I have never been one good with traditions, frankly I suck at them. Since young I never saw the significance of Chinese New Year. To me it was (and is still is) merely another flipping of the calendar day. I only enjoyed the extended days of holidays that came with it. Before marriage it would mean holidays overseas with friends, but after marriage everything changed. I needed to be a responsible daughter-in-law and mother ....... certain chinese new year must-dos needed to be done even though I do not believe in them. During Chinese New Year it is customary to prepare "goodie bags" for family and friends. I enjoy putting together personalised gifts each year. I...

I used to have a love-hate relationship with January 1st. I love that it signifies a new beginning, new dreams, new hopes but at the same I hate it due to all my un-met resolutions! Two years ago, I finally grew-up (i.e. matured) and stopped making a big deal out of the New Year, and stopped making a long list of not likely to meet resolutions. January 1st became another flipping of the calendar day. I reasoned that I can do up a to-do-list aka resolutions anytime of the year. The biggest challenge is to stay focused and get it done. So how was past two years since I stopped making resolutions? Were they more fruitful than the ones with resolutions? Not sure but I...

Hubby and I made a painful decision last November. We cancelled our planned 6 months in advance, eagerly awaited year-end holidays abroad. It was painful, difficult, awful but we did it. At times I wish that we are less responsible, I wish that we love our daughters a little less, I wish that we are more selfish , I wish, I wish, I wish ..... My elder girl's teachers felt that she has the ability to secure a government scholarship to study abroad. As the exams are going to take place in September next year, we were advised to prepare early (huh?) and send her for extra coaching during the year-end break. Being the non-typical Asian parents (Asian parents tend to...

Both my girls started to like eating mooncakes after our experience with Fook Pan last year. So I thought that it would be a good idea to try making them myself so that I could adjust the taste according to our liking. I was all prepared to give mooncake-making a go but hubs thought otherwise. He felt that I am being overly ambitious and is grossly under-estimating the complexity of mooncake-making. Anyway I went ahead and bought the required ingredients. I started by making a couple of small baked moonies and surprisingly they were almost perfect (in my opinion) - nice imprint, evenly browned in the tone that I like and no cracks. I was giggling, jumping up and d...