Today is the last day of Christmas holidays for my children. It is not until the first day back at school do I feel the new year has truly begun. Our holidays were filled with time spent with family and friends and LOTS of eating (as usual). Here's a recap of the things we did and the food we ate and the people we spent it with....
Dec 22 - Our family celebrated Winter Solstice with a traditional Chinese "Dough-Ball Soup". This is a family favorite - not necessarily because everyone enjoys the food (most of us do of course) but really because it always involves an afternoon of preparing the food together and then eating together. For my children this usually marks the beginning of Christmas holiday activities with their cousins.
Dec 23 - We visited my father-in-law & then had dim sum with the family. Holidays was always a convenient excuse for my father-in-law to have all his children and grandchildren together which is what he loved most. There was always good food, loud talking and laughter, sometimes some Mahjong, and occasionally some arguments. We miss him a lot.
Dec 25 - Our Christmas Day tradition is to have all of the siblings & cousins from the Big Oh's side come to open presents in our home and have lunch, and this year was no different. Although there is a large age gap between my kids and their oldest cousins they still get along so well together. The "big" kids have always made an effort to include the younger ones, whether it is to play along with their silly games, or to let them join in to get bubble tea, they never let anyone feel left out and are such amazing role models for my children.
In the evening we had a lovely dinner with a few of my dearest friends. An amazing home cooked meal, wonderful company and some poker to finish off the night.
Dec 26 - It had been awhile since I had my parents and siblings to my place for dinner. This year I decided to make a turkey which didn't turn out perfect, but was still a success in my book. My brother and sister do not live as close to me as the Big Oh's so we don't spend as much time with them, but it was important to me to spend Christmas with them and it was a lovely way to finish off the year.
Dec 27 - I have extremely generous sister-in-laws and this evening was the first of two special dinners that were planned during the holidays. We went to Fishman Lobster Clubhouse - the place where they serve their famous lobster mountain. The seafood meal consisted of mountains of lobsters, crabs, oysters, and family favorites like sweet and sour pork and beef tenderloin. Without a doubt some of the tastiest lobster and crab we've had, but with a bill of over $2000 this meal was definitely an indulgence - and not something we will be having anytime soon again!
Dec 29 - The Big Oh took M1 to her very first hockey game. She was so excited! She even made signs and went to the game early to watch them practice. Too bad our home team lost 4-0.
Dec 30 - The Big Oh's annual Holiday party! My kids look forward to this every year. Always lots of people, lots of food, and lots of games.
Dec 31 - One of our very best friends hosted a New Year's eve party. My girls have endearingly dubbed Auntie H.H.'s home as "Party Central". As I've said before, this woman makes throwing a party for 40 people look like a breeze, she is amazing in so many ways! The night was filled with yummy food, amazing company, and some party games for the kids. Everyone had a blast - I couldn't think of a better way to end the year and kick off a new one!
Jan 1 - We just can't get enough of these people! The New Year's eve party continued through to new year's day with some of us catching "Aquaman" in the afternoon and then meeting up for dinner in the evening - all 34 of us. We went to Perfect Chinese Restaurant and although it wasn't "perfect" it was the company we were with that made the night. Perhaps I'll do a restaurant review of it in another blog.
Jan 5 - The holiday ended with the first ski trip for M1 & M2 followed by the second fancy dinner treated by my other sister-in-law at Stakeout Dining. Another amazing meal with an equally amazing price tag. I'll have to do another write-up about this restaurant too.
And that's a wrap. Happy New Year....2019 Here we come!
Y.C.
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