beloved bel

Christmas Eve It’s becoming a tradition on Christmas Eve. Lunch (light and wholesome to prepare our stomachs for some heavy stuff at night!) at Pris followed by Christmas Eve service and then THE DINNER at their parents. Sabrina suggested for us to bring some stretchy trousers coz we will be eating so much, those trousers would come in handy haha Ooh pictures can talk better here... Santa Baby! All dressed up for the occasion   Putting presents under the tree before dinner What a beautiful tree Thanks Sabrina for my fake snow to make up for my white Christmas! Christmas Day Christmas Day breakfast at the parents'. Love that they make such an effort on this, something I would like to cultivate and have it with my family back home. The homemade jams, the assortment of bread, the cheese-board, the freshly squeezed orange juice (sparkling wine too, anyone?), the scrambled eggs.  Again, really stuffed after t...

It was a frenzy before Christmas. All the shopping and Christmas parties, work stuff to wrap up for the year, the jostling with the crowds in the cold with Christmas songs playing in the background, seeing little alleyways decorated with fairy lights. All these a flurry of myriad moments before K and I boarded the plane to Stuttgart. Whew. I was excited to see everyone again after 2 years and also meet Baby Sammy. And to see Sabrina again after our farewell in London earlier this year. K is new to everyone so I gave him a mini crash course of the Tews Family. As I am still in the Christmas momentum, I have blogged a much longer post than Pris :) Meet and Greet, and off to the Christmas Market Like every year, I would wish for a white Christmas and unfortunately it hasn’t happened once! Last Christmas they had lots of snow but I was back in Singapore… sigh, now I am starting to think maybe it’s me. Boo. When we touched down, it was still snowing. Werner ...

Pris and Stephan's new baby boy - Samuel Ethan Tews How cute is he?! Meeting Mr Tews Junior for the first time. He was a happy bunny sitting on his rocking chair :) And I couldn't resist snapping pictures of him every time I saw him. He is a big baby as you can tell! Only 4 months old but like what we said, he looks very robust.

Thankfully my favourite holiday - Christmas - is fast approaching and work is of a slower pace and people are winding down to the holiday season. I had my team party last Friday and the good thing about this role is that we can leave for Christmas team lunches and not head back to the office for the rest of the day. In my previous role, we had to follow the market trading times which ends at 4pm to get the closing rates and curves so we could not enjoy such a luxury. We had lunch at a pizzeria in Shoreditch, a hippy part of town which is not too far from our office. The assistants who joined us brought along wigs for us to wear and we all had such good laughs wearing them and taking photos. I think that is an excellent idea for laughs. There were blonde ones (which they all insist I have to wear because it is completely unlike me), black ones, long ones, short ones... Even for the guys, there was an Elvis wig and one with dreadlocks which was hilarious. Started with cocktails ...

Let me explain this meaningful event which I was part of. Sarah heads up the Hillsong Sisterhood for East London and every Christmas, the whole Hillsong Sisterhood gets involved with something really meaningful to bless others. This year, they teamed up with Prison Fellowship to get Christmas presents for kids with parent(s) in prison. We girls who signed up were meant to literally be the secret Santa by getting gifts of GBP10 for these little kids. Such that they think it's their parent(s) who got them the present. I shared a little angel (what we call the kids) with Deborah. He is one year old Jayden who likes cars, motorbikes and tools. And what really touched me was the handwritten note from his dad to him. It really melted my heart. I went shopping with K last week and we chose this toy truck for him from John Lewis' toy department. Yesterday all the girls gathered to wrap up the presents for the angels in the spirit of good Christmas cheer. We saw other ama...

I have never really heard about making gingerbread houses for Christmas until Rebecca mentioned it a few weeks ago. She suggested spending one Saturday morning baking and making it. Sounded really interesting to me so why not? :) I took many photos along the way in the process wanting to show you guys how the house was eventually constructed. By Saturday afternoon the whole house smelt of gingerbread cookies - a bit overpowering in my opinion - oops. But really interesting nonetheless! Baking out the pieces needed for the house using Rebecca's recipe Halfway thru', I looked out of our bay window and saw the old couple who lives beside us putting up a Christmas tree in their front yard. They smiled at me and said they wanted to spread the Christmas cheer and make everyone happy. So sweet. In fact a lot of our neighbors in our street have already decorated their front yards for the festive season. All looking so pretty and Christmasy. Ahh really love this quaint...

I know I haven't been blogging much of late. There are so many factors.. firstly work is just.. indescribable. It's so busy and with the steep learning curve, I just feel like ohmygod most of the time. I know (and still believe) it is my answered prayer but sometimes I just cannot fathom how an answered prayer turns out to be... so.. different from what I thought! If we read about Joseph in the bible, his life wasn't a smooth sailing road. But if you continue reading, it says that "And the Lord was with Joseph". And Joseph was faithful and did his best in whatever situation he was placed in. That eventually he became such a great and important man. I can almost safely say that without his unpleasant experiences building up on that level of maturity, he wouldn't have become what he was in the end. Like what Sarah said, this might be my season of pruning and growing.. God is preparing me for something great. And so this is my source of encouragement ...