Mid-Autumn Festival 2009

Mid-Autumn Festival is often called Lantern festival or the Mooncake festival.
That's because, oh, so obvious, that this is the time we light up lanterns and give mooncakes to each other (normally among family members and close friends).

The last few years we have been celebrating Lantern/Mooncake festival at Ah Ma's house. So the usual, we light up paper lanterns and hand them on a plant by the garden.

Grandma and the three boys standing in front of paper lanterns hung on a tree.
Micah and Max are holding the lanterns, shape of the lotus flower, they made in school.

We also light candles on the wall that's between her and her neighbour.

Micah and Max lighting candles.
Supervised by Ee-ee.

And here's a shot of some of the traditional Lantern/Mooncake Festival treats.

Clockwise: Chinese tea, red eggs, baby yams, brown sugar (to dip the yams in), mooncake,
and "ngau-kok" (meaning bull's horns in Cantonese.
It's actually a root, but you eat it like a nut,
boiled, and then crack the shell to get to the white center).

It's Myron's first Lantern festival and it sure was fascinating for him to see all the lights.

Myron and grandma, holding a fish lantern.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone.

p/s- We are still eating the mooncakes my mother gave.

Lotus Bonus Day

The boys had two specials today.

On the way to school, we picked up Ee-ee and Ah Ma. We had an errand to run.

As in habit, Max always asks for a surprise after school. But he insisted today that he did not want food, he wanted a toy*.

After we dropped the boys at school, and Gadget-daddy at Midvalley, we ran the errand and then headed for a special breakfast at Lotus Restaurant, at Jalan Gasing.

Ah Ma declared it was the best Indian breakfast she had had in ages.

Special Tea, Bathura (in the basket) and Rava Thosai

After that we picked the boys up and then Gadget-daddy from Midvalley on the way back.

Gadget-daddy informed us of some cars at display, but we decicded we better head home first as Myron would be waiting for Mommy.

Later in the evening we made a special trip just for the boys to have a look at the cars at display:
4 Lotus in a row!!

Just look at the thrill the boys had!




Despite the jam we had coming out of the parking, I'd say the trip was worth it.
:)

* This is the day I congratulated myslef for buying the boys something else other than a car, and I did not even step into atoy shop. Instead I found these wonderful floor puzzles at MPH.


The boys really love them.

More Of Our CNY In Colours

Sorry this is so late, but looking up some photos, thought I'd put this up anyway.


The first day we went to Ah Ma's house and did the usual tea ceremony.

This is the time we usually get some shots of all the kids in their New Year clothes.
None in a traditional Chinese garb this year.



Then we visited a family friend who had the Lion dance at her house.
It was totally thrilling for the kids to see one so close this year.
The fire crackers were deafening.

(Sorry I did not manage to catch the Lions in action as I was holding Max and my niece close to me. I had one child on a knee each. They were thrilled and terrified at the same time.)


We managed to visit 2 other homes.

By the time we got back it was time to shower and change to get to Ah Ma's for a steamboat dinner, with Yee-sang again.



Then we did the cake and song thing for Gadget-daddy.
This time, we had 2 cakes... just for the kids to sing and blow the candles.
Does this mean he aged 2 years instead of one this time? ;)



And in the midst of all the food, fun and noise, Micah was fast asleep on a lazy chair. All because he was too in volved in all the earlier visitations he did not nap. Hence he missed the dinner (Max was sleeping in Gadget-daddy's arms while we were visiting the third house).

Reunion Dinner

Since the time we had Micah, MiL had decided it would be easier to have our reunion dinner at a restaurant than at home. It also works out well too for my mum and my two not-yet-married siblings who would join us to complete a table for 10pax.

So here's the dinner we had... of which we had to pack some of the food back, because there was really just too much food.

And so the menu goes...

Yee-sang

4 seasons



Sharksfin soup



Steamed fish



Suckling pig


(Sorry, did not manage to capture a photo of this
as I was too busy feeding Max and myself. Hehe...)

Prawn



Mushroom and abalone with broccoli



Steamed wax-sweetmeats rice



Dessert: Sweet sea coconut with lotus seeds.

Mum and MiL had loads to chat about.
Ee-ee was really good at keeping a sleepy Micah awake and entertained.
He did eat some of the food.


Mommy and Max ate and talked and talked and ate. Max was also busy talking to Gadget-daddy.


Then everyone headed back to our place and we had a surprise birthday celebration for Tua-Ee who's birthday was on CNY eve itself.

It was a circus with a total of 9 children present, all under the age of 12 and all calling her by 3 different titles, plus the 12 adults, to sing Happy Birthday.
We loved the mango mousse cake!

Hope you all who celebrates this festive season had/are still having a good time too.

Seafood Special

The day Gadget-daddy went off to camp, Mommy took the boys to Ah Ma's for a visit and we had the most delightful surprise in her kitchen (she had just come back from the market):


Gigantic Mantis Prawn!!


They are over a foot long each.
Sold by weight, she had paid RM46 for the four pieces!!
Talk about indulging the palate!


At the end, she just had them steamed and we ate them without any sauce nor salt.
It was just superb as it was!!

Year End Bash

We had two exciting celebrations for the year end, which we will be repeating for many years to come.

Max turned 3 on 28th Dec, but we had a nice barbecue party on the 27th at Ah Ma's house. It was pretty much a family do, with the special presence of a few friends.


Oh, we were all just so excited over the presence of our friends and the presents and the cake... that the only shots taken were from Max's uncle's camera.


Then on the 29th, we had a nice sit-down dinner at a Chinese Restaurant to celebrate Ah Ma's birthday.

We all sat and ate the meal like for the longest time, but everyone had fun, especially the kids playing with the karaoke set, singing Happy Birthday to Ah Ma until we had to tell them to "SING SOMETHING ELSE".

The food was good, and the cake was just a drool!
But it really ended at almost 11pm. We were actually later than a wedding dinner that was held in the main hall (they gave us a private room).

Just less than 24 hours to a new year...
Time sure flies....

P/s - Thank you everyone, for such wonderful presents.

Felt like a Saturday

Today Gadget-daddy worked from home...much to the delight of this moody moomy.

In the afternoon, when Max was at his nap, we decided to go watch a movie.
While we were getting ready to go out, Micah was calling from downstairs,

"Anyone wants to play checkers with me? Anybody?"

Oh, he sounded so pathetic, so abandoned.
So I went down and gave him some attention, but did not want to start on the game.

Gadget-daddy came down and Micah called, "Daddy, wanna play checkers with me?"
Gadget-daddy did. He stayed on the game for 5 minutes, gave him some pointers and then we rushed off for The Mummy 3.

Before leaving the cinema we got a fresh box of popcorn for the boys. They were really delighted with that. We ate the popcorn while watching Pocoyo.

For dinner, Grandma made some delicious spicy fried chicken and assam laksa.
I sure had my appetite for dinner today.



Later I had a craving for something cold and refreshing. I actually wanted a smoothie, but decided to settle for a fruity ice-blended at Coffee Beans - had their Berried Treasure. Gadget-daddy drove us out. Micah fell asleep on the way to the mall. Max enjoyed the drink as much as I did. :)


Ahh.. a good end to a day. It sure felt like a Saturday. :)


Thanks, Gadget-daddy for meeting the cravings of this moody mommy.


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p/s- Pictures coming up...

Updates: Uploaded photos on 23/8/2008, 11.45 pm.