Year-end festivities

Last December passed by in a flash, partly coz we were on holiday for nine days - I'll have to get down to the details asap!

As usual, our Xmas eve feast

Mashed potato with butter made the day before and heated up, baked pork ribs with apple, onion and oyster sauce, hotdogs, baked halloumi and pineapple, roast vegetables and baked chicken midjoints. I had to utilise the fan function to bake three layers of food in order to make it in time for dinner! I also made shortbread a few days before - not in picture.

Unfortunately, the kids had lots of complaints even before they started eating. Why oh why??! In the end, they were all ok with the ribs (no bones, please!) and chicken wings, and only Yang and Yu liked the hotdog.

Log cake time!

Bought Ikea again. Looked exactly like the one in the previous year haha! But still very yummy and worth it. Took it out of the freezer the day before. But I should have kept it for a later day coz the day before Xmas eve, we were at Clementi where there were lots of bakeries offering affordable log cakes! In the end, this was our only log cake this Xmas...

For the first time, we had a Xmas gathering. MZ invited us over to her new place - interestingly, three of us moved in three consecutive months in 2023.

Playing with JiuJiu and JiuMu's phones while waiting for zi char

The Anchorvale Village Hawker Centre was very airy and had plenty of food options! The adjoining HDB mall was more like Bukit Panjang Plaza than Greenridge Mall. It even had Daiso!

The playground was also very fun

Sito and I can consider downgrading to 2rm HDB when we're old. Haha!!

Cup noodles on boxing day

Yes, they assembled those cup noodles themselves in Japan! More on that later...

Our 忘年会 at Makan@Jen!

We like this place for its big spacious tables and chairs/benches - we had three pairs of crocs with us and some groceries - and most importantly, its food! We were sooo full!

One eating, one talking, one avoiding the camera

Let's sit back and have tea/coffee

A cosier family shot!

Check out that belly!

Actually he was trying to get Sito to make a face. Sito engaged him long enough for me to take a picture, haha! Too cute :)

Maybe the second shot with a tree this Xmas

While waiting for the brothers to come out of the toilet

Xmas lights!

Squid game thingy - so pose

On New Year's Eve, we had a playdate with JY. Kai and K2 played chess a lot. Yang and Yu just played randomly here and there. K1 joined at lunch. K3 wasn't well due to flu jab. The boys talked all sort of random stuff at lunch. K1 was so patient to entertain rubbish questions from Yu sitting next to him :p 

The race to the blue chairs - minus K3

I really like this photo. Actually I screenshot it from a video. Just nice for the New Year: run into the new year, kids! May you find much joy and enthusiasm for learning! And may peace be with the parents!

Kai goes to secondary school

Kai started his secondary school journey on Thursday, 2 January. Where did the time go??

No longer the tiny boy at P1, he now stands at 166cm - just 2cm shorter than me! - and weighs 47.8kg. Kind of slim built. But his hands and feet are very big, bigger than mine!

Must give such a face when taking photos - why oh why?

The school posting results came out on Wednesday, 18 December. Sito checked my SMS when he woke before me. Gan cheong Papa :) When I woke, first thing I did was to order books from Popular, together with his brothers'. Popular called me on Friday to confirm availability and we went to collect on Saturday.

This was the first time we bought books from Popular. Try something new, and also, school bookshop no longer delivered primary level books by then! Learning points:

1. Some books in the booklists are classified as assessment books rather than textbooks. The call told me a few books were not available but when I double checked with the staff on the ground, she found two under assessment books.
2. Popular prices are very similar to booklist prices, mostly cheaper, some more expensive, but at the scale of a few cents. But at Popular, textbooks have 5% discount, and assessment books 10% to 25% so it's cheaper to buy at Popular.
3. Bring a cabin suitcase to carry the books. But try not to buy shoes on the same day, haha! We happened to need three more pairs of shoes so it was a lot to carry!

Went to the school bookshop to get the remaining books and stuff on the Friday after Christmas. The teenager attending to me was as blur as me so somehow I had two A5 exercise books for free... Sito called it the cost of doing business.

As for uniforms, we went to the Henderson outlet on the Monday before Christmas. I thought it would be less crazy compared to the outlet in Orchard. But it was still quite a hassle trying on clothes and deciding the size to buy, especially when I had an uncooperative tween, grrr! 

At this point, it looks like he will outgrow his corporate tee in no time, coz it was not on the sample rack and he refused to try when the staff brought the real deal to us. In fact, it might be snug after washing... I shall find out tmr!

And as part of his secondary school gear, he got a brand new iPhone 13. Bought it a few months back but finally gave him on 26 December after activating his SIM card. He's been playing chess on his phone but otherwise, he's still figuring other things out.

Anyway, Kai came home on the first day, telling us about his new lock before he even took off his shoes. Sito said he had the same type of lock for his locker in secondary school too. But he hasn't been issued a locker yet. And he didn't listen much to all the speeches, typical...

Friday was Chapel Day for him, and also first day of school for Yang and Yu. So I had four shirts to iron yesterday. This term, each kid will wear the shirt on weekly Chapel Day and corporate tee on other days. Yang will also start to wear a tie! Hope to get a picture tmr...

We didn't get down to watching Sonic 3 during the term break so we decided to watch it after school on Friday, as a form of celebrating first week of school? They came home, dropped their bags and changed into long sleeves (and Yu took a dump) before we set off for Orchard.

Lunch at Sushiro

Yes, Kai took a wefie on his phone and I asked him to send it to me :) Told him no phone usage at the dining table other than taking photos...

The movie they were going to watch

Yes, they. Coz we only bought tickets for them! Sito helped them find seats and settle them down with their popcorn and drinks (more ex than the tickets btw), and then we went for tea :p

Btw, their online ordering wasn't very good. It took longer than queueing - Sito was spotting a couple at the end of the queue when I ordered - and the SMS to inform me that my order was ready arrived at... 9.18 pm!!! 

Anyway, towards the end of the movie, Sito and I sat at the seating area outside Macs at Lido to wait for them. As expected, they were among the last to come out coz must watch credits to see if there were any post credits scenes.

So, achievement unlocked! Will always leave them alone if Sito and I are not keen on the show... At some point, they can find their way to the cinema without us too!

Tmr will be week 1 of the term, the past week being week 0. Kai will still be having orientation. Hope he will have a good time in secondary school :)