Merry Christmas 2008

Tyler woke us up about 8:30 am on Christmas morning and told us he wanted his pressie. We said OK and let him open one.


The little man opening up this present..

He was not amused when he found out it was a pair of Xmas jammies and demanded a real present.


This is more like it, but really mom.. you can do better.. where are Grandma's pressies?

After that, we did a video conference call to the UK to talk to Alan's family and check out Jake's toys! Talk about cool toys! That kid has got it all!

At about 10 am, i started the cooking frenzy. I kept thinking, there's really nothing much to do but wrote a list anyways to keep track of the things to do and kept myself pretty much busy till dinner was served.


This is how the boys kept themselves busy while i worked.

In the next few hours, turkey was seasoned and roasted, whipped cream was made, potatoes and parsnips were boiled and roasted, mushrooms were roasted, carrots and peas were steamed, brussel sprouts boiled and tossed with butter pecans, stuffing was prepared, yorkshire pudding was made, gravy made, appetizers(smoked salmon tartare on toasties) were assembled.

I always seem to have a problem making everything serve up smoothly at the end. So, after a little bit of chaos at the end, dinner was served!


Cheers.. Tyler wondering why he wasn't offered any "shame-pain"..

Dinner was enjoyable as we dug in and pulled some crackers and shared some bad jokes. We ate till we couldn't eat no more. Couldn't even think about dessert.

So, pressies..


All the presents under the Xmas tree..



Our guests with their gifts..

Steffen all excited about his fantasy come true.. Tyler was the present boy..

Are any of these mine..?

Family shot..

Whoa.. finally it's my turn.. and thanks grandma & grandpa!! Can't trust my parents for any cool presents!!!

Many hours later, all presents were finally opened. Tea was served and desserts were eaten. Then the group just sat around and played games.

Tyler who was active for most of the day konked out at 7:30 pm..

What an enjoyable Christmas..

Christmas Eve

Despite big efforts during the week to get Xmas preparations on schedule, I still somehow was half a day off. So, i decided the less stressful way was to take Christmas eve off.

In the morning, i did a quick last minute shopping run, posted all the Xmas letters(yay!!) and came home to do some mad baking.

I was planning a traditional English Xmas dinner and thought hard about desserts. Evelyn had sent me a Xmas pudding(thank you!!) but i needed something else. I came up with the Yule Log since it was one of the more memorable dessert i had when i was in England for Xmas.
I had never done this before and decorating wasn't my forte(yet!). :) I just need to practice.

After a few hours of baking and beating and whipping and enduring endless jokes from Alan and Steffen. I thought my Yule Log turned out alright!! Even managed to squeeze another batch of cookies!!

What do you think?


My Yule Log. It's supposed to look like a log..

Anyways, once i was happy with my baking, we made some quick dashes around trying to get ready to go to Damith and Sabrina's for Xmas Eve dinner. It's a 2nd year tradition that we do a Mexican Christmas on Xmas eve. And with some fresh cookies in hand, we were off!

Sabrina churned out some nice Spanish rice and some of her awesome salsa. We ate it with some steak meat and oh yeah, Menudo(tripe soup) for Sabrina and I!! Yum..


All of us at dinner..

After dinner, we decided to let Hish open her presents as she was leaving the next day. But we ended up spending a lot of time photographing their Chrismas tree instead.. :) Hish did eventually open her pressies.


Their nice tree..

After that, we watched an English Xmas short movie and headed home. Once we got home, though dead tired, i did some quick tidying up and set up my dinner table because i've been caught way too many times not having my table ready when guests arrive.


My table setting..


With my yule log!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Christmas Preparation

I have once again fallen behind in my blogging by more than a week, but I literally ran out of time. For this, I would like to do a separate blog to give tribute to wives all over the world.

I panicked last weekend when i realized I had less than a week to get ready for Christmas. I haven't made any cookies, sent out any Xmas cards, written my Xmas card, planned Xmas dinner, bought any Xmas gifts. On top of that, we have a trip to Sri Lanka and India in Jan that we haven't planned. Aiyiyi.. so, that weekend, while my friends partied, I worked my tail off. :(

But at the end of the weekend, I had something to show for it:

1) I had some pictures from my Xmas card(they are in the mail!). Here are some of my attempts.


One of the best shots..


Oops....


Doesn't Tyler look so much older in this pic?

I love that new hat on him.. doesn't stay on very long though..

Approaching crankiness..

Crankiness reached.. end of photo session..

2) I made some cookies.

Lacy oatmeal, chocolate thumbprints, sugar cookies, russian teacakes and chocolate vanilla swirls.

3) Designed and ordered Xmas cards (look out for them in the mail)

4) Planned our India trip.

5) Planned Xmas menu and did most of Xmas dinner shopping.

Yay!! And we even got to go to a party at Steffen's on Sunday night. We had good time eating home made pizza and watched a funny German love comedy called Keinohrhasen. Very good. Highly recommended. But apparently funnier if you understood German.

Our First Ginger Bread House

One of our favorite things to do is to put pressure on new friends to have a party for us! Another couple caved. Yay!!!

So, Elaine and Matt invited us to their house for a Ginger Bread House decorating party on Friday. Since it was our first GBH decorating experience, i was very much looking forward to it and had big ambitions to win!

Elaine had baked all the ginger bread and made all the icing and even bought lots of candy for everyone(she is after all a lady of leisure!!! :). But I didn't take any chances, so I brought additional candy for the design i had in mind.

As we were a little late to the party, we started on the house immediately when we got to their trendy and yuppy apartment. With Alan in charge of keeping Tyler away from any house demolition, I put the house together(ok, additional little help from Alan and Steffen) quickly and began to put my thatched roof on.


Putting the roof on - would never hear the end of it from my engineering friends if my roof were to collapse.


My thatched roof!

Soon, decorating was in full motion. Everybody was a little competitive yet encouraging when somebody came up with a good design idea. Who would have believed that a bunch of 30-somethings can have so much fun indulging in such a kid-like activity? But we did!! We didn't budge when the food arrived!

But all fun things have to end and get judged!!


Front of our house...

Back of our house - with chimney and garage!

Here are the rest of the house designs..

Uyen and Jim

The Chandrasekaras - world's record for the fastest GBH decorated!

Matt and Elaine - our lovely hosts

Darshan and Addy with special "solar" roof!

Michala and Ben - the winners !

Steffen's house of love..

Manu's design kit house..

Anyways I came in 2nd!! OK, I was really hoping for 1st prize but my house didn't come out as nice as I wanted and Michala's was really cute!

A photo op with a few of the houses..

After the end of the competition, we went downstairs for quick movie and went home. It was a really fun night!

Tyler's 13 month Update

I've been trying to do this but you know..

So, Tyler is now 13 months old. Here are some of his development updates:

1. His walking is now very stable and he often runs. He likes to play catch even though you can over take him in 2 steps. He squeals whenever you run past him. I find quite funny. Although he can pretty get anywhere he wants to, he also enjoys riding on Daddy's shoulder.

2. His dance moves have multiplied. He seems to really like music and usually can't resist dancing to them. He alternately change from the shoulder shake move, to the butt shake move, to a bouncing up and down motion. It's one of my favorite thing to watch. I will have to get a good video and load it up sometime!

3. His molars are starting to come up and i think he has about 11-12 teeth.

4. He isn't speaking yet apart from the occassional "Mum mum" or "mama". But he seems to understand and can follow simple instructions, like "throw the paper in the trash can", or "go sit in your chair" and "hold my hand". He also tries to communicate by pointing to what he wants. He can also signs a little, give kisses and high fives. But all these are all subjected to his mood, of course.

5. But one of the big changes is his cheekiness level. He is very cheeky now and playful and can sometimes laugh hysterically. The picture below is him playing peek-a-boo with his jacket and laughing at himself!

Crazy little man..

His new expression of sucking his lips..

He loves all his new toys from his birthday..

Also very curious and wants to see everything..

6. He is also a little independent these days and enjoys eating by himself(but I still need to feed him so that he actually eats enough). He thinks he can brush his own teeth and gets really mad if you touch his tooth brush.

7. He is currently in a 12-18 month class and enjoys his day making crafts and playing.

Tyler in his class..

Model potential?

I took some pictures of Tyler today and i thought he looked quite mature in his clothes today and a little model like. You know, with his pants half hanging. We all know he is skinny enough to be one!! :)

Once the camera adds 10 lbs, he'd be the right weight! ha!


He looks like he's strutting down.. and he winks!



What do you think?

Relaxing Sunday

On Sunday, after a late night, the Millsers household slept in a little longer(including Tyler). We went by the asian market to buy some Dim Sum for breakfast.

Alan left about 11 am for his trip to Florida. Terry and I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and taking Tyler to the park. It was a really beautiful day and we took lots of pictures.

Tyler and I walking to the park

Getting ready for the slide

Time for some music!

I can do this!

Terry watching Tyler

Terry teaching Tyler some safety tips

And offfff he goes..

Soon, the end of the weekend beckons and it was time for Terry to leave. Tyler and I took drove him to the airport and just in time for my friend CK to fly in(hey i didn't forget him this time). Since he had his own rental car, we drove home to wait for him.

On the way, Steffen and the Chandrasekara called and offered to bring us dinner. I gladly said yes. So, a new party has been formed. We had a nice short dinner and had a super short catch up session with CK before i had to put the little tinker to bed.. hmm.. where did the weekend go?