppy is that ah mei, Lilo and Lilo's father are all brown but this miracle puppy is black.

As small as a hamster

23 Dec 2007 Surprise Birthday Celebration for Mei (Heli)

Photo extracted from the web. We reached home at 5am, woke up at 8am for 1st service, staged an act and pretend that I had forgotten mei's bday and had nothing special in mind for her except to have a Christmas eve eve lunch from 11am till 2pm. By the time we had the bday lunch for her, I was half gone and had forgotten to take pictures of the celebration. Oh gosh!

Went for Swan Lake, a ballet by SDT at Esplanade, a treat from my godma Sandy (not Sally but my sec sch friend)

24 Dec 2007 Christmas Eve Countdown Party at our House

Homecooked Christmas eve dinner with the home cell

Quite a few people were missing. Cynthia went batam with her family, Jingfang to Korea and Shanghai with family, Joel is behind the camera taking this picture, Bryan is home hosting the party for his family, Jiesi was late cos she had to keep her mother company and Jianwei was working.

We were pretty tired from the partying and sudden labor of Ah mei (not Heli but the Jack Russell), and being out the whole of the prvious day after having 3 hours' of sleep so we prepared a simple 3-course dinner of beef spaghetti, cream broccoli and nuggets.

It was the first time I stepped into the kitchen to cook with hubby. He told everyone that they're so honoured to taste my once-in-a-year cooking. Actually I cooked because I sort of knew what to do for western food. But I must admit hubby did all the difficult things for me. The can opening, washing, cutting and frying. But hey I cooked the spaghetti and cream broccoli.

Anyway, it was the first time we really cooked together and we enjoyed the whole process of it. We laughed as we cooked, made jokes, tasted the food together and fed the dogs raw tomatoes, broccoli and yes spaghetti. They thought it was skinny biscuits. I didn't know cooking together could be so much fun. It's now my recommended activity for couples.

We just couldn't get enough of the chocolate fondueWe bought this fondue set on offer at Carrefour and it was our first time using it. We thought that one pack of chocolate would be enough but we were proved wrong.

We celebrated Ah Yun's bday (Actual date 27 Dec) too

Ah yun was really quite surprised cos it was the first time we gave her such an early celebration. We were so busy this year and her actual date had already been scheduled for a family bday dinner so we had to bring the celebration forward. Staying on the 1st floor has lots of advantages. One of them being that Joel could sneak the doughnuts in through the kitchen window while Yun was in the living room oblivious to our scheme the whole time.

Doughtnut cutting Ceremony

With ah boy looking on longingly...

Doggie Christmas Eve dinner

Look at him drooling...

Merry Christmas!!!

What are we so happy for? We're celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to earth over two thousand years ago to give salvation to man. We're now living in A.D. 2008, A.D. being Anno Domini, the latin word for 'in the year of our Lord', which means the number of years after Christ was born. Jesus is not a myth or a legend, He's a historical character and Christmas is so significant that it's the most celebrated event in the world yet many people do not even know why are they celebrating Christmas for or why it's an even bigger event that the new year countdown.


25 December Christmas Morning Fishing

Marley the Stray

Though I'm a stray, I know how to take food directly from people's hands without biting them. I have a big head, a round body and short legs. That's why I look so cute. Many people who come here to fish feed me with good food, especially on Christmas. I get to eat Christmas ham, cheese, crackers, bread, egg mayo sandwich and just about anything and everything these people from LSBC eat.

What bored, self-respecting, non-fishing ladies do

Take lots of pictures

The very happy fishermen from our church

The final Christmas Party

Christmas celebration at the Wan's

We played games with paper plate scorecards,

Came with matching couple wear,
Me and lao gong



Our turquoise-themed hosts




The engaged couple with their DIY couple wear,


And lastly.....the winning team!
the Tan's in their matching angel n devil (trying to turn over a new leaf according to Sally, evidenced by the wings growing on her back) wear.


Had a great feast of Shabu Shabu steamboat

With sparkling juice

Homemade Passionfruit freeze



Beautiful table settings with seating arrangements

Exchanged presents under (alright nearby) their skinny but very beautiful Christmas tree

Played games with torturous forfeits The girls relentlessly stuffing as many marshmallows into my mouth as possible. I didn't get the worst part. I was supposed to transfer everything into hubby's mouth who's supposed to eat up everything.

Had chocolate fondue
and lost our tooth as a result

Becoming...

Ah mahs...

Exchanged costumes with the winning pair

Check out Pea and her unwilling err.... elf

Check out my matching hair...

Our beloved hostess with her matching walls

A big thank you to the Wans who were such wonderful hosts, giving themselves selflessly to serve us great food, think of funny games and organising the whole event. We had an unforgettable Christmas. Thank God for binding us together as brothers and sisters!

A big thank you to everyone who's spent this year's Christmas with us. You have played a part in making this year's Christmas so enjoyable one way or another. And the biggest thank you to God. Though this has been the busiest and most tiring December ever, at the end of it, we had lots of great friends and meaningful activities.

All glory and praise to our beloved Lord Jesus, who is the very reason why we celebrate Christmas!

Rain Camp

It has been so long since I last updated my blog. Been so busy with all the activities. Think this is my busiest December ever! Rain camp was held on the 8-10 December. It's actually our church's youth camp but this year, the camp was supposed to be a multi-generational camp and we as young adults were strongly encouraged to go.

I very reluctantly agreed to go and it has been my first outdoor camp (not counting church camp which is held in a beautiful hotel and is more like a holiday) after 10 years! Me and lao gong were asked to lead the youth groups but due to lack of manpower, we were to lead separate groups. I felt so sad when I heard the news but it's a privilege to serve God so we went ahead with it. Initially I felt very lost without lao gong beside me for me to rely on (we were separated thru'out the camp cos our responsibility was toward our own individual group to faciliate, lead and mentor them) and lao gong felt very lost without me to remind him of all the nitty gritties that he always forgets.

Thank God we each were given assistants to help us and i must say i had a very enthusiastic helper who helped me out alot. Same goes for lao gong. By the end of the first day I was dead tired by all the physical activities and looking after the kids but Kenneth, my assistant very willingly did my head counts, chased after missing children for me and some of the girls willingly washed my plates when I couldn't get up anymore and took drinks for me. By the 2nd day, i wasn't feeling so bad and actually bonded with my group and started enjoying myself.

My group Rinan (Old English Word for 'Rain')

Kenneth Soh is right behind me. His hair very long hoh. On my left is Noah and he really provided us with lots of laughter with his funny antics during the camp.

My girls and Lala's Girls

Lala is on my left. She's the assistant leader (aka leader cos her leader was away most of the time). We shared the same bunk and it was such a joy for me. We did our sharing together on the beds and had lots of fun rolling around on our beds and sharing God's Word at the same time!

Fishing Trip

Last month lao gong went for an offshore fishing trip with some of the men from our church. As with his other fishing trips, there's always a story to tell.

The guys met at 830am and started fishing at about 10am. By 1plus, my ah bi still hasn't caught anything. By 3 plus, ah bi still hasn't caught anything yet. So me as the wife and the helper prayed to God, "God please let my ah bi catch something. You're a God who promises us abundant blessings and if you will just say the word, the fishes will come."

Many miles away at the waters off Ubin, lao gong prayed to God, "God I still haven't caught anything yet. I have faith in you and I know you like to do things that are impossible. Though there's not supposed to be big fishes here, I claim that you're a God that gives us more than what we ask for. So i'm gonna hook a super big bait to get a super big catch."

The fishing theory is that if the fishes available is small, you cannot use big baits cos the fishes will just nibble the meat but not get hooked up. So the size of the baits used has to be proportionate to the size of the catch expected.

After the prayer and the act of faith, lao gong cast his rod and within less than a minute, lao gong hooked up a big stingray. He fought the stinbgray for quite a while and when he finally weighed it, the stingray weighed a hefty 10kg. It doesn't look 10kg but it's that heavy cos it's a super thick stingray.

And yes our cell group and some other church members had a stingray feast that night =D

The fishing team

Ben, Andy Teo, Linus, Melvin (our pastor), Andy Tan and hubby

Ben's Baby Shark They threw it back in (alive) cos it's too small to cook shark's fin

The Last Minute Catch

Aftermath of the fishing trip

For two weeks, the floor in my house was filled with skin from my hubby's back and body. Eeeeeee

Final words: Thank you Jesus for the miraculous catch. Though the boatman said that there weren't big fishes , yet you brought a 10-kg stingray to us and provided us with such fresh tender stingray for supper. Thank you Lord!!!!

Muscle Chef [con't]

It is every mum's wish to see their daughter happily married. I like to share with my mum how well my hubby treats me and how he pampers me because I want her to share in my joy too. As I was telling her how good hubby is at steamed fish, my sis brought up one of my latest blog entry titled muscle chef.

She was saying that the entry was quite funny and as she read it, she became very curious on how the steamed fish looked since the preparation already looked so pretty. And she couldn't find it. And she kept scrolling down hoping to see a pic of how the final product looked but was disappointed that I didn't post a photo of the final product.

Today I was craving for lao gong's steamed fish again so this time so lao gong went to the supermarket and bought a red grouper, which is supposed to be very good for steamed fish. And I resolved to take a photo for my baby sis Ah Yun to see.

Presenting my lao gong's restaurant standard steamed red grouper....

And it was very tasty...... =D

Little Luxuries of Life

Luxury:

1) Something inessential but conducive to pleasure and comfort.
2) Something expensive or hard to obtain.
3) Sumptuous living or surroundings: lives in luxury.
Extracted from American Heritage dictionary

My personal definition of a luxury is No 1 and 3. To me, a luxury doesn't have to be expensive. But it requires a heart of gratitude that is able to appreciate and enjoy the little things in life.

Some of my little luxuries of 2007

Luxury No.1: Capturing cute moments of our beloved dogs

Ah boy looking out of the window

He's so tall!!!

Ah Ger Holding on to the Toilet Roll Toy I gave Her

She always has that expression when she's naughty.


Ah boy play-fighting with His Ger
He's not fierce at all! It's just part of their play.


Ah Ger with her 'Are you angry with me?' look

Ah Boy Eating his Favourite CornP/S This time he didn't swallow the corn cob. He almost did though in his enthusiasm to get the whole thing.

Luxury No. 2: Enjoying my Favourite Cup of Tea /Coffee with Hubby

Kopi-O with a Biscotti

We were actually at Olio Dome. Looks like the cups from my house hor.

My Favouritest Teh-Gor
This was a gift from QuanMiin. Our deepest thanks to them. We drank countless cups of Earl Grey and even served guests of 4 with this pretty little device. The filter is actually made of a small glass cup with slits to enable water to pass thru. With this, we can enjoy earl grey brewed from tea leaves rather than tea bags.


Chinese Tea with Mooncakes
We started eating our mooncakes a month before mooncake festival.

Luxury No. 3 : Taking photos of unusual things

Nanas Galore

This was taken at R.K. House coffee Shop near Chomp Chomp. Yea R.K. house is the place where the pork (no pork) incident supposedly took place.

Luxury No.4 : Enjoying the outdoors while lao gong fishes and listening to his exciting fishing stories

Yea I've (finally) come round to the fishing issue. It was only recently, when lao gong went for an offshore fishing trip that I realised I no longer felt unhappy when he went fishing. (I can hear Limin cheering for me =P) Think after being married for slightly more than a year, we've come to a deeper understanding of each other. All credit to God who's the One who has sustained our marriage and the love between us as husband and wife.

Luxury No.5 : Collecting & Reading Christian books

This collection was given to me by my 'Angel' last year when our previous cell played the 'Angel Mortal' Game. The angel later on became our mei mei =)

Here comes my two Greatest Luxuries...

Greatest Luxury No. 1

Fellowship and Quiet Time with God and His Word

Sometimes I don't appreciate the time where I really sit down at His feet and listen to Him and learn from Him. But I realise that my happiest moments are when I can feel Him by my side, holding my hand, guiding me, talking to me. God is indeed amazing. Sometimes I find it so incomprehensible why someone as awesome as Him can love us ordinary human beings so much. Thank you God for your love and your awesome blessings upon our lives =D

Great Luxury No. 2

Being married to my lao gong =D

Though we have our storms and crises, this has been one of the best years of my life. The time spent with you, laughing, doing simple things together, doing complicated things with you, being pampered by you, being lectured by you, your sometimes almost unbearable nagging, working together with you, learning how to respect you, just being close to you...

Having so many beloved people celebrating our union together with us...I can't imagine life without you now...Your wisdom, Your strength, Your gentleness, and Your love...Thank God for giving me such a wonderful man...