Here’s wishing you a GREAT 2010 ahead!

I don’t usually set New Year resolution because I know I can never keep it. For this year, 2010 I am setting one that I will read the Bible from cover to cover in 365 days. I am one person that never had a good discipline when it comes to reading. Let’s hope I will achieve this. I also hoped that my Sunday School children will read the Book of Mark too.

What’s your resolution? Let me share with you one of Penang 2010 fireworks from the back of my gal’s room. A good view too.

Lastly, an update to my painting project since so many of you encourages me to paint Emily’s room. Wah lah…actually not completed yet, still got one wall left and the big cupboard is sitting beside it. I hope to get it done by Saturday.

I was not happy with the colors. The Fire Princess wasn’t as fiery as I expected. It was more orange than red. The candy floss (light pink) is too light. Since I have to paint over a strong blue, I have to do a double layer which is twice the effort. However Emily was pretty happy with it.

It was in 1 Utama, when we went passed a fish spa. Emily saw and she wants to go it to try. She saw this in Penang a couple of times but never walked in. Since there was a child package with 10% discount, I let her try it.

Tim and I are ticklish so we didn’t join her but we accompany her. She is really daring, she put her feet in. At first she felt ticklish but later her feet were surrounded by fish. She went from pond to pond. Some ponds have small fish and some had big fish.

Today, I wanted to check out the price of fish spa in Queensbay. Children are FOC! Well, it attracted me and my hubby to try. I couldn’t stand the fish biting my palm of my foot, it made my hair stand. Later I got used to it. Funny, this time around only a few fish went to Emily’s feet. Maybe her feet were too clean.

My hubby and I felt the feet a lot smoother. His dry skin under his feet felt softer. I don’t mind going again. If you hear of any good promo, let me know.

I am on leave until next year. I have planned to paint my children’s room. Days back, I asked Tim to pick his room’s color. Tim’s room never been painted before so I will start with his. He chose Pharoah purple and I pick the clear blue for him.

I tell you paint is not cheap. I got Nippon 3 in 1, refill crack, anti-bacteria and remove dirt & stain cost me RM110 per 5 liter.

I started taping the edges of the floor and ceiling the night before. I had to work corner to corner because I didn’t have space to relocate the bed and stuff. I started at 9am and finished at 9pm. It was a hard day work. Now my body ache and muscle in pain. More painful that my work in the office. It was worth it looking at the finished product.

The paint was good. You can wash off easily on the hand as well as on the brush. Now should I even start Emily’s room? She wants fiery princess and candy floss.

Before:

After:

My hubby didn’t get to eat Tang Yuen this year, I thought I have the children make it for him. However it has passed the Dong Zhi festival, so pre-made dough is not available. I will have to make the dough myself. It is really easy like making play doh. 🙂

I gave some to my MIL & FIL because they also didn’t have any this year. Hope they like it.

Recipe For The Dough
1 cup glutinous rice flour
½ cup boiled warm water
Natural food coloring of your choice. Emily said “No Blue!” I chose pink.

1. Sieve the flour onto a mix bowl
2. Mix the coloring with the warm water.
3. Slowly pour the warm water and mix it. I used a wooden spoon and later use hand to mix it into dough. Do not add too much water because it will be too sticky, hard to pick it for boiling.

Tang Yuen Balls
Palm Sugar
Glutinous Rice Dough

1. Cut the palm sugar to small piece
2. Take a small piece of dough, make it into a ball
3. Press the center with your thumb, add the piece of palm sugar and close it. Use both your palm to roll it into a ball again

Tang Yuen Syrup
Pandan Leaves
Ginger
Rock Sugar / Palm Sugar & Water

1. Boil the water with Pandan leaves with squash ginger
2. Add rock sugar to taste. I use 1.5 piece of rock sugar for ½ pot of water. If too sweet, just add water.

Last step, boiled another pot of water to cook the tang yuen. When the water boiled, put all the tang yuen balls inside. Once it is cooked, the tang yuen will float to the surface. Use a big metal sieve, pick up the tang yuen from boiling water, run it through cold water. This will give a good texture to the tang yuen. Put the tang yuen into the syrup water to boil in a low fire. Once boil, it is ready to serve.

Next week, I will make tang yuen with peanut jam fillings. Yummy :P~~~

1 hour till Christmas. Today I didn’t need to remind my children to sleep because they want to wake up early to……open the presents.

First my children and I wanted to surprise papa. We had a plan. We wanted to set up the Christmas Tree when papa is asleep on the night we returned from KL. All three of us were trying to keep the secret. When we arrived, papa picked us up from the airport. Both of them were giggling. We headed for lunch.

Emily was telling papa this and that and opps secret let out. Hrmm…she asked papa to erase it from his memory.

After lunch, we headed home. Guess what, papa surprise us with the Christmas tree all set up. Both of them went urghh…because they really want to put up the ornaments. Maybe next year.

To all mybabybay readers, have a blessed Christmas & great New Year!

I remembered when I was young I helped my mom make tang yuen (glutinous rice flour ball). We eat this to during Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi). Well, after I got married, I don’t get to eat it because I am lazy to make it. Maybe I should try to make this next year.

Since I was in KL, my kind aunt invited my family to celebrate Dong Zhi. She cooked my favorite asam boi. Tim was walloping the steam fish. He loved it, more like drinking the fish soya sauce. At the end of the meal, my cousins started making tang yuen. My children joined in the fun. They are good at it after the practice with my home made play doh.

I must say that the Tang Yuen tasted extra delicious because it was specially made by my children. I can tell which ones were made by them too. That is by the size of the sugar in them. They like to pick the big size sugar.

Actually I like the ones with peanut filling, some used peanut butter. I wonder is there any more glutinous rice flour dough in the market.

It was a good trip back to KL. Too bad my hubby could not join us due to lack of annual leave. Children were receiving lots of Christmas gifts. 70% of my luggage is their presents. Emily said, “Nice oh, come to KL and received so many presents.”

First my children wanted to check out the Ikea play area. Just imagine I went to Ikea but didn’t get to shop there. Later I saw my children watching spoonge bob in there. Sort of deprive of watching cartoon.

By the way the Ikea play area is not a very pleasant sight. The staffs were busy administering the in and out of the children. One was chatting with her visiting friends. One kid urinated on the floor and I heard another did it somewhere. One kid has a small injury, it took a long time for the first aid guy to come. Later one kid ran in to play without anyone looking.

Well it just say one thing, I would never leave them there without supervision. After that, I realized we were too late for The Snow event at 7:30pm and 8:30pm.

The next day, we shopped at 1 U, more like the children shopping for their Christmas gift as my mom promised them each a gift. Timothy chose power miners Lego and Emily chose Barbie playground set. I picked up some gifts from my niece and nephews. There goes my money.

At 7:30pm, we went to see snowing outside of The Curve. It is actually made out of soap foam, I think. The machine really pumped out a lot of snow for 30 minutes. It was really bring back memories of snowing in Colorado. Well, my children’s head, body, hands and shoes were cover with foam. Yet, they didn’t stop. They want to stay on till 8:30pm for another snowing session. Later they changed their mind because they want to play with their new toys at home.

It was a good experience. I wished they will do the same in Queensbay Mall next year.

A video on snowing in Malaysia…pretty cool!

Landed safely in KL. Of all things I forgot to pack, I didn’t bring my iPhone charger. Now my phone is flat, had to use my notebook to SMS people. I will need to hunt for a USB cable.

My children were very excited. First seeing por por (my mom) get baptize. After that, they said “mummy nothing to do.” Sigh.

Well, when they travel with me, I have to make sure they nap. Now they are napping while I get online. Hehehehe….

Later they will go to their favorite place which they always wanted to go. They want to check out the color of the balls. Another sigh. Thanks to my aunt who loan me her car so that I can be mobile.

The boys took on the organizing committee after been voted out by the gals. They chose bowling and of cause a scrumptious meal. Well one thing they forgot to ask the hotel for a confirmation number, ended up we had to sit at special tables outside.

I haven’t been bowling for ages since I have children. I felt satisfied that I got an average of 90s, although a few shots go into longkang. Our team came in second and got some vouchers for shopping.

After the tiring event, we all had seafood buffet in E&O hotel. The food variety is not bad but the presentation of the food needs to improve. The salmon were not arranged and cut nicely. In Cantonese, it looks like “yat pat yeh”. Well we waited for 30 minutes before they start serving. I guess we went there too early. I didn’t waste time but took shots on all the food. The seafood buffet was RM65++.

Have a guess how many round I went? Oh no, need more running on my treadmill!!

Yeah no more major meetings until next year!! I am also off for the year.

Simple meal that I prepared for my children. Too bad my broccoli went bad if not, it will look nicer with some green. My hubby was away and I thought of opening my home restaurant for the kids. Yeap, that’s how my children called my kitchen, mummy’s restaurant. They loved to play waiter and takes order. They love private dining with mummy too.

These are previous meals:

On another topic, here is Tim’s funny remark. Daddy was giving out instruction in the car before we go shopping.

Daddy: Rule number one, all listen to papa and mummy. Rule number two, …

Tim: *P*A*P*A *Y*A* (aka papaya) :giggles: