Archive for the Category » christmas «

December 30th, 2009 | Author: gabriel

  This year’s Christmas is a bit special as it was not celebrated in Ipoh, but in Rosemary’s house in KL. Every year after her marriage, she would be spending Christmas in SG as her husband’s father is there. But this year, she’s in labour and she insisted in hosting Christmas at her place.

I reached KL on Christmas Eve after almost being late for my flight… I reached in the evening and at that time, everyone is already in Rosemary’s place. We went out for church and then to a seafood dinner nearby. Yin Sin came to my sister’s place shortly after I went to church and joined us for dinner. Of course, the Christmas celebration tradition begins with a glass of wine and my mother’s delicious fruit cake when the clock almost strikes midnight.

wine-fruitcake

Rosemary and Grace prepared most of the food. As I stayed at my 2nd sister’s place, we helped by picking up the turkey from the store. As you can see, there are a variety of food that my sister prepared… Yummy-licious!

 xmas-food 

Okay, then my family camwhored a bit there.

aliceannie-james

With one pair of sunglasses, it looks different on different faces

 grace mum

Even my mum looks hip!

children

Okay… back to the Christmas… There are so many presents this year! Maybe because there isn’t space under the tree and everything have to be scattered around.

presents-xmas-tree 

There’s one stash near the Christmas tree. But there isn’t enough space there, so there’s another stash of presents behind the door.

presents-door

It’s all in plastic bags cause it’s all from all over – SG, Indonesia, UK, Ipoh, Australia…

We opened the presents earlier this year as there was no point waiting for it to be opened at night. We opened it in the afternoon!

open-presents

Again, Yin Sin joined us this year with lots of presents in her hands… She bought individual presents for almost everyone too.

yinsin-presents

And the kids have extra ornaments to be worn this year…

marielle rosemary

 

kids-presents

Emphasis is more on the kids this year as most of the presents there belongs to Marielle. Then the themes for this year are err..

Snake skin products from my brothers to almost everyone,

purse1purse2

 purse3

Thermos Flask that I bought for Yin Sin that everybody laughed at…. hahah
I bought her a handbag already but was too big to be wrapped and bought a thermos instead. It’s damn useful okay…

Some lingerie…

panties

A bicycle…

marielle-bicycle

Makeup Kits

ashley-makeup-kit

Okay, I didn’t take a lot of pictures this year.. Too crammed up with kids running around and blocking my line of sight… and the lighting was very bad.

Nevertheless, everyone was happy and most importantly, time spent with the family. The next day, we headed back to Ipoh to just chill out and eat Ipoh food!

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December 20th, 2009 | Author: gabriel

My first actual Christmas celebration in Singapore, celebrated with Ipoh Mali peeps. Have brought over the Ipoh give-exchange tradition over here, where we bought presents for each other. You can see the collection of presents under the Christmas Tree below.

presents-under-tree

At the same time, Ian’s birthday falls on the 27th December and we celebrated his birthday together in this joyous occasion. Melanie (Ian’s gf) was the main organizer where she prepared and bought most of the things. We had turkey, spaghetti, roast pork and lots of booze! haha

xmas-food

While waiting for the complete arrival of guests, we had some nice group pictures…

 xmas-girls

xmas-guys

 

Some, were anxious to look for their presents.

von-pressie jv-pressie

After our nice and fulfilling meal, we just talked and chilled out.. The atmosphere was soaked in christmas songs but the TV had football matches in it. Liverpool, Man U  and Arsenal matches, back to back.. hahah.

There were drinking sessions…

drinking-girls

Partying & singing sessions…

IMG_0313-1

And of course, since it’s Ian’s Birthday Celebration too, we had a birthday session for him too!

 

mel-ian-bday

We made the two of them did some stunts which I won’t be revealing here. But those who knows, well.. you know.

Here’s to Ian with the ladies.

ian-girls

Anyway, the ‘best’ part is up next – the opening of presents!

There were two parts to the give exchange. First part is where each of us buy a present approx $10 and we exchange them via a ‘musical chair’ concept.

exchange-presents

We passed the presents around until the music stops playing and get the keep the present in front of us. The present I’ve gotten was from Chin Zwen where she bought a Kitty Vacuum Cleaner.

gab-pressie 

The second part is where we bought individual gifts for each other. Residents of the house bought a present each for each other and some are actually enjoying the gift of giving…

von-mel-pressie

And shouting…

cl-shout

Then, there are gifts from the house… They bought lots of food supplies..

food-supply

 

I’ve received quite a bit from my friends – from post it notes to slippers to mattress protectors.opened-presents

A very fun and Christmas-ey night. With the usual Ipoh-Gang..

ipoh-gang

With an interesting ‘crazy’ picture…

 

crazy-group-pic

But there’s missing Yin Sin in there.. She went back home to spend some time with her family…

Nevertheless, next thing to look forward to – Christmas Celebration with my family!

November 16th, 2009 | Author: gabriel

It’s more than a month away from Christmas but we’re already somewhat in the Christmas spirit. We bought a Christmas tree and decorated it with lights and ornaments.
I even have smaller decorations in my room…

xmas-tree-hougang

Orchard Road’s already lit up and soon, it’s time for Christmas shopping. If only I could do my Xmas shopping in Malaysia…

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December 28th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

My family started off Christmas by attending church at midnight and after that, a meal of fruit cakes and red win.

Rose Wine
Rose Wine (by P3rSeUs)

Fruit Cake
Fruit Cake (by P3rSeUs)

Then, fast forward to lunch! Previous years, we’ll be having an open house party but this year, we’ll just have lunch in the comfort of our home. My 2nd sister’s husband cooked his baba nonya dishes for us!

Pork Meat (by P3rSeUs) Tofu (by P3rSeUs) Vegetables (by P3rSeUs)

And I also prepared a few dishes myself, with the help of my gf and mum

Fried Wan Ton (by P3rSeUs) Fried Beancurd Skin (by P3rSeUs)

Xmas Lunch (by P3rSeUs)
There was also a fish that I forgot to shoot cause was too hungry that time. =/

Afternoon was spent lazing around at home with my family. Went to survey restaurants for dinner and to the bercham house. Had our dinner at a western restaurant (Citrus) which used to be where Antap Cafe was. The ambience there was good but the service wasn’t up to the standard.

Moving on, night time!! It’s been a tradition for my family to open our presents on the night of Christmas. Every year, we’ll have one or two guests who’ll join us in this ‘ceremony’.

The german family
The German Family (by P3rSeUs)

Yin Sin aka Little Sophie
Yin Sin and Ashley (by P3rSeUs)

My brother’s girlfriend, Jessie in HK and her mum
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

The presents under the christmas tree are distributed by my two nieces to all of us.

Xmas Tree (by P3rSeUs)

Then all of us, one by one, from the youngest to the oldest will open their presents in front of everyone else.

Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

See the amount of presents that I have on the right? And the amount of presents that Yin Sin has in front of her? She almost has more than me! :P

Hence, the opening of presents begin! Since there are tons of pictures there, I’ll not post them here but you can view them at this link

But here are some highlights!
We have things from

Bags
Grace and her bag (by P3rSeUs) Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

I.O.U. Air Asia Vouchers
Air Asia Vouchers (by P3rSeUs)

100 year old Rosary from Jerusalem
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs) Rosary (by P3rSeUs)

Leather shoes from Munich
Shoes (by P3rSeUs)

Apron and Cheong Sam
Equipping her presents (by P3rSeUs)

Ships
Ships (by P3rSeUs)

Estee Lauder Cosmetics
Cosmetics (by P3rSeUs)

Snowman
Snowman (by P3rSeUs)

Scarfs
Scarfs (by P3rSeUs)

Books
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs) Digital Travel Photography Book (by P3rSeUs)

Mobile Phone
New Nokia Phone (by P3rSeUs)

After our opening of presents, we had turkey!

Carsten’s dad, Raner showed us the proper way to cut a turkey.

Cutting the turkey (by P3rSeUs) Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

And we had that together with red wine!

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December 25th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

Christmas Tree (by P3rSeUs)

Christmas Tree in my house decorated by yours truly… :P

This year’s  christmas celebration is different from other christmas from the past few years. The past decades or so, my family will be having a open house party where my family will cook and anyone can just come to our house for christmas.. This year will be a slightly relaxing christmas. No christmas party, just a warm cosy christmas by the fireplace at home. Another way it’s different is that my 3rd sister is not around and there are additional members to the ‘party’; my sister’s boyfriend and his parents all the way from Germany and my girlfriend, Yin Sin from Alor Setar.

Even my Ipoh friends are not around. No more after christmas mass ritual of going around the church looking for friends wishing them a Merry Christmas cause well, most of them are not around. No more late night outings after church where we’ll chat till the wee mornings. No more screamings and shoutings on Christmas morning hurrying people to wake up to prepare food for lunch.

But one thing still remains; a family spending time together on Christmas day with their loved ones. Can’t wait for tonight where we’ll be opening our Christmas presents! =)

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