Christmas Baking

Cream cheese cookies with cranberries

Serious baking has started in our household. I’ve included 4 cookie recipes (including the cream cheese cookies in the pic) for this Christmas.

I will also bake MDK’s all time favourite cake which he calls his “Heaven on Earth.” Now, with all the recipes I’ve used, this is the one recipe (his H.O.E.) that he does not want to share to non-family members. You see, he thinks this recipe is the one that will make us millionaires. That’s how good he thinks it is hahaha.


To add to the the baking frenzy that's happening in the kitchen during the week, we also try to make a gingerbread house. It’s not a very fancy looking gingerbread house but it is extra special because it’s something I make with MDK every year. Although I have to be honest, this year has been quite a challenge convincing him to participate. He even asked why we have to make one this year. And I told him –

“Well because it’s the one thing we do together on Christmas. And besides, I never got to do this with your Lola (grandma) when I was a kid.”

That didn’t require any more convincing. He was like –

“Okay, I’ll join you in 5 minutes. Just let me finish my game.”

I thought that was sweet of him.

So here it is. It’s far from perfect but we love it just the same.

This year's gingerbread house. Far from perfect but we like it very much.

It’s now on display in the dining table. We both think that Santa and the Snowman had too much Baileys coffee thus they couldn't stand still. MDK asked me the other night if he can start peeling off the gingerbread and slowly eat the candies as well. I told him “Sure. But let me take a pic of it first.”

The Magic of the Christmas Garland, Part 2

We weren't planning on putting any Christmas decor outside the new home this year. But it just didn't look right so we decided to put something sparingly. And thank goodness for Christmas garlands, we were able to make quick, cheap, inexpensive wreaths. And our builder was quite nice, they put trees at the front, one of them is perfect as Christmas tree. We strewn it with LED lights and voila we have a little tree outside.

Excuse the splotches on the bricks. It just stopped raining when I took these photos.

Next year, we hope we'd be able to put some more Christmas lights and install them before snow will come. And hopefully, I'll be able to find that perfect (meaning inexpensive) Christmas trees we'll put at the entry.

If the walls in this room can talk...

... they will tell you how hard MDH has worked for his French Language Training. And that the good news of him becoming officially bilingual and getting the required levels for his current position is very well deserved.

MDH's home office -silent listener and witness to how hard he works at something

So yeah, MDH is now officially bilingual. But wait, he speaks 3 other languages too so that makes it 5 which means he's a polyglot, right? So proud of you, MDH! Most importantly, I am so proud of you for being such a good role model to MDK by showing him that learning and (hard) work can be fun and rewarding.

No more waking up so early during weekdays to catch MDH's French classes. It's something we can all put behind us now. And I can see happy holidays ahead before tackling the next challenge in the upcoming year. Yesterday, I had a glimpse at what MDH does at work, and I told MDK, "it's not for the faint of heart" hahaha.

The Magic of the Christmas Garland , Part 1

One of the Christmas decorating challenges we have this season is the lack of Christmas decors. Okay, it’s not really a “challenge.” I’m exaggerating.


I think over the years, we have collected Christmas decors enough to decorate our home, our previous home that is. Since we moved to a home which is over a third bigger than the previous, I thought we’d need approximately a third more of the Christmas decors. But I wasn’t gung-ho on having “a third more” this year really. After all, even on Christmas decorating, I tend to do it in a very minimal way. “Less is more,” a minimalist would say. Then I discovered the magic of the Christmas garland. They’re usually dirt cheap and you can buy the plain ones which pretty much give you the option of embellishing them however way you’d want to.

Okay, so I may have gone overboard this time. You see, the railings aren’t the only ones I decorated using the garlands. Wait until you see the outside. That will be the Garland Magic, Partie Deux post. But because it’s Christmas, I guess we can go as overboard as we want. And that includes MDH who keeps bugging me about putting lotsa-lotsa Christmas lights outside. All LEDs of course. But because they’re a bit pricey, I guess we’ll have to wait for next year (or next yearssss) and see if we can afford to buy lotsa-lotsa LED lights if they go on sale.

Wanna dine with us?

I am so glad the white leather chairs I ordered for our dining room came in this week. What a great difference the white chairs make. It's as if the room lit up a hundred times and we didn't even have to add some extra CFL lights hahaha.

I love the contrast of the textures and colours in the dining room. Very eclectic which is my kind of thing. But it still ties in with the colour scheme we have in the kitchen which is btw adjacent to our dining room.

The dining room is one of the rooms we put in order after the study and our bedrooms when we moved in.

What I like in our dining room:

• The in-ceiling speakers. Glad that we decided to put a pair in the dining room as well as it is nice to listen to soft music while dining.

• The overall size. Not too huge, not cramped. I was not sure if we could fit the hutch and buffet but when we placed them in the room, there was still enough space to move about.

• The huge window is perfect. It's bright there at daytime. Big difference from what we had in the previous home which only had 2 small windows in the dining room.

• The dining room is adjacent to the living room which is nice especially when we entertain. Guests can choose to sit in the living room while some can stay in the dining area. It still feels like one party :). As for the kids, they do their own partying which is around the house :).

• It is also adjacent to and easily accessible from the kitchen.

• The chandelier that we put. Right size for a not-so-huge dining table which can sit 6 to 8 people. When we have friends over, at least 8 people can comfortably sit there.

What's left to be done:

• The drapes. They need hemming. Although we're thinking of replacing them with something else.

• Accent wall needs to be painted. I am leaning towards a terra cotta colour. But I can't do it at the moment because we have burgundy leather couches in the adjacent living room.

• Paint the dining room (and the adjacent living room) with grey colour.

• Hang some wall decors. Or maybe not. I kind of like that we only have the mirror above the server.

So yeah, that's what you'll see in our dining room if you come dine with us.