Things I Treasure

I know Christmas is over and 2009 is coming fast. I'm so ready to pack things away but we're going to wait untill the first week of Jan. I thought I would share more ornaments that my son made in school. I love homemade stuff now. I guess I like it because, you know, it's one of a kind and someone took the time to make it for you. I'm going to save it till one day I can present it to my son and show him what he has done over the years. I'm not the only one who enjoys homemade stuff, I realize that my friends are into it too. We really enjoy baking, knitting and making blankets. A friend of mine is making a blanket for my son. I'll take a picture and post it as soon as I get it. I guess it's pretty easy to make but it's still a sweet thought.

I also added pictures of the cookies we made for Santa. Just in case he needed a snack.

Homemade Ornaments

Arts and crafts are the other things that have been keeping me busy. Right now I'm trying to finish the Wonder Pets ornaments for my son. It's one of the kids shows that he likes to watch. I thought it was a pretty easy project, so I thought I would get a head start by cutting it out and gluing it together. Then my son can stuff it a little so he can be a apart of the project. It's still a work in progress. I'll probably post all the ornaments that my son has done in school and at home.

It's taken me a couple of days but here is the end product. I started off with the Linny the guinea pig who is also the leader of the Wonder Pets, then I did Ming Ming the duck because she is my son's favorite character. I gave it to him last night and he was so excited about it that he `hung it up on the tree. I mentioned that there's no Tuck. Tuck is a turtle and the third member of the team. You should have seen his face when I said no Tuck. He started looking for Tuck and started crying. So when I woke up this morning, I started on Tuck and it was done within a couple of hours but I still had to wait for the glue and the gold puff paint around Tuck to dry. I should be able to finish it tonight, close it up, glue the top part, then give it to my son tomorrow. The things you do for your child...

Family Reunion

Over the weekend my Dad's side of the family had a huge family reunion. I heard it was great fun. I guess it made it in the newspapers and the news on t.v. 700 people showed up for the family gathering. I'm kinda sad that I didn't make it but I'm glad to hear that a lot of people from all over the world made an effort to come to the reunion. It was reported that it was one of the biggest family reunions ever had in Malaysia. I'm sure it was a great way for the families to meet the newer generation and catch up with what's going on with each other's families. I wish I was a part of it but I was back recently for Eid. One of my Dad's cousin wrote a book about her dad Tan Sri Taib Andak. It should be an interesting read. My grandmother was mentioneded in the book on how she managed to send all four boys to university by selling apam ( steamed rice cake that you eat as a snack with grated coconut) during World War 2. I lost my Dad a couple of years ago and he's never far from my thoughts. Every time I look at my son I wish my Dad was still alive so that my son would know him. I know he would have loved this reunion because he would have gotten to meet up with the families he has not seen for a long time. Family was very important to my Dad. He and his brothers showed me that family came before money. It's nice to know where you come from and see how far your family has helped you get where you are. I'm very proud of my family for their achievements, values and loyalty. I'm glad that we have a family tree so that my son will learn his Malaysian heritage because it's easy to lose it when we're living in the United States.

Sweets

Hello everybody, it's been a while since I last blogged. I have been super busy with baking and my son's school. It's just been crazy here. I think I am officially done with baking and my son is out of school for the next two weeks. Woohoo! for me. I added the pictures of the goodies that I was giving away to friends and neighbors. I like to give freshly baked goodies so I usually make them the night before and pack them and give them away the next day. I don't like to bake all of the stuff at once and store it. I also don't like it around the house because my husband and I will be the one who eats it and we really don't need to gain any more weight. On the plate are peanut clusters, lemon sugar cookies and peppermint brownies. Then I pack it up and off it goes to someone's tummy!

Peanut clusters

Today was another busy day. I haven't even showered yet so this blog is going to be short and sweet. I made peanut clusters today. It's pretty easy. It's one of the goodies I like to make and give it to my neighbors, but this year I think I'm going to give some to other people who have helped me out. I made the dough for the lemon sugar cookies so all I have to do is bake them the day before and pack them nicely with the peanut clusters and maybe peppermint brownies then give them out. Peppermint brownies is on the agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully, my husband won't eat the goodies before I can give them out.

Cookies

The other day I tried out a new recipe. It's called Lemon Sugar Cookies. It looked yummy in the magazine so I decided to give it a go. It's simple enough to make but I'm not sure if I did it right because I'm not too sure about the texture of the cookie but it tasted O.K. Last Tuesday, I was invited to a friend's house for a knitting get together. I thought it would be great if they would give me their opinion on the cookies, so I baked a couple for them to taste. As you know, I have a lot on my mind and have been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks. I was loading the car with all the stuff that I needed to bring to my friends house such as my knitting stuff, my child, his snacks, Christmas cards, my handbag, and the cookies. I must have forgotten something and decided to go back into the house for some reason or another. So I put the plate of cookies on the roof of my car, went back in to the house, came back out and jumped in my car. Well, you can guess what happened. Needless to say my friends didn't get to taste the cookies but here's a picture of my hard work. It's not as pretty as the picture from the magazine. Lets face it, it's not a pretty cookie but it's tasty.

Christmas Fun

It's been a while since I blogged. It's been really busy around here. Today we went to the Nutcracker. It was the first time my son went to the theater and it was the first time to the ballet. He did great. I was really anxious about bring him. He's a 3 year old boy. How would I know if he liked going to the theater or watching the ballet but I wanted him to have the experience and he did great! I'm so proud of him! He didn't cry, whine or want to leave early. I thought he would stay for the first half of the show but we stayed for the whole show. At times he was bored because it was kinda slow, but he clapped his hands when people clapped. I love watching his expression when we were in the theater. He was in awe. I hope to do this every year with him and make it a tradition until he gets embarrassed hanging out with his mom.

Yesterday, was another full day. He had a Christmas party at his preschool and that night our neighborhood fire department drove Santa around in their truck. It was really neat to see Santa and the firetruck decorated in lights. We could hear them coming a mile a way. We stood outside our house for half an hour waiting for Santa to drive by. It was cold but fun, because we were waiting with our neighbors and their kids. They were just happy to see Santa and got candy canes from Santa. It was a nice way to end an evening.

Masterpiece

Today, in order to keep my son busy, we put together our gingerbread house. A friend of mine bought the kit from Ikea and she gave it to us because she had extras and she thought it would be a fun thing for us to do. Some kits came with a bunch of candies to decorate the house but ours just had the walls, roof and chimney. So, I bought sprinkles, M & Ms and morsels. I also had to make my own icing to glue the walls together and to so that the candies will stick. I won't say it's the neatest work but it's my son's masterpiece. I think he had fun putting together the house and stuffing his face with candies at the same time.

Another day

Another day of running around and not sure what I've accomplished. I know I started doing the Christmas card but had to stop because I didn't have all the address and not enough stamps for all the cards. I had to go to the grocery store to figure out what I needed for the dog, baking and dinner for the family. I also had to do the sheets because my son's diaper was kinda full so it leaked. Do the dishes, get information for my husband for him to do stuff, check on our claims from the insurance, get ready for tomorrow's parenting class, figure out what I'm going to bake to give to my friends and neighbors. I keep jumping from one thing to another so I'm not sure what is actually done. I know it's almost 5 and I still have to cook dinner. I did put up the stockings over the fire place. I love to sit and look at it. We haven't used the fire place since my son was born. I love to just have a roaring fire but the thought of dealing with the ash kinda troublesome. I have so many things on my mind that I'm having a hard time sleeping. I wish I had an on and off button, so I could turn it off and I can go to sleep in peace.

Hallmark

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I picked a couple of stuff from the Hallmark store. I thought it's so cute and my son loves it. The gingerbread house lights up when you press on it and the music is from the Nutcracker. My son loves the snowman with the dog and penguin on the sled. It's plays a cute song too. It makes you feel very festive. I got the snowman for half price because it was last years series. I thought it was all worth it just to see my son's face light up when he plays with it and the best part of it is that if he plays it over and over again, it doesn't annoy me.

Projects

Today was a busy day as usual. Just a little cleaning and organizing. I thought it was good day to bond with my son by doing a project together. I wanted to try to make a hand-print ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. I wanted a memento of my son's hand-print. It was pretty easy recipe so I thought it would be cute for him to try and play with flour and pretend that he was baking. Hmmm, lets say it was more work for me then I thought it was going to be. There was more flour on the floor then on the table. There was a lot of me saying "No! don't do that", "stop doing that" and "I said stop it".

I had to change my son because he had flour on his face and clothes by the time the project was over. But it was all worth it if he had fun. I took a couple of pictures of our project. I wish I had taken the photos before I cleaned up the mess so you could see what I meant. It's going to be a two part project because the first part is to make it then the second part is to paint.

Sick Pets

Over the four day weekend my dog Odin was unable to move. We weren't too sure what was happening so we called the vet and found out that his hips are bothering him. He's a rottweiler so he's a big dog and because of his size it's hard for him to move around. The vet told us that when we are emotionally ready we might want to think of putting him to sleep. It's a hard thing to think about. We don't want him to be in pain but we also don't want to be the one to decide when he should be put to sleep. I think secretly we wish that he would die peacefully in his sleep but I know that it's not going to happen. We had to put my cat to sleep 3 years ago and that was really hard. She was old and she had cancer and fluid in her lungs but she was a strong and determined cat. I had her before I met my husband. After going through that, I know I don't want my dog to suffer but I also don't want to put him to sleep if he's not ready. The guilt of having the power of his fate is a lot to handle and it's a big decision. We don't know what to do but we do want what's best for him.

Christmas Is Here

Today I spent the day cleaning my living room and I mean CLEANING. You know the kind that you're on your hands and knees wiping the corners of the walls. I'm so tired from cleaning and decorating our Christmas tree and our house. Now my house looks like Christmas just threw up all over my living room. It's green and red so you can't get more Christmas-y then that. I've been toying with the idea of changing the theme of our Christmas tree but I've decided to wait. My son was helping us decorate the tree and I wanted it to be his tree and he can put what he wanted on it and if he broke an ornament then I won't be too angry because they're old. Which he did break a couple of ornaments earlier. I wanted it to be fun and colorful so he'll remember this experience, I think it's more for him than for us. We decided to buy a fake tree last year because it was just less messy and cheaper in the long run and also we didn't have to drag it from some lot and bring it into the house. Now my living room feels clean for the next 5 minutes and I'm sure it'll be upside down again within minutes. We're sort of ready for Christmas, we just have to put Christmas lights on the house, Christmas cards, presents and we're good. Did I say that we're sort of ready... hmm I take that back.

Four day weekend

It's Sunday today. I had a lovely 3 day weekend, because it was relaxing. My cousin came up from San Francisco to spent time with us doing the Thanksgiving holiday. It was really nice catching up with her. We haven't seen much of each other because we get busy in our lives and it's hard to take a minute and see how each other are doing. My cousin is the only family member from Malaysia I have who is living in the U.S. So it was really nice to have her here for Thanksgiving. It's comforting to talk to someone who knows who you really are. You don't have to pretend that your life is perfect and you have everything under control. My husband took care of our son while I went shopping with my cousin yesterday. Anybody who is a mom knows that it's a luxury to shop without your children because you can't concentrate when your child there. I guess while I was out with my cousin, my husband brought our son to the park and a pond near our house. Here's a couple of photos that he took. My husband was going crazy taking pictures with our new camera.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving day always falls on the fourth Thursday of November. It's a big holiday in the United States. It's a day that everybody give thanks to what they have in their life. It's a day of eating turkey with gravy, marshmallow yams, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. People usually share this feast with family and friends. I think everyone love this holiday because they are with friends and family the whole day and everybody gets to eat as much as they want and watch American football while the food is being cooked.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. It's the first day people start shopping for Christmas presents. It's just unbelievable how people shop in the U.S. Some stores open at 1 a.m and others 5 or 6 a.m. Some of those people get there really early and stand in line until the store opens. I did it once when I was in college because I had nothing else better to do and wanted to experience it. It was fun but I never did it again because I didn't see any point to it. The sales are o.k but nothing worth waking up early in the morning and standing in the cold. I'll stand in line if they were going to sell a 40 inch flat screen television for $100 USD, which I don't think is going to happen any time soon. Shopping in America is an experience because sometimes you can't believe how cheap things are. My mother was shocked that even cars go on sale. I just found out today a Wal - Mart employee died because he was trampled by people who were standing in line since Thursday. When the police said they had to close the stores the customers were complaining that they have been waiting since Thursday for the store to open. It's just sad when a human life is less important than material stuff.

Anyway, I've posted pictures of what we had for dinner on Thursday night. It was delicious and it was even sweeter because I shared it with friends and family.