The first post of the year. Happy new year to me.

Caught in a jam because we want to bring the 2 kids to watch fireworks.

Lucky I can have access to the internet and blog from my phone. May 2008 brings me PR 8/10. (this is call positive thinking, ok?)
- end of mobile blogging -

Make mental note to self. Next year or any other years, remember that the kids are not interested to watch fireworks. Spent 2 hours in a traffic jam that involves, human, motorbikes and cars jams and we only watched 7 minutes of fireworks. And what did the kids said? “So boring one……”

Lucky I got some decent photos of the fireworks or else…

Lest I forget next year what I did this year. (note that the photos and the post are not related, caption provided below each photo in brackets)

(explanation : The parish priest in gold robe and a young couple symbolically brought the statue of baby Jesus and place the statue on the crib. They bow down in adoration. Contrary to what some people think, NO, we are not praying to deities or statues. We just love to do things with more symbolic stuffs. We also use incense in major celebration as it is meant to give fragrance. We acknowledge we are mere humans and doing something this way, sealed our belief deeper because we can see, do, take part and connect.)

The Christmas eve midnight mass was beautiful. But it started with chaotic traffic and church goers were put to the test. Some folks blared their horns non-stop due to the traffic jam leading to the church. Some got down from their cars and direct traffic. Some like me parked too far away and forgot which Jalan or Lintang my car was.

(My little boy posing in front of the crib at the altar. Some day I hope he will take the same photo of his children like this….)

Lucky my dear hubby took a bike and came to rescue me. Hehehe. Not really, he just came to church when our mass was ending to join us in celebrating. But if he didn’t come, I would be groping in the dark at 1 am in Island Park.

(explanation : My eldest sister bought a cake and my son cannot resist blowing candle. I asked him, “Whose birthday is it?” And the innocent one said, “Baby Jesus.”)

By the time I got to bed it was already 2 am and I woke at 7 am on Christmas morning. Yawnn…

Morning mass was serene and thank God our choir sang well. The most powerful message I received is “The best gift a parent can give to their children is the gift of faith.” So help me, God.

(explanation : My eldest sis still have some leftover tongyuen and we celebrated Chinese Christmas along with the real one.)

We had a family lunch, just our cosy little family.

And I prepared dinner for my siblings and nieces and nephews.

(my sisters, nieces and of course, my handsome loukong preparing smoke salmon and caviare with table water crackers)

This is the first time I celebrate Christmas with my own siblings (minus the in-laws ). And I realized something. My mother’s grandsons from each of her four children (out of five ‘cos my eldest bro only has a daughter) are Christians.

(A collage of the Chan family, minus my second brother who lives in KL. We joke that we are going to Hainan Island to balik kampung. Beware, the Hainanese typhoon is blowing. And I wonder what my mom fed me that she didn’t feed my two older sisters? They are so thin and I am so errm…tall?)

My two sisters’ respective eldest sons have been baptized. (welcome, Kah Weng)) Meanwhile, my second brother’s wife was converted to Christianity with her two children and I converted to Christianity with all my four sons. Now….Jesus must be very happy. Each of us turn to Christ at different times and due to different reasons. And no, none of us evangelize to each other, it happens naturally.

(actually, this photo doesn’t look as good as the taste of the cracker with cream cheese, camembert cheese, grape, smoked salmon and caviare)

(these are all the foods I prepared, you can find the close up in my best recipe food blog)

Phew….nite, nite I think this is the first time I got to sit down since the last post I made. It has been beautiful. Christmas gets better each year I become a Christian. Thank God for making me the chosen one.

My thoughts and prayers to all the family of the Tsunami victims. Today, 26th December 2007 is the third anniversary of the the huge tsunami that killed thousands of people in the region, including my island. May these families who lost their loved ones find strength in their respective faith to carry on living positively. And may the souls of the departed ones rest in peace. (my post in 2004 on the Tsunami) Amen.

This is a video taken last year.

Happy Dongzhi or Happy Winter Solstice Festival or I prefer to call it Chinese Christmas.

And this is the video taken this year. Kids grow so much in a year, don’t they?

P/S : Thanks Agnes for the gingerbread house.

Terence says….”It’s your blog”

I think that’s a very good reminder because I told him that nowadays, I almost dare not post much because each time before I hit publish button, I need to weigh if people will read between the lines or take offence. In fact, I got some posts in my drafts that I decided against posting.

And then, there is this stupid bunch of people who takes every blardy word I wrote as the gospel truth. Sometimes, whatever I write cannot reflect the whole situation. It could be words told jokingly but when it appears on my blog, it looks like a rude remark. Or if I talk about my kids, people will be sitting behind the PCs and went, “tsk, tsk, tsk…look what she is teaching her sons, bad moral, I tell you…..people like these will burn in hell….horrors, she dare to call herself a Christian?”

Arrggh…I hate all these self restraints.

So, shove it. I am not going to worry so much anymore.

It’s my blog and I don’t fucking care what others think. So, stop reading between the lines and making assumptions.

Now, on to regular brogging and bragging.

It is the Raya Haji today and as usual, my younger kid will be asking about the significance of it. As a Catholic Christian, I normally go back to Abraham or what the Muslims call Nabi Ibrahim. We really do start from the same source, you know? Anyway, what we discussed in private is not for public viewing. It is all about faithfulness to God and sacrifices and yadda yadda yadda.

But that’s not the main topic of my post yet. This is to test and see how much people read before they comment. Test and see how people usually select the irrelevant things to comment on and not my main point.

We wanted to go to the frozen food supplier today to buy our huge, giant turkey. They sell nice salmon, cod fish, lamb shanks and even huge tiger prawns etc. But I told the kids we are buying turkey. I went to the kitchen and took out our Coleman cooler box. It is a small one, fitting only 6 cans of drinks.

Just for kicks, I added Queen’s video. Gosh, look what kind of videos I grew up with!

#2 son said : The turkey so big, it cannot fit into your box lah.

Me : Cilaka! I know lah. You think I got no brains ah? I brought along in case I buy smaller stuffs like prawns or fishes mah.

Then, as we were getting out of the door, hubby saw my cooler box.

And he asked :

Hubby : Did you put in the blue ice? (the frozen piece of blue thingie?)

Me : Cilaka! You and your son! You think I got no brains ah? Cooler box without the coolant, I bring for what lah. Same same one, both of you. Niamah, think I got no brains issit?

Haih….

I have watched Bee Movie, The Golden Compass and now, Alvin and the Chipmunks in a short period of time and shall rate the chipmunks as the best of the three. I asked my four years old kid and he too agrees with me. If you are going to make a movie that attracts kids, I suppose you have to ask a kid to tell the truth.

All of us are familiar with the Chipmunks so they don’t need introduction. But to blend them with real humans, that needs something that is not so cliché. I am glad they didn’t make it too cute and hence, both humans and chipmunks sort of have equal roles there. The guy who stars in the movie, Jason Lee is that My name is Earl guy. However, I like the bad guy, Elton-John look-alike more.

Sometimes, these animation movies tend to go overboard with their feel-good feelings and that can leaves a sickening taste when it is overdone. But Alvin and the Chipmunks stop short of being too lovey-dovey. It is not over the top with trying to be funny as well.

The songs are all catchy and it is sort of warm and fuzzy to listen to Funky Town from *my* era, plus that Christmas song and oh boy, I love the ‘Doncha’ song sung in the dishwasher. And the raisin part, that’s funny. And when Alvin inhales helium gas from the balloon, I cannot help but think of Gallivanter at the Together Gather bloggers party.

So, go watch it. A nice movie for the family with a Christmas feel but not too Christmassy and suitable for those who are not too hot about Christmas. After four decades, now only I know their names are Alvin, Theodore and Simon.

Getting pressies from Santa

Some pin Santa’s nose

The three brothers

Some must take photo with Santa’s hat.

Boring post hor? I know. No need to remind me.

It has been one long boring Sunday of one children party to another Penang state government Christmas open house event. Children’s party is boring to me ‘cos I need to accompany my kid for four long hours. But what matters is he enjoyed it. Bravo to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit parishioners for organizing the event. I only took care of my own kid, I already want to wah piang liao. I cannot imagine dealing with all 400 of the children.

After that church thingie, I went to this Penang state government Christmas open house. There is free food. Buffet from Buffet Village. And you know what? Free foods is greater than God. LOL. You can find so many people from all races flocking to makan. The queue is freaking long. We didn’t bother, of course.

And seriously, I wonder who is the main organiser of the event? The CM is there, I notice. But really, it is Christmas, yo. Sing some Christmas songs that non-Christians can relate to lah. Keep the evangelizing for other time, can? I went for just a while, expecting to find Christmas bazaar, Christmas carols, Santa Clauses, sexy Santarina or anything Christmassy like those.

Instead, there is this Taiwanese group of women screeching hallelujah, God loves you, sing some sombre songs like when you are alone, there is Yehsou yadda yadda, in Mandarin. Hey, Christmas, make it happy lah. I know it is good to evangelize but hey, I am a Christian and I already found those too ‘pushy’.

Anyway, I may be wrong ‘cos I was there for only 10 minutes but that 10 minutes are enough to drive me away. B O R I N G. And eh, in Penang, we got so many churches, certainly we don’t need imported Taiwanese singers to present the opening number? Next time, call us lah! I can sing Jingle bells very well lah.

Forgive me if I offended any Christians but personally, I think if we want to spread the Word, we have to speak *their* languages. Not terus skali tell people God loves them. Scary wei.