Christmas party (Chinese version)

On Boxing day, we celebrated Christmas at Uncle Robert and Auntie Andrea home in London. We had chinese style dinner like roast duck with pan cake, stir fry noodle, mee-goreng, beef curry (rendang), different type salads, spring rolls and everything was superb. After more than 30 years of traning, auntie Andrea can cook better than most of us – Chinese. Besides, she made the most delicious White Chocolate Cheese cake ever. She also gave me tips on decorating puddings which she learned from Birtish famous cook, Nigella’s TV show. At the end of the dinner, we were all Nigella’s fans. YH & YX received more presents from all the uncles and aunties. We are glad to have family here to celebrate Christmas together. Thank you Uncle Robert and Auntie Andrea. We miss the Knight though.

Switzerland Holiday

Dec 08 – Danny had planned this holiday for us to make sure we really seen snow, lots of snow. we came from a tropical country and we only have 2 seasons, either summer or rainy. The children and I have been dreaming of playing snow balls, making snowman, sleigh ride or maybe ski.

We started our journey by taking a 2.5 hours flight with Easy Jet. Well, it’s not an ‘easy’ start. We were stopped by an officer at Swiss immigration. Well, maybe we are holding Malaysian passports, which is from a Muslim country and therefore we might be a potential terrorist/ holding fake passport etc. We were told to wait at a room and another officer took our passports. Danny asked if there was any problem, he replied ‘don’t know’ and that freak me out. After about 10 mins of checking, we were allowed to go. What’s more, we lost one of our 2 luggages. All Danny’s clothes and most importantly all charger (for our phone and camera) was in there. Luckily, it was found and they had it delivered to us by midnight.

After all the drama, we began our 8 days adventures from Geneva. We took a train from Geneva, passed Lausanne, Montreux, Interlaken and stopped at Luzern. Luzern is situated in the historic and scenic heart of what many believe to be the “true” Switzerland picture mountains, lakes, cowbells, alpine villages and meadows full of edelweiss. Our favourite part was Mount Pilatus (2070m), where we took a cable car to the top of the mountain. We were lucky to have good weather and enjoyed a spectacular 360 degree panorama of the alphine ranges. There is a Dragon Path, which is a 500 meter long rock gallery showing some informations about Pilatus myths. The best part was we chose to ride on sleigh and race it down the mountain. It was so fun!

After 2 days in Luzern, we board the famous Glacier Express (the slowest express train in the world) for Zermatt. Route : Chur -Disentis – Andermatt – Brig – Visp – Zermatt. This is highly recommended. We enjoyed the gorgeous scenery with panoramic windows and we had hot meals served at seats in the dining car. We celebrated YX’s 6th birthday too. When we arrived in Zermatt, we instantly fell in love with it. No car, fresh air, clean and covered with white snow. The mountain village of Zermatt is one of the great ski and climbing centres of the world. Nestled in a deep valley enclosed between steeply scarped mountains, it is dominated by the huge and gracefully curved pyramid of the Matterhorn. We had our skiing lesson here. YH & YX love it, they can easily learned to ski in 3 hours lesson. YX lost her 1st tooth in Zermatt. Swiss tooth fairy left a 2FR coin.

3 days in Zermatt was not enough for us. We just wish we could stay there longer. We went back to Geneva for our last 2 days trip. Geneva, an international meeting place, the smallest of the world’s metropolises, known for being headquarters for many international organizations, also features the world’s tallest fountain, the Jet d’Eau.

To summarized, we love Switzerland because it’s clean, people are friendly, helpful and no language barrier.

Early Christmas Dinner – English version

Like last year, we had an early Christmas dinner with Sarah’s, Simon and the Dae’s. This year, Simon and Sarah prepared the traditional Christmas meal includes turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, parsnips, stuffing, bacon wrapped sausages, carrots, brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, Christmas pudding and mince pie. It was absolutely delicious. I am begging Sarah for her recipes.

Chirstmas Performance

YH & YX school had organised some perfomance during this festive seasons.

YX was a star in a Nativity Play. She and a few girls sang and danced “Following the star”. I really enjoyed the whole performance. BRAVO!

YH took part in ‘Christingle Night’ with all the Key Stage 2 children. This was new to me as well as my American friends. Anyway, I learned about it from my friend, Amy.

The story of the first Christingle…

On Christmas back in 1747 in a town in Germany, a pastor sat at home thinking of how he could explain the love of Jesus and what Christmas really meant to the children in the church. He decided to prepare an simple symbol to help make the message of Christmas easy for them to remember. He gave each child a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer that read “Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children’s hearts”. This was the first ever Christingle service.

Many years later, in 1968, Christingle services were introduced to the Anglican Church in Great Britain and the custom spread quickly. Each year there are more and more Christingle services in England and Wales, although today’s Christingles are a little different.

The Christingle consists of:
* an orange representing the world
* with a red ribbon around it representing the blood of Jesus
* fruits and sweets are skewered on 4 cocktail sticks which are pushed into the orange representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons
* a lighted candle is pushed into the centre of the orange representing Christ, the light of the world
* and tinfoil around the base of the candle to reflect Christ’s light and goodness

My birthday celebration continue……

Tonight, my dear American friends celebrated me and Holli birthday at Fratelli, an italian restaurant. I am blessed to have know these girls although we come from different continent, different part of the world. I treasure our friendship. Girls, thanks so much and love you all.