Merry Non-Denominational Winter Holiday...

X-Mas, X-Mas... the weathermen promised us a white X-Mas... and it didn't happen. I asked for a winning Lotto ticket... that didn't happen either :p

Those who know me also know that I never look forward to X-Mas... I never look forward to any holidays/celebrations, for that matter. Meh, it's just me. As with every other year I spent TOO MUCH time running around like a chicken without a head seeking out gifts. A few years back our family decided that we were spending waaaay too much money on gifts for EVERYONE! We could easily spend $1000-$2000 just on gifts, am I right? We don't have a particularly HUGE family, but I guess it's bigger than alot of others. What was our remedy? It's sorta 'Secret Santa-ish'. We all put our names in a bowl and then we each pick one out. The person you draw is the person that you have to buy a gift(s) for. We also put a cap on the amount of $ we can spend. Usually $50 or so... AND you're not supposed to purchase GCs cuz that's cheating!

I ended up buying for more than just one person (in my family)... it just feels wierd buying for one person only. The end result? Hmmm.. I'm probably going to be crying when I see my next VISA bill... on top of the new phone, bluetooth, and plane ticket to S'pore (will blog about that too) the presents are going to hurt :/

This year seemed not-as-festive as previous years... not sure what it was...

Anyway, we had the usual family gathering on the 24th. This time my cousin and in-law couldn't make it... they're in Thailand) so no crazy Karaoke Revolution or DDR :p My Uncle brought over 2 guests. I'm thinking they're both from the Vancouver Raquet Club where he plays badminton. They didn't speak much English... and I don't speak much Chinese :$ so there wasn't much conversation there, hehe.

My Sis and I ran around doing some last-minute shopping. I had to grab AKs gift plus I wanted to look for a Gingerbread house kit :) By the time we got back the rest of them were waiting for us so they could start dinner. WOOOO HOTPOT!!!

WOW... We had 2 burners going one with Chicken/TomYam and the other with just chicken. I was pretty surprised at the amount of food that was on the table. I guess mum's just used to preparing for a HUGE party! I remember waaaaay back in the day, we used to have an open house during X-Mas. People would come and go as they pleased... and THERE WAS ALWAYS ENOUGH FOOD!!! Imagine that O.o

After a couple of hours stuffing our faces we brought out the dessert :) The highlights were Aunt Sally's home-made cheesecake and the Mango Pudding! There were lots of other sweets/chocolates to choose from too. Among my favorite were the shortbread balls and the Turkish Delight! :D At the same time my sis and cousin handed out the gifts and we all tore in :p Somehow it's not as exciting as when we were children... but it's still fun because my cousins are clowns and are always goofing around while we're together! Oh ya... we did the traditional X-Mas cracker thing and put on our crowns too ;)



OO... Since there was so much food left over my cousins came over again and we had Hot Pot once more :D... then we put together the Gingerbread house!... coming soon...