Happy Tiger Year!

Happy New Year and Kong Hei Fatt Choy! So much for making new year resolutions, I'm having difficulty keeping even the simplest one - blogging regularly. Let me just say that the good intentions were there. As we were sitting in the airport on New Year's Eve waiting to board our flight back to Hong Kong, I was busily "writing" my first entry for 2010 in my head. But alas, intentions don't always translate into actions! So here we are now well into the third month of the year and I am just completing the first post.

Growing up in Malaysia, Chinese New Year for us always began with a reunion dinner with my Aunt's family (dad's oldest sister) followed by a second dinner at Taman SEA with the Ong side of the family. Dinner would drag on late into the night, or rather early the next morning, with the adults busy around the mahjong table, or chit chatting over endless cups of coffee while the kids ran around creating havoc. Still we would wake up bright and early the next day eager to start the festivities which without fail always involved a fair amount of mouth exercises on "long yuk" (barbeque meat), "kuih bangkit" (tapioca cookies) and "kuah chi" (melon seeds) throughout the day! Even after all these years, I still can't get used to not having a house full of people during CNY. And it does make me a little sad that my kids will grow up without the kind of fond memories that I have of Chinese New Year.

We had our steam boat reunion dinner which was the perfect meal on a freezing cold night, at home with some close friends this year. The weather over the next few days was miserable, so wet and cold that we didn't really feel like taking the kids out. Somehow this year it felt really quiet probably because I could remember what it was like last year when we had a houseful of people. Mum and Dad and my in-laws flew over to spend CNY with us then since we were housebound because of Mia's arrival, and it was wonderful being surrounded by family. Anyway, we still had a great time this year over some lovely meals with friends while the kids had lots of fun running around and loved being scared to death by the lion dance. And luckily Mum sent over a pack of "yee sang" otherwise it really wouldn't have felt like Chinese New Year!

Predictions for the Tiger Year aren't looking too good, 'tumultuous' and 'turbulent' seem to be used over and over again in many of the feng sui predictions on the internet. Astrology.com says, "nothing will be done on a small, timid scale. Everything, good and bad, can and will be carried to extremes. Fortunes can be made and lost. If you take a chance, gamble for high stakes but understand that the odds are stacked against you." Rather worrying especially when we have two tigers in the home! Guess we'll just have to make our own luck :)

Protector of our home

Reunion dinner with the Yings

Boys and their gadgets - and a very curious little onlooker

Don't let that cute little face deceive you - this little thing can be as fierce as a tiger!

First Day of CNY - making them work for their angpows :)

It was a tug of war trying to get that cup out of Mia's hands!

Our family - a Tiger, a Tigress, a Rooster and a Rat

Lion dance at the AMC - these kids were freaked out by this white furry thing

Wonder who was more frightened? - the baby or the "lion" who probably lost his hearing after that ear piercing scream

Symbol of Chinese New Year - for me anyway :)

Hopefully this will bring us all the luck we need for the coming year

Summer in Melbourne (Continued)

The last week and a half went by in a flash and all too soon it was time to leave. I have to remember the next time we book our trip home, two and a half weeks is just not long enough. Still, it was better than nothing.

Ryan loved every moment he had with his cousin, Hayden Koh-koh. Of course there the occasional fights and tears but they were quickly forgotten. Poor Teagan was left out of many of their "boy" games but it won't be long before she'll have another partner to even out the equation!

Star wars fanatics

In action

As always, Mum prepared a delicious Christmas spread, plus many tasty contributions from other Aunties, cousins and my sisters.

Once again, the camera only came out after I started digging in! (so most of the turkey is already gone and all you can see of the roasted fish are the bones!)

One thing we really miss about Australia is the lovely neighbourhood parks. Shad always enjoys taking the kids out to play and never fails to come back with beautiful photos.

Hayden high in the air

Action heroes in battle

Buddies again

Ryan was extremely excited to be able to "sleep over" in Hayden's room. They didn't need much prompting to go to bed each night.

Zonked out after lots of giggling and story telling

Morning routine - wake up, walk out to livingroom and turn on Playhouse Disney (great when they're old enough to turn on the tele themselves so we can sleep in!)

Kids' definition of heaven - breakfast at Pancake Parlour

Finally, Mia is big enough to sit at the table with the rest of us

Since we've been in Hong Kong, I've really missed our girls' night outs with my mum and sisters. I was really looking forward to this one as it will be awhile before we can do this again once Tania leaves for London. So Karen and I left the kids with their fathers and we went to a cosy little Izakaya on Smith Street dinner and enjoyed some quality time together.

Daddies and kids sharing a pizza dinner on the deck at Karen's and Alan's place

Precious time together

No idea what we were laughing about but just looking at this photo makes me want to burst out laughing again!

The weather was a little crazy while we were there, cold and wet one day then scorching hot the next, Melbourne weather at its finest! So we made the most of the sunny days.

Satay lunch at Shad's parents' is always a hit

Ryan with his great grandmother

Four generations - Maternal Great Grandmother, Paternal Grandparents, Paternal Grandaunt, Parents, Paternal Uncles and Kiddies

All snug and comfy in Uncle Tony's and Nick Jek-jek's arms

Being in Hong Kong has meant missing out on spending precious time with many of our close friends and being apart of the special moments in our lives. So we were very happy that we were around to celebrate Jasmine's, Jo and Jensen's daughter, first birthday, and our baby girls finally met each other for the first time.

Birthday girl getting some help from Dad and big brother in blowing out her candle

We trooped out to Healeville Sanctuary for a little "animal fun", unfortunately we chose a day when the temperature reached a scorching 30+ degrees. After three hours, it became obvious that it was time to go. Grumpy and cranky kids, and, hot and bothered adults do not make a good combination. Still, all of us had fun seeing the Australian fauna, for the first couple of hours anyway!

Our picnic lunch of super yummy fried chicken and chips

Shad tucking into his fried dimmy (Australian version of dumpling)

Little Miss Stylo-Mylo

Teagan chomping away on a potato cake that was almost as big as her face :)

Karen and her Mini Me

Hitching a ride with Sleeping Beauty

Dad and his girls

"Slip slop slap" - slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, now we're ready for the outdoors

Getting tips from the boomerang man

The Han sisters

Cold icy poles to cool down some very hot kids

One still very hot kid, it's definitely time to go home now

On our final day there, we squeezed in one last short visit to a park near Mum's place. The boys brought along their boomerangs and torpedo launcher and had a blast.

With Tania moving to London, it will be sometime before all of us will be together again. So here are some photos to keep us going until then.

This is how it started

Along came these two

Followed by these four

Altogether we make one happy family!

Kong-Kong and the two missies

Still time to squeeze in some Wii

Wonder who's having more fun?