My Christmas in Wonderland

photos courtesy of ashley choo (a.k.a. tweedledum!)

Christmas in Singapore this year was different from the one last year, yes the one spent in the thick of Taiwan's scenic mountains.

My Christmas this year was far from quiet and far from boring. I have my dear friends to thank. My dear fun enthusiastic friends from my Ngee Ann Mass Comm poly days. Dull moments are non-existent when you're in their company. I couldn't attend the one last year because I was in Taiwan but this year, this year I could and I did and it turned out to be the best christmas ever.

The theme for the party was 'Down the Rabbit Hole'. You obviously know what that means. It's Wonderland with all the quirky characters and of course Alice. We had in total one Alice, two white rabbits, two queen of hearts, one king of hearts, one cheshire cat and the twins tweedledee and tweedledum. Can you guess which character I was? You only have to check out the photo to figure out :) To Ashley, Ghimz, Ronald, Valerie, Geetha, Sheryl, Ivy, Adeline -you're the coolest. Thanks for making my Christmas fun and memorable!

The party was at Ivy's place except that she wasn't due to come back home at 11pm. So we went to her place first and laid out all the food and took more photos and finished the rest of our outfits. Later on, we decided to go to Changi Airport to fetch Ivy. Yes, in our Alice in Wonderland gear. That's what we did.

Check out the Queen of Hearts with The White Rabbit. They're waiting for Ivy to come out of the arrival hall. She was surprised to see us, but she was clearly more shocked at our awesome dress sense. I think she called us morons :)

Here's us at the travellator:

When we went back to Wonderland, we ate somemore. The food was delicious. Ashley bought gourmet sausages and salami! Green olives stuffed with Feta too. Ghimz bought shepherd's pie. Adeline bought fries and Ronald brought carrot and celery sticks with dips. Valerie baked cookies!



And I brought my apple tart:

It was a fun filled night. I will definitely want to spend next Christmas with them.

Here's to us and may the coming year bring more joy, fulfilment and satisfaction!

To all my dear readers, Merry Christmas to you! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas.

*Photos by Ashley Choo

A very chocolatey gift

Christmas ended a week ago but that doesn't mean the Christmas spirit has faded into oblivion. Well at least for me it hasn't because I felt so loved when I received my gift pack from Nadnut yesterday.

Remember the Christmas Flog Exchange post on my blog last December? Organised by Sam of The Hinata Diaries and June of Nibble Scribble, this local flog (a colloqial term for food blog, you know, combine food and blog and you get flog!) event attacted about 15 locals, most of whom own food blogs of their own.

This event is similar to your usual Christmas gift exchange except that you actually exchange wishes beforehand and try your best to match that request and possibly add in some of your own creativity.

Most of the wishes were rather original, with some requesting for something homebaked. I think it's kinda sweet you know, to taste something you know is unique of the individual, baked with love, and is almost priceless since you definitely can't find it sold out there at some commercial enterprise.

Anyway, my wish was for your favourite dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate and I simply wanted to try the dark chocolate that the person who granted my wish liked. Nadnut was the one who granted my wish and I must say she was really sweet to give me that gift pack you see above. I am seriously spoilt for choice. She gave me 6 different types of dark chocolate. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box. There were so many different dark chocolate to choose from. It would take me quite a while to slowly finish them all. I intend to savour each one bit by bit.

The one I'm most excited about is the Meiji 99% dark chocolate because I've been wanting to get it. If I'm not wrong, I think I might have tried Lindt's 99% or 95% dark chocolate once. I can't remember clearly but it sure was an interesting experience. When I was much younger, I preferred sweeter chocolates, it was only when I was growing up then I got to like dark chocolate a whole lot more. Or it could also be probably because dark chocolate is easily available now than it was before? I don't know... but I sure see many more brands of noir chocolat in recent years.





This other one by Meiji sure looks interesting. Can't wait to try it. The Japanese have the cutest packaging I tell ya! Sometimes it entices you to buy the product even though you know you might not even want it in the first place.




And here's something that got me all excited too:



Classic Dark Tim Tam! I fell in love with Tim Tam a few years ago when I was doing a print journalism internship in Brisbane. I must have eaten a record number of Tim Tams when I was there. Oh Oh, I also mastered the Tim Tam Slam! It's awesome I tell you. First you bite the corners on both ends - just one each, do it diagonally. Then you take a hot drink (I recommend coffee, hot chocolate or Milo) and use the Tim Tam as if it's a straw - dip it slightly in the drink and suck hard so that the liquid melts the center and you are able to drink up the smooth dark chocolately fudgey delight + soft yummy chocolate biscuit. It's amazing I tell ya. Truly phenomenal. You won't realise it until you actually do the deed. It might not sound much but it's really an experience!

Nadnut also included Droste 75% pastilles (also another of my favourite!) and another Duc d'O 76% dark chocolate. I certainly look forward to having a good time munching on the many chocolatey delights! Thanks girl, it is really a great gift and boy am I a happy girl right now!

Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you! :)

A year has come and gone, and this is the second christmas this blog has celebrated. Ah... I love Christmas not for the gifts and lights but for the joyous celebration of the beloved One. The One I love the most in the entire world! Yea... and I went for my parish's Christmas midnight mass too. The entire church was packed like no body's business. Was with Mum, lil bro and sis and of course, JF and his mum.

Right after mass, we went to Ros and Charles' place for Amplify's Christmas Party! Wow, the people at Amplify - they gotta be the most fun bunch ever. The party was a blast and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

I got some pretty cute and heartwarming gifts which I have to share with you!

First, check out the photo above. Isn't it oh-so-cute? It's meant to be a chocolate cupcake topped with cherries! I love it. Well it's actually a towel but heck I'm never gonna use it. It's a gift by Winston, my fellow foodie-in-crime. Haha we're both as crazy about health and fitness as we are about food so it's a perfect balance. Thanks sooo much Winston! I look forward to more 'lunch-ners' with ya! ;)

Ooooo and what I'm going to show you next will literally blow you away....

Are you ready?

You sure?

Okay, here goes....

The best present ever...

IS:



A personalised wine bottle! Geez... I was speechless when I saw it.

I was so touched as well. Utterly beautiful and thoughtful and creative. How can anyone top that?!

The lovely gift was by my two dearest friends Leonard and Cassilda. Both are also leaders in Amplify (the youth ministry I'm in) and I love them to bits. They inspire me and they make me wanna serve with so much more fervour.

Here's the entire bottle:



Really! How cool is that?

If you're wondering what it says: Positive, resolute, go getter, generous. A fine friend lovingly celebrated by Leonard and Cassilda. Produce of heaven.

I'm never gonna open the wine. Well maybe 20 years later... haha. or I could even make it like an heirloom :p

Thanks Leo and Cass, I thank God for bringing both of you into my life!

Gosh, the party was swell and we had a gift exchange - only thing that it was a gift exchange with a twist. Totally different from the usual way. It's called the Evil Santa I think. First, everyone picks a number, and that number signifies the order by which you will go up to the heap of parcels and pick out one. But here's the catch, anyone can choose to 'steal' the others present. Everyone has to open their presents in front of all, and if someone else after you likes your present better than the one they picked out, they can swap it with you, regardless of whether you approve or not. Ha!

Evil ain't it? My number was 22 and I did exchange a bookmark for a Print notebook but someone after me 'stole' it from me! :( Haha, but anyway it was a fun game. I ended up with a South Park shirt which is much too big for my liking. Probably giving it to Dad or Bro.

Ahhh... the party lasted until the wee hours of the morning and I reached home around 6:30am. Imagine that! I slept until 1pm and here I am blogging all about it. Also brought home loads of food. It was a potluck and some brought fried rice (by Winston... and it was uber yum!), pasta, shepherd's pie, salad, tiramisu (this one rocked.. made by Clarence!). Yea, I'm sure you are also wondering what I brought...

I made some finger food:



This was made using the ready-made mini croustades from Ikea. Filled them in with crabmeat, corn, and flavoured with mushroom. It disappeared quite fast! Which I guess, is a good sign.. haha.

And then, there's the tuna puffs:



I have loads to say about this one. I made everything from scratch! Yes, even the choux pastry puffs. My my, it was my first attempt at making choux pastry and I was so relieved it turned out all right. I will blog about in my next post.

You know, I'm starting to like making finger food. It's so fun and easy to eat. Besides, I will have to learn more about making finger food or as the French call it: hor douvres. Especially since I'm now the F&B head of Amplify. Yea, I crossed over from Publicity, realised that I'd be much happier preparing food each week for people. So from now on, I'll be busy on Fridays before Amplify Fridays start at 8pm. We're gonna have this cookie and milk thingie which is going to mark the start of Cafe @ Amplify. Cool huh? I'm seriously really excited and can't wait for it to start. More about that another time.

Ahhhh... what a christmas this was. Well it's still christmas! I have lots to be thankful for. God has been very kind to me. I feel really blessed. To have a family, a roof over my head, and such great friends.

There you have it, my christmas, all summarised in 1 post!

Merry Christmas to you once again and God bless!