Thanksgiving Dinner

This year Thanksgiving is just among us 4. I didn't want the hassle of too many people and decided to have a quiet dinner. I guess I'm too Malaysian and not having the zest in celebrating Thanksgiving. I remember last year he told me that we should get at least a turkey as the kids are starting school and he thought Gilly would feel left out when the kids talk about their Thanksgiving meal. Alright, I dragged myself out to Dominicks and got a Oven Ready Turkey Breast. Something simple and easy, and the kids had a good time. This year, it just became automatic that we would go get the "Easy" turkey. Maybe one day I'll try the whole turkey.

This year Thanksgiving day is also our wedding anniversary. Its been 8 years and hubby was nice to surprise me with a nice bouquet of yellow roses. He remembers that I love yellow roses. I guess we had our romantic dinner with 2 candles named Gilly and Greg. For some of you, we have 2 wedding anniversaries. We got married in front of a Judge in November then in March we had our church wedding so don't get confused if you hear me mention wedding anniversary again in March.

One of my girlfriend, Katherine, did invite me to her place when she found out that we were not going to go to the in-laws. But I just wanted it to be us 4. Thanks Katherine for the invite, it made my day knowing you do care for this silly Malaysian Chinese woman.

Back to dinner, we had our "dinner" at 2.30 pm.. I know its a weird time but by the time the food was done... we just couldn't resist the food. OK... don't laugh at my mismatched plates, I'll try to go to Linen N Things and get better utensils for next year. Lesley and Gert, do remind me when there are good sales.


We have since finished our turkey and have still alot of cornbread stuffings and sweet potatoes. I guess we will still be eating it for the next 2 days.


Here are some of my photos from our dinner. Greg must be really growing cos he didn't do his "gobble gobble gobble" chant anymore. He usually does that before he bites into a piece of turkey.

My rascals before digging in

I'm done.

Andre Rieu is starting on PBS... gotta go watch him play and imagine myself as good as he is... what a dream... hahahahaha.. ciao

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Hit Me One More Time!!!

My 4 year old boy and 7 year old girl are fighting alot these days. Gilly has become more physical as she would hit her brother if I'm not near her. I've caught her hitting or kicking her brother. Two nights ago, the little one came running to me, crying that his sister hit him on his face. I finally told her I'm just gonna let her hit her brother and not punish her. I told her that all she does by hitting him is to teach him how to hit. One day he will grow up and be bigger than her and then when he hits her, she has to bear with it as she was his hitting teacher. She was quiet for a long time and knew to go read her storybook to stay safe.

It was Greg's bath time and I told him he was allowed to have his bubble bath. He enjoyed himself and had the whole tub to himself. The next night, Gilly asked if she could have her bubble bath. I told her No because Greg was given the privilege of bubble bath as he got beaten the night before. She didn't kick a fuss to my surprise. However, my little rascal realize what was happening.. and next thing I saw him egging his sister and I could hear her screaming... He was bugging his sister and saying "Hit me one more time! Hit me one more time!" He figured out that if Gilly were to hit him then he gets to have another bubble bath.

Luckily he hasn't heard Britney's song "Hit me baby one more time".

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My crazy day

My daughter has taken upon herself to be the board of censorship. Last night, she showed me a birthday invitation that she had received last week. Yes last week and her reasoning for not showing it to me was "Mummy, I'm not going to this party because I have to go to the Tree Decorating event at the Brookfield Zoo". I was surprised and yet tickled to see her reasoning. Oh Yes... I rather go to the Zoo so I don't need to show you this birthday invite. Knowing if she had no other events she would jump to any invite and shove the invitation card on my face. I just had to call to RSVP to the boy's mom and apologize for the late RSVP too.

I realize that my baby, who is now 7, has learnt to show me what she wants to show me. Hence becoming a censorship board.

Yesterday, seem to be a busy day for me. First I had to see what was in my Gilly's huge bulging bag. Yes, she took upon herself to lend her teacher 2 of her Enid Blyton books which were hardcover. Plus bringing her photo album to school for god knows who to see. Imagine, her bag which is almost as big as she is when its empty whatmore when its bulging heavy. I had to remove all her books and told her to think about which book she wish to loan her teacher and take it another day.

Greg had a mild fever and he loved me so much, he had to run upstairs to come puke at me. Yes, he was watching TV downstairs and ran upstairs pass the powder room to come vomit on me and the carpet. Later I asked him if he knew he was going to puke when he ran upto me. He said YES... golly gee.... I asked him why didn't he run to the powder room which was nearer to him.. he just shrug and gave me a blank look. Puking on Mummy must be a thrill thing to do when one is sick. Thank God for Bissell SpotBot which makes my cleaning easier.

My mother in law has gone in for a masectormy, she found out she had early stage breast cancer. Last Sunday, she asked me how to say urinate and poo in English. She doesn't speak too much English and living all these years in Chinatown she could get along fine with just speaking Chinese. I spent 2 hours online trying to find chinese words and its english translation. Just simple words like thirsty, painful, cold, hot or fever, urinate and No.2 which one would say to a nurse. I finally did print them out in a 4 x 6" card and laminated it. Sent it to my brother in law and hopefully he didn't forget to take it with him to the hospital. At least with that card, she could point at the english word which is next to the chinese words she needed to express. Now don't laugh at me for taking 2 hours to come up with 10 words. I don't read nor write chinese so it was pretty challenging for me. Luckily I had friends who were online that checked on my task.

I pray things will go smoothly for her. I guess breast cancer research has advanced so much these days that one knows their chances of recovering is higher. She just has to stay overnight and doesn't have to have radiation because of her age.

That's part of my crazy day ... and I managed to blog as well in the midst of all the chaos..

Adios

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Improved French Bulletin Board

I improved on my bulletin board eventhough I told myself that was it. I wasn't going to work on it again. But knowing myself that somehow the board needed something I couldn't help myself. I dragged the board to a friend of mine (she lives in chinatown) who is very artsy.. and she gave me her constructive critique and suggestion. Hey.. she even sponsored some supplies (knowing she has endless amount of craft supplies). I've added more batting to make the board look more plushy plus just tiny paper flowers added more dimension to the board. I did find a cute Hello Kitty photo and printed it on those T-shirt transfer papers and iron it on the cloth. I am not too happy with what I did with the Personalized name as I didn't get it and the ribbon to align properly (hate to blame it on 11.30pm, last minute work but I guess I was getting too tired and reckless). I do hope the little girl loved it as its one of a kind present!!

We were at the party this Saturday at one of the suburb Park District. For some overseas friends, we have Park Districts (kinda like Town Council that runs special programs or facilities for their town residents. You can rent their facilities for parties and this one happen to have a huge carousel and climbing thingy (similar to McD's playland). The kids had fun as they had the carousel to themselves and could run between rooms to either play on the carousel or climby thingy... They play for 2 hours and our kids sure did have fun.

We did drive by this forest preserve that does fence in some elks. This township is named after some Elks and I guess that is why they do keep some elks in the forest preserve. The kids had never gotten near an elk and were thrilled when dad told them to gather some leaves that had fallen on the ground to feed the elk. At first, the elk took few steps back but when he or she saw the kids reaching out with leaves, it timidly walked towards them and ate off their hands. Greg was giggling and ran to get more. I had to remind him to slowly walk towards the elk as the running will scare it away. They fed the elk a few more times until the elk walked away. The kids were dissapointed and we told them the elk was most probably full. They understood and jumped back into the van saying "we will come feed the elks again".

While we were in the neighborhood, I decided to drive by our old apartment, we stayed there for almost 2 years until we had our house built. It was a tiny 660 sq.ft apartment, eventough it was rental and it was tiny, we sure had good happy memories there. Hubby did say, "why bother going back there". I told him it was a nice reminder of how we all started our lives as a family. PLUS.... there is this playground near the apartment that has an awesome slide. Yes... this slide is so cool as its not a flat metallic slide, its made of rollers so when you sit on it.. the rollers will roll you down and Gilly would make some sound and with all that bump.. you make a bumpy ahhhh sound. Even Greg who was sleeping by the time we got to the park got all excited. He loved making the bumpy ah ah ah sound too. They got to play for 5 minutes only as it was getting cold. Sorry, I forgot to take any photos of the kids on the slide. I know somewhere in my archives I do have a photo of Gilly on it. Maybe one day I'll hunt for it.

Until then, have fun friends.

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My First French Bulletin Board

I just made my first French Bulletin Board also known as Ribbon Bulletin Board. Its was pretty easy to make and this will be a present for a 7 year old girl for her birthday. She asked for Hello Kitty things and as I could not find a nice Hello Kitty Fabric, I managed to find Hello Kitty Ribbons. Should I start selling them in future??? I hear they usually retail U$40.00.

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Sweet Memories

During my days in Convent Klang (in the late 80s), a friend introduced me to Jazz and the song that stuck with me was Garden Party by Mezzaforte. They are an Iceland band so getting a CD of them in USA is pretty hard and costly. I was so excited to find this clip on Youtube. Don't you love YouTube. Enjoy this song as it does brighten my day whenever I listen to it. Hwee Zee if you are reading this... this one is for you!

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Chicken Varuval

I was immediately tempted into cooking this dish after seeing it at GertWan's blog. The photo below shows my attempt at it. I hope it I got it right but I know for sure it tasted good. It was my first time cooking using the cardamon spice. I never knew that spice was expensive. Maybe I should go to Indiantown to see if I can get it cheaper. I like this dish as it doesn't have coconut milk and that means not so fattening.

Chicken Varuval

Gilly ask to photo her eating a little curry for Grandma to see.

Chicken Varuval Recipe:

Ingredients :

• 1/2 chicken - cut into small bite size pieces
• 1 pcs of cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamoms
• 1 pcs of star anise
• 1 tbsp of black soy sauce
• 10 curry leaves
• 1/2 cup of water (optional)
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Blended ingredients:

• 2 medium size onions
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2" of ginger

To make into paste:

• 2 tbsp of curry powder
• 2 tsp of chili powder
• 2 tsp of tumeric powder
  
  

1. Heat up oil and add in cinnamom stick, cardamons, star anise and curry leaves. Stir fry for a few second until frangrant.
2. Add in the blended ingredients and sautee until it turn light brown.
3. Add in the curry paste and stir fry for a minute.
4. Add in the chicken and stir fry until chicken well coated with the paste. Add seasoning.
5. Add in black soy sauce and a bit of water if chicken get too dry. Cover and simmer slowly until chicken is really dry and done.
6. Check seasoning and serve warm.

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Boo!!! Halloween Day

Halloween came and went so fast. We had a very nice day and were lucky to have a dry cool weather. Here are a few photos of the kids with their costumes. Gilly was a witch that didn't want to wear her hat and Greg wanted to be Fireman Sam but I refuse to pay £30 to get an outfit from UK to wear for 1 day. Gilly did want a broom (those glittery ones) and I told her that she will be busy running around with her pumpkin bag that she won't have any hands left to carry her broom. Her dad did suggest she "borrow" mum's broom in the garage. She reluctantly agreed "No Broom" and later during her "collection" I quickly pointed out to her a mom that was carrying a broomstick for her child and said "That is why I didnt' want to get your a broom." She grin and ran to collect more candies. Gilly is now 7 and that means I don't use the camcorder too much these days. I laugh when I see parents with camcorder as that usually indicates those are "new" parents.

Greg winking as the party is about to start.

Greg waking out of his classroom with his treat bag !!

Gilly at her school Halloween Parade.
Parents are invited to come watch this parade.


The Kids ready to go "Trick or Treat" with baby Kylie our neighbor.

Now to the next house for more!!

These are the kids' pot of gold and every parents' nightmare.

We always get alot of candies as our neighborhood enjoys Halloween. Trick or Treat starts from 3.30pm till 7.00 pm. We started at 4pm this year and the kids only ask to go home after 2 hours. We came hom at 6.30 and by then... not many trick or treaters came by.. and that left us with a bucket of candies that wasn't distributed. Don't worry, Gilly's school has requested for candies (no chocolates) to be sent to the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I'll be sending them away again after we have sorted out the chocolates. I've been doing this for the past few years. Why waste all these candies which will help our soldiers. I guess that is why I don't mind walking around collecting candies as it goes to good use. Ask your village if they do have this service where they send candies or donations to the soldiers. That will help ease any parents' nightmare of sugar overload.

This is all from our Halloween this year.

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