Christmas is indeed the most wonderful time of the year.

“There’ll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing, when loved ones are near. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”

Did I also mention that it is also a time for major over-eating? With such talented cooks in my family, it is really hard not to at the dinner table on Christmas eve.

We always will have the quintessential turkey. It is a must-have at our family’s Christmas eve dinners, although it is not the most popular dish. We always end up with turkey porridge and turkey sandwiches for the next few days after Christmas.

Christmas for me and my family is more than just feasting, merry-making, giving and receiving presents. The true meaning of Christmas is expounded from this bible verse. John 3:16-17; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Christmas is the celebration of this incredible act of love.

K does not quite understand the meaning of Christmas yet, however he had the most fun at on Christmas eve.

1. He had a whale of a time hogging digital camera (he now goes crazy when he sees the camera and has learn how to take pictures).

2. Gets to drink with the guys,

3. Be the official candle blower for Nana’s birthday cake,

4. Gets to open the most presents,

5) Be the first to use his presents,

6) Even gets to perform for an audience,

The fun does not end there as he gets to sleep way past his bedtime. And then wakes up to some more presents the next morning.

The Christmas season can be a wonderful time of family togetherness and goodwill, but the spirit of Christmas often gets lost in the midst of all these excitement.

From next year, K will be taught the true meaning of Christmas and goodwill. For a start, learn to look beyond his Christmas desires by maybe choosing a toy to donate to a children’s charity or helping to choose groceries and deliver them the Boy’s brigade sharity gift box.

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Dh has always been full of spontaneity. Probably only when he met me that I started to mute that spontaniety in him. I am a creature of habit, often needs structure, loves schedules and I function like clockwork. In other words, not an exciting person at all, but probably good for bringing up a child.

It’s hard to tell at this point if K is like dad or he is like me. But as a toddler, he mostly thrives on routine. So it usually takes like a day like this with Dad that I will allow anything out of the ordinary.

It started this morning with skipping church, as K woke up late. We ended up having brunch at Jones the Grocer. A place which I wanted to try after reading fairly good reviews on yum.sg.

The review? Dh and I were sorely disappointed with the food, the breakfast set was overpriced and the sausages included in the set were barely edible. Service was bad, dh did not get his vanilla milkshake even when we finished the meal. K hardly ate anything. If he does not like the food in the cafe/restaurant, it is usually below par. As he enjoys most food, as long as it is not cooked at home.

We went on to borders and dh got some last minute christmas presents, then proceeded to Vivo City. Ended up having tea at sushi tei. K refused to sit at the table, insisted of looking at the ships at the harbour. Hb brought him outside the restaurant and toddler stated his preference that he wanted to stay outside. Thanks to hb’s spontaneity, he promised K a ride on the cable car if he returned to his seat and finished his meal.

K relented to hb’s request, ate so well and even asked for seconds. It seemed like hb’s promise of the cable car ride was really effective. Afterwards, I tried to convince K that he was tired and needed to go home to nap, but all he had in his mind was ‘Car’ (i.e., cable car). Hb was sure that if he did not fulfil his promise, he will lose some of his credibility with K. Although I wasn’t too certain that K understood that concept.

So we went ahead with dh’s spontaneous suggestion and took that risk of ending up with a cranky tot, who only managed a 1/2 hour nap in the car.

K was elated with the ride. I assumed he has been looking forward to a cable car ride, since he always exclaims loudly and excitedly points to the cable cars whenever we are at Vivo.

The view from the cable car was not at all scenic, with all that construction that is going on the Sentosa island lately. Nonetheless, K had an enjoyable time looking at the view.

He was especially thrilled to bits when he saw this…

So thanks to hb spontaneity, K was rewarded with the rare view of seeing an assembly of 16 mixer trucks, the most number of the same kind of trucks that he has ever seen at one go. For a toddler that is so fond of trucks, I think this was probably the main highlight of K’s day.

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Our trip to HK disneyland has been quite a magical experience for K. According to dh words, “…Disneyland to kids is akin to their version of a holy pilgrimage”.

Despite spending a short 4 and a half days away, Dh and I have made some new discoveries about our little boy along the way.

The only items I got to use from the “aeroplane survival kit” were the block puzzles and stickers, since he slept through 50% of the flight to HK.

2. He is a Mickey and Pluto Fan

And a crazed one at that. I knew that he like watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV and didn’t mind his Mickey soft toy once in a while. Now here is the magic of Disney, in one of the restaurants in the hotel, Mickey and friends came by the tables to greet the diners. When any of the characters come into view, K will lose all reason, clamour out of his seat, emit whines of “hur hur hur Mi-Mi” (translated from toddler speak is “I want to go over there to Mickey.”)

He was not satisfied till the characters came over to the table, shoke their paws, gave him high fives and had a picture taken with them. Dh and I were quite surprised by his enthusiasm, as we were expecting that he will be afraid of the characters. It was an enjoyable experience for tot but not so pleasant for dh and I, since most of the time during the dinner we had to get K to sit still on the chair and get him to swallow his food.

And for someone that refuses to wear anything on his head, K is happy to prance and dance with the Mickey Mouse ears headband on his head.

3. He consistently flashes this look when asked to smile for the camera

Which looks more like a grimace than a smile. More than 80% of the 200 odd pictures that I took during our trip has K displaying this smile.

4. He can be extremely bossy…

Especially when he interacts with his friend Rae-anne, whom he calls “mei-mei”. Rae-anne is an endearing and affectionate 16 month old toddler who is very generous with her hugs.

When the two toddlers get together, they will be screaming and chasing one another all around. Most of the other times, K will be saying “No, no…back,” and tries to lead her back to near the adults by tapping her shoulders or pulling her arms, when Rae-anne wanders off to explore other things.

5. He finally slept through the night…hurray!

For 3 consecutive nights. The longest stretch was a total of 9 hours. He must have been exhausted from the day’s activities and did not even wake up for feed. He managed to sleep through yesterday night when we got home, hopefully, this will be a new milestone I can rave about. I have been waiting a long time for this moment, since I was starting to lose hope that he will ever sleep through the night.

Despite our family returning with a flu and a cough, we all had a fabulous time. As for K, he may not remember this trip after a couple of months, but I suppose that lil’ bit of Disney magic has managed to captivate him for
that brief, but memorable moment in time.

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