Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our Penang folks came to town on Christmas Eve and we gathered for a bountiful feast at Mandy's. We had lamb ribs {my favorite), turkey, chicken curry and more.

Christmas Day was spent at 1 Utama and the place was absolutely packed. I think a lot of shoppers were already shopping for the Chinese New Year in early February.

As Christmas Draws Near ...

Susan got the entire week off as I got admitted into hospital (viral fever) on Monday night. I stayed three days and hardly got any sleep at all. I was discharged yesterday and had a wonderful sleep last night. Meanwhile Nic spent two nights with Sammie and she had a great time, shopping, eating, watched a movie (Narnia), shopping and shopping. Thanks for the help Sam!

Dinner At Yee Poh's

Highlight for the kids

Sweet Alyssa

This is what Nicole wanted - Bakugan. It had to be a white one and we could not find any at Jusco though they had loads of blues, reds and greens. Finally found one last white one at Tesco.

Bakugan is a strategy game by Sega Toys that uses metal cards and a spherical, spring-loaded miniature figure. Nic does not understand the game but the little toy (3.5cm dia.) is quite cool as it folds up into a ball and as it lands on a metal deck, it opens up (see pic).

God Came Near: What Are You Looking For?

We attended DUMC's Christmas event last night and it was very enjoyable. The musical comprised of both a children and adult choir that refreshed my memory with songs I used to sing as a teen in Setapak Gospel Centre's youth meetings like He's Everything To Me , a Ralph Carmichael song from the 60s.

For me the highlights were the kids choir and the male solo at the end - powerful! I don't know the song but I'll search around and post it if I find it.

Christmas in Hospital

I got a fever on Friday (19th) that would not go away even after a visit to the GP two days later. So on Tuesday (23rd) after some "arm-twisting" from Sue I went to the Sime Darby Medical Centre. I pretty much guessed I'd be checking in when the nurse took my blood pressure three times. Turned out it was 90/50 which is quite low. They were afraid I was gonna faint or something as they kept asking if I felt faint. I felt okay and it is just to lingering fever that's really bugging me.

Biz is so good that I had to wait 2 hours in emergency before my bed was ready. So begins my four days and three nights of absolute boredom. All I did was eat, sleep and watch tv. Hey, that's what I do at home anyway! They had Star Movies so I did get to catch some shows that I'd missed. I enjoyed The Guardian starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Good show. Another notable movie was Men of Honor apparently a true story of an African American sailor (diver) in the US Navy. De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr were splendid. I also watched the wacky show Shallow Hal, Home Alone 3 and The Beach (Leonardo Di Caprio).

The reason the doc kept me there so many days was to eliminate any chance that I may have dengue fever. By the third day it seemed to be a bad case of viral fever and I would be discharged soon.

I finally got to come home on Friday (Boxing Day) and first food that came to my mind was McDonald's Quarter Pounder and a Vanilla Milkshake.

Note: During my stay I decided to quit smoking. Was it because of my illness? No. It was because I missed Nic so much (mum too) and I kept remembering how Nic would say grace and it went like this. "Dear Lord Jesus. Thank you for the food. Please bless the food into our bodies and make my daddy stop smoking and also stop drinking beer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen!"

Hmm, Christmas draws near

Christmas Presents

Finally got Nic to open her presents this morning and she was very pleased with her gifts. First was a Barney Bath toy from the Lau's, our neighbors. Next was a picture/word puzzle from Aunty Irene and last but her fave was a cute Dora the Explorer backpack.

Christmas Day

We attended church service today and it was a full house. Ordinarily, it would be 50% to 70% at best but the once-a-year folks turned up and we had standing room left. Unlike last year when we had a combined service, this time each location held their own Christmas service.

As usual Nic was restless and I had to take her out of the sanctuary when she started to get noisy. Well kids will be kids.

We went to my sis-in-law's home in Sungai Buloh for dinner. It was a delicious spread of turkey, steak rack of lamb and pie for dinner and chocolate and cheese cakes for deserts. We were stuffed.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Aunty Irene invited us to her home in Bangsar for dinner. We arrived late no thanks to the heavy traffic along the LDP.

We tucked into some great chicken curry, tom yam meehoon, fried rice, fried chicken, spaghetti and yam cake. For dessert we had a yummy durian cake. I am not a big fan of durian but I must say this was good. It was from a lesser known cake shop in SS2 PJ called Golden Bake.

After dessert the kids got their presents. Nic got four presents but only accepted one and ignored the others. So embarassing! Why? Coz just one was wrapped in pink and that's her fave color. It was a Strawberry Shortcake coin box from Unc' Kenneth & Christina.