merry merry
As much of a Christmas curmudgeon I was all geared up to be, this year I did enjoy the holiday season, even though it was very low-key and I didn't do much more than eat and (what else) eat.
On Christmas Eve I had dimsum with J's family at our usual place, Imperial Treasure at Great World City. I think we need to find a new dimsum place because even though the food is very good there, it gets boring after a while. Thankfully the management had the foresight to give us a private room with a very patient and indulgent aunty waitress so The Bun and his cousin Sarah could run riot without driving the rest of the restaurant mad. They have finally reached the age where they initiate play with each other, making up silly songs, chasing and tickling each other. Watching them I felt a bit more at ease about The Bun's shyness because he certainly wasn't shy or fearful that day in the mall.
That night we had a zi char dinner with my friend C in some coffeeshop in Hougang. Some people have turkey or ham for Christmas - we had a superb pork knuckle with sweet chili sauce, chicken wings, rojak and way too much food for just three adults. The other people in our usual group are all overseas this year, so it was just us three, and we still had a good time. The Bun was cheerful, cooperative and sociable for the whole meal - giving hi-fives to the coffeeshop uncle who brought our drinks, trying to engage C in conversation (e.g. 'do you like baby corn?') and sitting in his high-chair eating happily for more than an hour, just like old times. I hope this is a sign that we're beginning to emerge from his Phase of Fears.
Our Christmas pork knuckle
C was exhausted from baking non-stop in the days leading up to Christmas so she went home after dinner to bed, and J and I went home as well, to put The Bun to bed. Very low-key, but satisfyingly peaceful, the way it should be, sometimes.
Christmas morning. I had an extremely odd dream in the night - I dreamt that J had bought me a very spotty (like Dalmatian spots) ferret for Christmas and it had been sitting in a box in our storeroom for days. In the dream I felt a bit miffed that he had chosen a gift that was so inconvenient and impractical, considering we have a toddler at home and I have no energy nor time for a ferret. J dreamt of an alien invasion. Maybe our dinner the previous night was so fatty it gave us indigestion and weird dreams.
The Bun woke around 9am and I told him it was (finally) Christmas morning. The night before J laid out the various gifts on our coffee table, since we don't have a tree. I didn't want to leave a pile of gifts lying out for a week before Christmas anyway and keep battling The Bun's invasions on them. He got dressed, I popped a Santa hat on him, and we set him loose in the living room.
For posterity, his haul included:
~ a skate scooter (from my parents, but it's parked at my parents' place)
~ a puzzle
~ a Megabloks car-and-ramp system
~ a Leapfrog 'laptop'
~ a traffic playmat - lots of roads to run cars along
~ a Playdoh sandwich maker set
A nice range of toys, I think. J had an extra surprise gift for him, which was kind of tied in with the gift he got for me:
The Bun's chair is a Panton Junior; a 1959 design developed by Vitra from the original ideas of Verner Panton. It's still a little big for him, but he can climb up on it and he will grow into it nicely. My chair is the Emeco 111 Navy Chair, the modern classic Navy chair re-made using 111 recycled Coke bottles. I've always admired this chair (and J knows just how much I love chairs) and I've placed it in my dressing room so that I get to look at it and use it every day.
The cherry on the top: a gift box of Bankaku shrimp crackers AND a bottle of Coke. I wrote previously about how a Bankaku box would make a great Christmas gift for me, so kudos to J for taking a heavy hint and braving the Christmas crowds at Takashimaya for this. Throwing in the Coke (because my chair is made of Coke bottles, haha) made my day. I love drinking Coke so much I don't dare stock it at home because I would probably just overdose on it. But since it is the holiday season, a litre of Coke can't hurt (although it will make me jittery and hyper).
J's gift from me was a Hermes tie. He's been moaning endlessly about the ties he has to wear for work and he always refuses to splurge on himself, so I got it for him so that he can have something luxe to see him through dreary work days.
We had Christmas lunch with my family at Lee Kui, a Teochew restaurant in Chinatown. We ate till we almost exploded, but the food was so good it was worth it. We went home to collapse and nap before taking J's parents out for a Japanese dinner that night. According to The Bun, we ate 'so much' and he was in high spirits that night, singing random made-up songs and dancing around.
And so that was Christmas 2011: food, family, friends, and more food. The older I get the more low-key it gets, but that suits me just fine. I'm glad that The Bun enjoyed the holiday, even though he doesn't quite understand the real meaning of Christmas. For him (and many other kids), it's all about the new toys, although, as it turns out, the best toy he got was the box his chair came in:
On Christmas Eve I had dimsum with J's family at our usual place, Imperial Treasure at Great World City. I think we need to find a new dimsum place because even though the food is very good there, it gets boring after a while. Thankfully the management had the foresight to give us a private room with a very patient and indulgent aunty waitress so The Bun and his cousin Sarah could run riot without driving the rest of the restaurant mad. They have finally reached the age where they initiate play with each other, making up silly songs, chasing and tickling each other. Watching them I felt a bit more at ease about The Bun's shyness because he certainly wasn't shy or fearful that day in the mall.
That night we had a zi char dinner with my friend C in some coffeeshop in Hougang. Some people have turkey or ham for Christmas - we had a superb pork knuckle with sweet chili sauce, chicken wings, rojak and way too much food for just three adults. The other people in our usual group are all overseas this year, so it was just us three, and we still had a good time. The Bun was cheerful, cooperative and sociable for the whole meal - giving hi-fives to the coffeeshop uncle who brought our drinks, trying to engage C in conversation (e.g. 'do you like baby corn?') and sitting in his high-chair eating happily for more than an hour, just like old times. I hope this is a sign that we're beginning to emerge from his Phase of Fears.
Our Christmas pork knuckle
C was exhausted from baking non-stop in the days leading up to Christmas so she went home after dinner to bed, and J and I went home as well, to put The Bun to bed. Very low-key, but satisfyingly peaceful, the way it should be, sometimes.
Christmas morning. I had an extremely odd dream in the night - I dreamt that J had bought me a very spotty (like Dalmatian spots) ferret for Christmas and it had been sitting in a box in our storeroom for days. In the dream I felt a bit miffed that he had chosen a gift that was so inconvenient and impractical, considering we have a toddler at home and I have no energy nor time for a ferret. J dreamt of an alien invasion. Maybe our dinner the previous night was so fatty it gave us indigestion and weird dreams.
The Bun woke around 9am and I told him it was (finally) Christmas morning. The night before J laid out the various gifts on our coffee table, since we don't have a tree. I didn't want to leave a pile of gifts lying out for a week before Christmas anyway and keep battling The Bun's invasions on them. He got dressed, I popped a Santa hat on him, and we set him loose in the living room.
For posterity, his haul included:
~ a skate scooter (from my parents, but it's parked at my parents' place)
~ a puzzle
~ a Megabloks car-and-ramp system
~ a Leapfrog 'laptop'
~ a traffic playmat - lots of roads to run cars along
~ a Playdoh sandwich maker set
A nice range of toys, I think. J had an extra surprise gift for him, which was kind of tied in with the gift he got for me:
The Bun's chair is a Panton Junior; a 1959 design developed by Vitra from the original ideas of Verner Panton. It's still a little big for him, but he can climb up on it and he will grow into it nicely. My chair is the Emeco 111 Navy Chair, the modern classic Navy chair re-made using 111 recycled Coke bottles. I've always admired this chair (and J knows just how much I love chairs) and I've placed it in my dressing room so that I get to look at it and use it every day.
The cherry on the top: a gift box of Bankaku shrimp crackers AND a bottle of Coke. I wrote previously about how a Bankaku box would make a great Christmas gift for me, so kudos to J for taking a heavy hint and braving the Christmas crowds at Takashimaya for this. Throwing in the Coke (because my chair is made of Coke bottles, haha) made my day. I love drinking Coke so much I don't dare stock it at home because I would probably just overdose on it. But since it is the holiday season, a litre of Coke can't hurt (although it will make me jittery and hyper).
J's gift from me was a Hermes tie. He's been moaning endlessly about the ties he has to wear for work and he always refuses to splurge on himself, so I got it for him so that he can have something luxe to see him through dreary work days.
We had Christmas lunch with my family at Lee Kui, a Teochew restaurant in Chinatown. We ate till we almost exploded, but the food was so good it was worth it. We went home to collapse and nap before taking J's parents out for a Japanese dinner that night. According to The Bun, we ate 'so much' and he was in high spirits that night, singing random made-up songs and dancing around.
And so that was Christmas 2011: food, family, friends, and more food. The older I get the more low-key it gets, but that suits me just fine. I'm glad that The Bun enjoyed the holiday, even though he doesn't quite understand the real meaning of Christmas. For him (and many other kids), it's all about the new toys, although, as it turns out, the best toy he got was the box his chair came in: