Merry Christmas Everyone!

HO HO HO Everyone! We hope everyone had a superb Christmas. We did! We had a superb time last week. Michelle and Luke finally arrived on Monday, with a trunk laden with presents and yummy treats! The girls were just super happy to see them, especially Bibou. Both Mich and Luke were just great with them, playing with them all the time and just chatting with them, playing puzzles etc while I was busy in the kitchen. They brought such a festive mood into the house and we had loads of fun and laughter. And when the girls were finally tucked into their bed (sometimes reluctantly not surprising, even though they were super tired. I’ve never had Angel being reluctant to go to bed ever!! But she still wasn’t all that bad) us adults stayed up all night, played cards and then dragged ourselves to bed (AND back up again the next morning when the girls were up. Well, not all adults… Luke and Mich were able to lie-in bed… the luxury of being single!!)
And boy did we eat loads. During the week, I made Beef Hor fun and ‘Peking duck” for 2 dinners amongst others (like a full English breakfast with sausages brought from the UK YUMMY!, curry puffs that noone could stop eating, Jia Jiang noodles etc etc etc). But for the festive, we really went all out! For Christmas eve, we had Daddy’s famous, delicious foie gras! It was oh so goooooooooooooooooooooood. Then we brought out the … ‘seafood platter’! The boys had gone out and bought about 3 dozen oysters and some whelks. I’d also prepared some shrimps and made a shallot vinaigrette while Daddy made some home-made mayonnaise. Oh it was sooooo good. And the fun part was… the shucking! Everyone, (except me…. I was sure I wasn’t gonna get it right, and knowing me, probably end up cutting my hands! So I just 'supervised' hahahaha) had fun just shucking and trying to open the oysters in between the eating! Daddy made a make-shift shucking 'bar' using his workbench!!! So clever. Everytime we got to 4 opened oysters, they’d be filled with all the fixings and we’d ‘downed’ them. They were oh so delicious!
The girls were all so excited on Christmas morning. I even had bought them some Santa outfits that they’d worn the night before. They got up at a fairly decent time (just before 9.00 am), and while Daddy rushed out to get some croissants and pain au chocolate etc, the girls rushed downstairs to wake Luke and Mich, who had to painfully crawl out of bed at such an early hour for them LOL – thankfully they were quickly served with hot coffee (café au laits) and yummy croissants etc. When we were all sufficiently woke up, it was…PRESSIE time. Man were we all spoilt! There were just tons and tons of pressies. Daddy’s highlight present was an iphone(16 Gb!), which he had already opened the week before as I had to change service provider for him and so he needed to have a phone! But still he got loads of other pressies, like some nice CDS and books, some glasses and loads of little stuff in his stocking. The girls were totally spoilt for choices! They had tons and tons of pressies, from grandparents, from us, from Mich and Luke and even from their nanny. B had given Bibou a scooter which she adores, while Angel got a little pram and baby, which is perfect for her as she’d been pushing around her little chair all over the house. She’s been absolutely delighted with her pram and hasn’t let go of it since. Even I got super lucky this year, with some wonderful gifts. From Mich (who knows me so well!) got me loads of super stuff for the kitchen! THANK YOU! I also got some really nice warm slippers and a luxurious spa voucher. Wahoo! Totally spoilt. After everyone had finished opened their pressies, I rushed off to finish up Christmas lunch. And finally at around 2.00 in the afternoon, we had our Christmas meal. I made a capon, with a delish sausage meat-based stuffing baked on the side, baked garlic mashed potatoes (made with boursin and crème fraiche),sautéed potatoes (cooked in the foie gras fat from the night before!) and some roasted vegetables. We ate so much that no one wanted the buche (which I’d made with crème de marron and a light café frosting). So sad. But we really did eat loads. And had lots of fun too, as Mich had brought some crackers! We all pulled at the crackers, and Bibou was thrilled to have 'won' a few cracker fight. That night, we just had some leftovers (I didn’t eat…I was still too full!) while we played cards!
The next day, we had some MESSAGE friends over for some eggnog and … yes the buche! Daddy played some songs and the kids had fun singing and dancing. We discovered something new too from Angel…. She KISSES now. She can give kisses… nice kisses with her kips all pursed up. Yah!!
All too soon, we had to say bye bye to Mich and Luke. Its so sad to see them go. We sure hope we’ll see them real soon!!!

Videos

This is such an hilarious video. Angel began lifting her skirt for some reason and everyone made it into a can can song, which she, as always, obliged!

One of Bibou's first try on her scooter that her lovely nanny B had very generously given to her. She's was really over the moon!

Look at her zooming down the road! This is our new road (well, not ours yet, it's the adjacent one.... our own road will be turned like this soon).

Boo! Daddy playing hide and seek with the ever smiling Angel.

House full of dancing kids!

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Christmas is round the corner

Well Christmas WAS round the corner. I was going to put up a post, but first blogger was down, and then I got really busy. So this post is now more a pre-Christmas one, with all the festive leading up to Christmas. In the weeks prior to Christmas, we had loads of fun as the excitement built up. Bibou has been all excited about Aunty Michelle and Uncle Luke’s impending arrival. She kept telling us that they’d be here soon, and at the same time, asking us when they’d arrive! To keep her (and Angel) occupied, we did loads of activities… we had an advent calendar going, and even Angel knew to ask for her ‘chocolate’ every day! We sang loads of Christmas carols, Bibou got really good at some of them, especially jingle bells. She sometimes just burst into a song whenever she feels like it.
About 2 weeks prior to Christmas, I went and picked up a real Christmas tree! We’ve not had a real tree since we’ve been here, always been the tiny artificial tree, as we were afraid that the kids would pull it down. And boy were we glad we bought the real one this year. It was a more than 6 feet tall and smelled really really nice! Very Christmasy! Bibou was just all excited about the tree and couldn’t wait to help dress it up. I popped some pop corn and she helped me string them into a garland (while Angel tired to eat them all! – We had to give her a bowl of her own popcorn to eat so she wouldn’t eat off the garland LOL). We kinda chose a red and gold theme this year. Bibou did a great job in dressing the tree and the tree looked really nice. But what I was most surprised was…. That the presents all stayed under the tree, untouched and unopened by the kids. Such restrain! Really the kids have been really good. They were all very ready for Santa.
Running up to Christmas, I had a little ‘rehearsal’ with my buche de Noel. I made one for my department’s Christmas party. I was trying to determine what kind of buche to make for Christmas, and so experimented on it. I even had a little poll going on facebook! And consensus was to go with a café buttercream filling and frosting. So that’s what I made! It was delish! Though really quite rich. And it took a really long time to make (the buttercream that is). And Daddy didn’t like it. Bon. That solves the question as to make to make for Christmas!

Videos

Recently, Bibou has taken to making up songs! She just makes up the lyrics (so there is a lot of 'and thens'), and melody.

Seasons Greetings!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My girls, yup, they're mine

It’s been a tough month, emotions running up and down. It’s getting very stressful at the office, a lot of uncertainty and stressed out people around. Gotta ride it out I guess and do a wait and see. The girls have been a joy (most of the time LOL), especially Bibou. She’s really turned the corner (touch wood!!), no more whining and moaning all the time! Seriously ! It’s like a totally different girl! What a joy. And when she does have her occasionally meltdown (what? You think it doesn’t happen ever again? You kidding??), it goes away really quickly. No more ½ hour screaming and crying and unable to calm down episodes for a while now. What a relief! We can easily distract her with something else. She’s also become quite sweet, emotional and very loving. She wants to give kisses (and receive them) all the time and often pipes up with ‘I love you ‘so’ much Mummy / Daddy’ (esp when she senses that you’re down or angry). Her nanny has also commented that she’s so much happier these days. Getting to school is not a problem anymore. No more screaming and temper tantrums on the road etc. All’s good. She’s genuinely very happy and helpful, always wanting to help everyone. She will also ask if she can ‘help you in the kitchen, please Mummy’? She can always be relied on to do something for you if you ask her… pick up a bottle, fetch something from the kitchen etc. She’s also very generous, always willing to share whatever she has, even if it was something yummy, like a piece of chocolate! She’d always share with her little sister. She’s patient and very forgiving and very polite… never forgets her pleases and thank you. May this continue a lonnnnnnnng lonnnnnnnnng time…. forever maybe? Wishful thinking??? Some things though, are still the same. She’s still very much a ‘princess’, she always wants to dress up in pretty clothes, always need to hear that she’s pretty, always needs to have pretty hair done up and loves make up!

On the flip side……… yes, Angel is the monkey now. I tell you, it’s a good thing she’s funny and cute, even when she’s up to mischief, and much mischief she’s always in. She’s constantly pulling things off the table and throwing them onto the ground, and loves to pull things out, especially CDs and DVDs and throw them on the floor. Sigh. But she’s a charmer, she knows when she’s in trouble, or when she’s done something ‘bad’, she immediately looks sheepish and then turns around to give you a BIG grin, trying to charm her way out of trouble. She’s also recently become a lot more tactile, whereas previously, she would very rarely give hugs or kisses. Very rarely. Now she gives very lovely and long hugs!! She would wrap her tiny arms around your neck and squeeze tight. And now, when she’s done a little boo-boo, when she knows she’s in trouble, like after pulling Bibou’s hair or something, she’ll immediately go up to Bibou to give her a kiss (her way of saying sorry) and immediately nod her head yes vigorously, earnestly when you tell her (sternly of course) not to do it again. She really looks like she means it. (yes, and she will be up to no good in few minutes later…. But she’s soooo cute). Yes, this girl’s trouble with the capital T. She’s very bossy and independent. She just wants to be like her big sister and do whatever she does. She copies her all the time. Meal times sometimes can become a big challenge with her as she absolutely WANTS to eat on her own. She’d rather go hungry than let you feed her. We’ve resigned to the fact that our floor needs vacuuming after every meal! Looks wise – I’m sure that you’d all noticed a huge change in her appearance. Definitely not a baby any more. She’s also lost a bit of her chubbiness, baby fat no? That’s ‘coz she has lost quite a bit of weight as she’d been ill recently and not eaten well. She’s also a lot more active now. In this batch of photos, the one of her in the Chinese outfits were before she fell ill. The rest were after. There is a picture of her with a ‘fat lip’…. She’d fallen down and cut herself on the lip. Poor baby girl… yes, like her sister before her, Angel’s quite accident prone. Lots of bruises and cuts. But she’s a real trooper. She doesn’t cry (if she does at all !!) for a long time. Just a short boo hoo and once you’ve given her a little kiss, it’s all forgotten!

The two girls are now finally sleeping in the same bedroom! It went very well! No problems at all. They do adore each other, regardless of all the fights that they get into. Mostly because Angel just wants to be and do everything that her sister does. And of course when Bibou gets irritated or impatient with her, 'coz she just wants to be alone with her own drawing or reading, Angel pulls her hair! But they are sweet with each other. They still love to dance and sing, Bibou often leading Angel in some kiddy song. They always look out for each other and gets awfully concerned if the other was crying (especially if they weren't the cause of the crying LOL). For example this evening, Bibou had bumped her head on the edge of Daddy's computer table and so was crying a little. I had her on my knees, and Angel came running to us, climbed up on the sofa, grabbed a tissue and gave it to Bibou to use. And she then reached up to give Bibou a kiss on her booboo... all with this concerned look on her face. everyone now... 'AWWWWWWWWW".

Videos

My sweet Bibou feeding Seraphine. She did this on her own, without any prompting from me! I was astonished, but managed to quickly pick up my camera to snap this video. Bibou was eating her rice, when she noticed that Angel was staring at her food hungrily while waiting for Daddy to bring the other 'entrees'.

A silly video of Angel. She decided that putting her foot into the toy box was fun!

Here's one of me trying to bribe Angel to speak. Ok, she can scream really loudly, but when it comes to speaking, for some weird reason, she tends to 'whisper'!!!