I don't fancy rain all that much - many times, I have to carry three foldable brollies in my bag! But the cool weather has been really nice :) Not to mention that it's the time for feasting!
But, 今年的平安夜很不平安... I was opening or closing the oven when I spotted a black thing crawling across the cabinet door right under the oven. It was a teenage roach! It turned the corner facing the fridge and last I saw it, it was at the bottom of the kitchen cabinet.
We moved the fridge but there was nothing. Sito discovered a gap between kitchen cabinet and concrete base - the size of the gap varied across the length of our kitchen, some 5m. We guessed the roach might have come up from the drain pipe, which is hidden in between.
So he put putty all over starting from the far side from where the roach disappeared. By the time he got to the oven side, he discovered a huge hole. Not sure if it was meant for oven ventilation but we sealed it anyway. Then I realised that if that was a ventilation hole and the roach went in there, it could probably exit from the front of the oven where there is also a gap??!
Nightmare...
I found two little black dots on the drawer ledge under the oven. Later, I learnt that roach poop looks like that :((((( I cleaned up madly....
Thankfully, no sightings so far...
Anyway, after an hour, we got back on track for dinner prep. I had already baked my meatballs right after making pizza for the kids' lunch. Sito started preparing glaze for the ham and baking it. I made roasted vege and meatball spaghetti, all the while watching out for something black and moving... I was so scared it might come out of the oven when it started heating up! But nope...
Glazing the ham
Nth glazing - spot the vege waiting in the wings
The finished product!
Chef also cuts ham for us
Kids had roasted broccoli with meathball spaghetti and ham
The ham was very nicely glazed; our glaze was yummier than the original flavour. With 3kg ham, we had lots of leftover - lunch for all of us the next day, plus maybe three servings for fried rice in the coming weeks! We also had enough leftover vege for lunch the next day. There's still a tub of frozen meatball sauce in the freezer, enough for all of us next week!
We started and finished later than usual so no chance for log cake until Christmas day. We bought it from Ikea. It was made by Secret Recipe.
Kai didn't eat it; Yang and Yu ended up not liking it
And I destroyed the cake while cutting it!
We realised it was not the usual swiss roll type but with three layers of biscuit, cream and cake staked up into a log shape. But it was very yummy... Sito and I had a lot, and then we finished the rest over two nights :p With no Chateraise or Swee Heng or Proofer downstairs this year, we had only this one log cake! Or should I add "so far"? :p
Must have KFC on Christmas!
And there was a bucket! I loved it so much haha! Unfortunately it was cardboard and oily so I didn't keep it..
After Christmas feasting, we had our year-end buffet to send off 2023 and get ready for the new (school) year. We started this last year at Makan@Jen since the kids enjoy getting their own food and drinks. Yesterday, we went to Atrium at Holiday Inn.
Sito called it the "glass hotel". It would probably be very cheery in the day but it was raining when we got there and turned dark soon after...
I was so misled by the weather app on my phone that I deleted it just now and added the NEA widget instead! Luckily for the MRT connection, we only had to brave the rain with one umbrella across one traffic light. Sito went to and fro a few times and when it was my turn, a kind lady ferried me across.
The glass was visible above these blinds
Anyway, that was taken when Yu was waiting to start dessert. The kids ate mostly prata as they didn't like the satay which came with sauce on *.* Kai took some chicken rice. We gave them some other meat to try. Then they had enough. Sito and I tried more food and found the local selection better. Sashimi was ok but the sushi rice was a tad hard.
Yang chose fruits after a serving of ice cream - so healthy!
Kai had too many servings of ice cream; Papa was having ice kacang
Kai and Yu had ice kacang too but minus the kacang haha! Yu dropped his first bowl on his way back to the table. I heard a crash and hoped it wasn't my kid but I turned around and saw Yu standing there looking down and helpless. So poor thing!
I went over quickly and he hugged me, maybe one drop of tear came down... The staff were very nice about it and told him it was fine. He was still scared. Later, I asked him and he said he was scared about stepping on the "glass". I think he also felt scared of being scolded but he didn't say...
Sito saw and came back with another bowl of ice with syrup for him - it soothed everything and he was all chirpy again :)
The hotel lobby was nicely decorated. We went straight for dinner earlier on and saw it from the glass lift. So we went after dinner.
Probably our last tree this year
A gingerbread house? :)
Yang got his brothers to pretend to warm themselves in front of the "campfire" :)
We got back around 9 pm even though we started dinner just past 5.30 pm! We ate for a long time, Sito and I having a lot of different food while the kids chatted and had dessert :) But no pressure to wash up and sleep so it didn't feel too long..
The kids said it was fun but Yang wished we could reach home earlier :)
Time really flies. It's only two more days to the new year. Yang also thought this P3 year passed very quickly as well, compared to P2! While I'm looking forward to having the kids in school instead of playing games whole day (we kind of stopped giving them work since a couple of weeks back...), I think I'll miss seeing them play so happily every day... Recently, I started on a physical book. I like to sit in the living room to read while they play. So nice :)
I also dread waking up before 6 am but oh well!
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