Christmas is only a few days away and everyone is busy preparing unique and affordable gifts for their family and friends. I saw the craziest queue at the gift wrapping counters at Takashimaya Shopping Centre last weekend. I hate to queue, so I requested a few wrapping papers from the girls so that I can wrap the gifts at home.
Is Christmas all about gift-exchange? I wonder. The gifts exchanged are usually trinket kind of gifts – smiley face mug, photo frames, key chains, cartoon water bottles, ear rings or a box of chocolates. Nothing of value is really exchanged. It’s like a waste of time and energy to participate. Are there any other meaningful ways to share the holiday spirit?
I feel bad to blog about this but it really happens. Some gifts are continually recycled at our office’s gift-exchange. Perhaps, when these people received their gifts, they have no idea what to do with them. In order to save the earth, they recycle the gifts the following year. Gradually, our Christmas becomes the time when people exchange their unwanted gifts. Funny, isn’t it?
Every year, I received a lot of gifts that I don’t really need. I have two boxes of them in my store room now. So, this year, I’ve decided to cut down on gift-exchange. I only bought a few nice gifts for my close friends and colleagues. Initially, I thought of discontinuing it altogether this year but on a second thought, I don’t want to disrupt the office tradition.
I have an agreement with my husband this year. We won’t be buying Christmas gifts for each other, as well as for Little Edison. No more designer label perfume, jewellery or electronics gadgets for us. But we will save the money for our upcoming holiday. At least, we spend our money wisely and we can spend some quality family time together.
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Some of my friends and blog readers informed me that they are unable to leave a comment on my blog. Some of them are so kind to write me an e-mail to highlight this problem to me. I deeply appreciate your kindness.
I’m so sorry to have taken such a long time to react. As I didn’t change any setting in my blog, I’m totally clueless on why such error could happen. My brother-in-law, Kenneth, also asked me about it yesterday.
I suspect that it could be due to the WP-Spam Free plug-in in my blog. The function of this plug-in is to filter out spam comments on my blog. Perhaps, it is too effective until it blocks the comments from my readers. Look at this, it has actually blocked 6,366 comments in my blog!
I’ve de-activated this plug-in today. To those of you who are unable to post a comment, can you please try it again now? Appreciate all your help. Thank you!
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Kelam-kabut (meaning: chaotic or confused in Malay) is probably the most appropriate word to describe my driving skills now. Most Singaporeans pronounce this word as kalang-kabok, which sounds really funny to me.
Anyway, back to my topic on driving, I’m still very far away from being called a competent driver. I’m very bad at directions, I take forever to park my car straight, I still don’t dare to do parallel parking and I get distracted easily if somebody honks at me or tailgate me.
For a person who is rather fearful of driving, I’ve never thought that I’ll own a car in Singapore. It was quite a surprise when we decided to buy our second car. As Edison is starting his Nursery next year, I need to drive him to school. My husband works on shift, thus he is unable to send him to school (due to different timing). That’s the reason why we need a second car.
Practice makes perfect, I keep reminding myself. I need to drive as often as possible to boost my confidence in driving. I drove to work this morning when it was raining. I drove to Bishan Junction 8 for lunch. All in all, I took about 20mins from my office at Upper Paya Lebar to Bishan. I think I’m still too slow.
Anyway, Ah-Beng Instructor (read: husband) is beside me when I drive. So, I don’t have to worry much. When I have to drive alone next year, that’s where the stress is! And my car is coming end of this month!
Stress!
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It is hard to believe that a two-year-old child who has yet to taste the world of food can be picky, but indeed he can! I’m trying my best to provide Little Edison with a variety of food and healthy nutrition, but our mealtime battle is just too frustrating.
Was I a picky eater when I was a kid? I asked my mum and she said no. My husband wasn’t a picky eater either. I’m convinced that his pickiness does not come from both of us. But who? And if it’s not because of the genes, it could be due to our culinary skills.
Anyway.
Whenever Little Edison hurls the rice on the floor or sticks his nose up at his food, I’ll encourage him to try at least one bite but I never expect him to be a “clean-plater”. By allowing him to decide how much to eat and what to eat on his plate helps to ease our mealtime tension. At the end of the day, I still firmly believe that even the pickiest eater will eat when he is really hungry.
I serve smaller portions of food for him, so that it is not too overwhelming for him. I also don’t cook special meals for him. He eats whatever we eat now – even outside food! I don’t ban junk food completely, but I allow him to eat moderately after his mealtime.
Sometimes, he opts not to eat anything at all! Skipping meals have been a norm for Little Edison. I used to be super worried but now I don’t make a big deal about it. I’ll supplement him with milk in order not to leave him with an empty stomach.
Little Edison drinks about 600ml of formula milk and one serving of milo or fresh milk daily. We feed him multi-vitamins syrup during the day and cod liver oil after dinner to boost his natural defense.
Despite eating like a bird, he is still a happy and very active boy. Well, as long as he grows up healthily, I guess I’m on the right track!
To read more about picky eating, please check out this website.
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A great time to bond and I enjoy moment like this.
There is a similarity between them – both of them love going to the games arcade! Their eyes will beam with joy the moment they see a car racing game.
Grrrr, I simply cannot tolerate the loud noises in the arcade.
(Sorry for the poor quality photos due to my lousy camera phone!)
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