Happy New Year everyone! Am I still allowed to say that? I guess so as it is still January ;)
So much happened in the month of December that I didn't have time to sit down to blog even though there were so many evenings I contemplated to... and the idea of Netflix or just sleeping early lured me away from this blog.
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| Izzy's handmade card which she did in school |
Tonight I'm doing a catch up of what we did on the lead up to Christmas and the kids' birthdays.
We planned a plethora of Christmas-related activities for the kids. I guess the FOMO Bel in me was the driving force for them. It was a bit crazy if you see our list below. Also for some reason we crammed most of them in the first 2 weeks of December, which looking back was by God's grace. More on that later.
Here is my recap!
Santa's Grotto at Bluewater - Thinking that we didn't sign up for any Santa's Grotto for the kids this year, I eagerly booked this and told K that I would drive the kids there myself on 1 Dec.
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| With the elves |
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| This year's Christmas ornament |
Craft time with Make Box - I actually won a free crafting session with the owner of MakeBox, together with 6 other ladies, without having signing up for it. How cool was that?!
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| With Hannah, the founder of MakeBox Crafts |
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| Trying decoupage for the first time. We were making wooden houses. |
Christmas Singalong at Blackheath Halls - We attended this with our friends which when I posted it on Instagram after the the session, friends back home in Singapore sent me messages about "Oh wow you can sing in public!" Singing in public is not allowed in Singapore apparently. I think they would faint if I showed them the crowd in that enclosed hall that afternoon.
Santa Meet-and-Greet at Ikea - We went to get our Christmas tree, and we actually walked into a free pantomime and Meet and greet Santa at Ikea. That was a nice surprise. Not only that, the kids had a build-your-gingerbread-house session too. That one was very tricky which I thought I'd enjoy, but I didn't.
Izzy's nativity play - this was a school event and we knew the teachers and students have been practising very hard for this! I was so pumped up for this because we were so looking forward to seeing Izzy perform with her classmates. It was held at the church affiliated to their school. They sung a medley of songs telling the nativity story which was very sweet to watch. Naturally we were beaming with pride and even Gabriel kept pointing and shouting "Izzy! Izzy!" Izzy too, was very happy to see us and kept waving to us.
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| Proud lil brother |
Crystal Palace Light Trail - this was the first event that we booked, and everything else fell around it. We met our friends for this light trail, which unfortunately was branded as a disaster by K and me. It was 1degC that night and we were ill prepared for the cold. It being our first night event this winter, we forgot how cold it could get. Izzy was crying because her toes were freezing and Gabriel soon followed. Because the trail was a circular loop, we couldn't just turn back to the car. We had to power through with two crying kids (bless them, I felt so bad and so sorry for them) to complete the trail in 90min. Naturally we barely took photos. The kids were so happy when we got back to our warm and toasty home.
Christmas at Blenheim Palace - I really didn't plan for this... until a visiting friend from Singapore told me about it, and I googled to have a look... gasp - how beautiful did it look! I showed K and he immediately said "let's book!" Ahem- FOMO spirits strong. This was in Oxford, which meant a 2h drive each way at minimum. We contemplated booking a night at Travel Lodge but then decided we would both power through with the driving by taking turns.
Hosting dinner for mummy Bel's primary school friend Jean! Wow this was a pleasant surprise. Jean reached out in November saying that she and her family were visiting UK in December and asked for some tips.. after lengthy conversations, I invited them over for dinner and we got to meet her lovely family. It was very sweet to see the older girls play with Izzy and guess what? Jean and I haven't met each other since we left primary school! It was a pretty awesome reunion if you ask me.
Putting up our tree - our little annual tree lighting event with Izzy putting on the tree topper. I'd imagine Gabriel fighting over to do that next year when he understands it a bit more.
Driving into Central London for the Christmas lights - this is the second year which Daddy Ong suggested doing this. Bless him, he volunteered to be our tour guide and planned an itinerary on where to bring us to see the beautiful Christmas lights. He literally stopped and parked somewhere, and mummy Bel would bring the kids out for a little walk, take some photos and hop back into the car. Like a Hop On/ Hop Off tourist bus. At the end of the night after a 3-4h tour, both mummy and daddy were exhausted.
Gosh looking back and typing all these activities out, yes I did think we were crazy to do so many activities but the motivation behind it was very strong. We knew why we were cramming at least 3 Christmases worth of activities into one December. Obviously the kids had a ball and the best fun with December being their favourite month. Even for me, where Christmas has always been my favourite season. Now as a parent with not one but TWO Christmas babies, it is a lot of fun planning activities and bringing in Christmas traditions for the family. Expensive too ;) Gotta start saving up from September is what we always say.
I'll blog about their birthdays next!
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