(25.12.2017)
Christmas Day celebration – With yet another addition (thanks to my contribution) to the family, it feels like a bigger and bigger affair every year. Maybe it’s coz of the simple fact that instead of the 2hrs we needed to get everyone ready, prep time has now doubled and easily takes up half the day.
Or maybe it’s the rush of buying half a dozen presents and making sure we don’t miss out any of the kiddos… Anyhow, with all of us declaring the closure of our fertile ‘factories’, it seems this is as crazy as it’ll get.
This year, we finally learnt our lesson and lessened the amount of food. Kept it simple with a Ryan’s Grocery turkey, Morgansfield ribs, homemade garlic prawns and spaghetti bolognaise. Topped it off with a cheese platter (including some apricots, avacado dip) and durian log cake, and our tummies were extremely satisfied!
THE ADULT’S TABLE…
After dinner, we had a round of phototaking… We got through it mainly with a truckload of bribe and threats “Who wants presents, look here!” “Who’s not smiling won’t get presents!!” “Look here at camera” “Wave” “Say Cheese” etc etc..
We followed through with our actions after max-Ing out their attention span and rewarded their patience with wave after wave of presents. They sure happy la!
GRANDPA & GRANDMA WITH THE 4 GIRLS 
WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN 
LUCAS & GABRIEL
THE GAZZILLION PRESENTS FOR THEM!
And finally the adults could carry on with our gift exchange. Here’s the chain for archive sake:
Dad > Rachel > Huahkai > Ken > Me > Mom > Mic > Elaine > Dad
To save time when drawing lots for the SECRET Santa gift exchange this year, we decided that we’ll allow it if we drew our spouse’s name. Big mistake…
You see… Every year, ‘most’ of the husbands in the family rely on their wives to purchase the Christmas presents la. Also, while we are not supposed to reveal who we’re supposed to get presents for, hints are often conspicuously dropped or the wives are coerced for opinions and we somehow end up getting the gifts on their behalf. Though I must say, they do ‘try’ and always resolute to change their ways.
This year, Rac and Ken drew their other half’s names. While she went with HK to purchase the item he wanted (supposed to be surprise lei!!!), I had to order MY own gift, wrap it MYSELF, paid for it using MY credit card and still haven’t gotten MY money back! 😭 But oh well, at least I got the exact gift I wanted… But next year, we’ll have to draw lots til the cows go home with no one drawing their own/spouse name k! 🙏🏻
For the BONUS GIFT this year, it went to…. (*drumroll*) Michelle Yap!! Wrapped in a decoy Royce packaging, the gift was revealed to be a Swarovski bracelet! 😍
Amanda is holding a special gift too, from winning a round of family Bingo! Good job, Gurl!!
Thank you all for the lovely night spent… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!